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John Christopher "
Johnny"
Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the
Golden Globe Award and
Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series,
21 Jump Street, becoming a
teen idol. Dissatisfied with that status, Depp turned to film for more challenging roles; he played the title character of
Edward Scissorhands (1990) and later found box office success in films such as
Sleepy Hollow (1999),
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005),
Rango (2011) and the
Pirates of the Caribbean film series (2003–present). He has collaborated with director and friend
Tim Burton in eight films, most recently with
Dark Shadows (2012).
Depp has gained acclaim for his portrayals of people such as
Ed Wood, in
Ed Wood,
Joseph D. Pistone in
Donnie Brasco,
Hunter S. Thompson in
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,
George Jung in
Blow, and the bank robber
John Dillinger in
Michael Mann's
Public Enemies. Films featuring Depp have
grossed over $3.1 billion at the United States box office and over $7.6 billion worldwide.
He has been nominated for top awards many times, winning the Best Actor Awards from the
Golden Globes for
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and from the
Screen Actors Guild for
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He also has garnered a
sex symbol status in American cinema, being twice named as the "
Sexiest Man Alive" by
People magazine
in 2003 and 2009. He has been listed in the 2012
Guinness Book of World Records as the highest paid actor, with $75 million.
Early life
1960s-1970s
Depp was born in
Owensboro, Kentucky, the son of John Christopher Depp, Sr., a
civil engineer, and his wife, the former Betty Sue Wells, a
waitress.
He has one brother and two sisters. His brother Daniel is a novelist and his sister Christie works as his manager. Depp is descended from a French
Huguenot immigrant, Pierre Deppe or Dieppe, who settled in
Virginia around 1700,
part of a refugee colony situated above the falls on the James River. Depp has surmised that he is part
Native American, saying in 2011, "I guess I have some Native American
me somewhere down the line. My great-grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up
Cherokee or maybe
Creek Indian. Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek."
[More recently a hereditary connection between Depp and Queen Elizabeth II was discovered possibly making him her twentieth cousin. www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/johnny-depp-could-be-queen-188553]