Jose Juan Bigas Luna, the Spanish director and screenwriter who gave Penelope Cruz her first big screen break, has died after a long struggle with cancer, Spanish media reported. He was 67.
Bigas Luna, as he was simply known, directed more than a dozen films over his 35-year career.
He was best-known by international audiences for his 1992 film Jamon Jamon, a raunchy comedy which starred newcomer Cruz and up-and-coming fellow Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
Both Cruz and Bardem went on to Hollywood careers and later became a real-life couple, marrying in 2010.
A decade before Jamon Jamon, Bigas Luna had tried his own hand in Hollywood, making Reborn with Dennis Hopper in the lead, but the movie garnered little notice.
