John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II[The Johnny Depp Zone] (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor, known for his portrayals of offbeat, eccentric characters such as
Jack Sparrow in the
Pirates of the Caribbean film series.
He has collaborated with director and close friend
Tim Burton in seven films, the most recent of which include
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and the upcoming
Alice in Wonderland (2010). Depp garnered acclaim for his portrayals of real life figures such as
Edward Wood, Jr., in
Ed Wood.
Films featuring Depp have
grossed over $2.2 billion at the United States box office and over $4.7 billion worldwide.
[Johnny Depp - Box Office Data Movie Star]Depp has been nominated for three
Academy Awards and has won
Golden Globe and
Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Biography
Early life
Depp was born in
Owensboro,
Kentucky, the son of Betty Sue Palmer (
née Wells), a
waitress, and John Christopher Depp, Sr., a
civil engineer.
He has one brother, Danny, and two sisters, Christie (now his personal manager) and Debbie. Depp has
German,
Cherokee (mostly from a great-grandmother), and
Irish ancestry.
According to biographies, the Depp family originated with a French
Huguenot, Pierre Deppe or Dieppe, who settled in
Virginia around 1700.
Although Depp has said he doesn't know the origin of his surname, he jokes that the name translates to "idiot" in German (it is actually a minor insult meaning fool).
The family moved frequently during Depp's childhood, and he and his siblings lived in more than 20 different locations, settling in
Miramar, Florida, in 1970. In 1978, Depp's parents
divorced. He engaged in
self-harm as a child, due to the stress of dealing with family problems and his own insecurity. He has seven or eight scars from practicing self-harm. In a 1993 interview, he explained his self-injury by saying, "My body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every
tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist".
1980s
Depp's mother bought her son a guitar when he was 12, and Depp began playing in various
garage bands. His first band was in honor of his girlfriend, Meredith. A year after his parents' divorce, Depp dropped out of high school to become a rock musician. As he once explained on
Inside the Actors Studio, he attempted to go back to school two weeks later, but the principal told him to follow his dream of being a musician. He played with The Kids, a band that enjoyed modest local success. The Kids set out together for
Los Angeles in pursuit of a record deal, changing their name to Six Gun Method. The group split before signing a record deal. Depp subsequently collaborated with the band
Rock City Angels and co-wrote their song "Mary", which appeared on Rock City Angels' debut for
Geffen Records titled
Young Man's Blues.
On December 24, 1983, Depp married Lori Anne Allison, a makeup artist and sister of his band's
bass player and singer. During Depp's marriage, his wife worked as a makeup artist while he worked a variety of odd jobs, including a
telemarketer for ink pens. Later, his wife introduced him to actor
Nicolas Cage, who advised Depp to pursue an acting career. In 1985, Depp and Allison divorced. After his marriage ended, Depp dated and was engaged to
Sherilyn Fenn (whom he met on the set of the 1985 short film
Dummies).
1990s and 2000s
In 1994, Depp was arrested and questioned by police for allegedly causing serious damage to a New York City hotel suite.
He was arrested again in 1999 for brawling with
paparazzi outside a restaurant while dining in London with his girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis.
[Depp arrested after scuffle January 31, 1999.] Since 1998, Depp has had a relationship with Vanessa Paradis, a French actress and singer whom he met while filming
The Ninth Gate.
The couple have two children. Daughter Lily-Rose Melody Depp was born May 27, 1999. Son John "Jack" Christopher Depp III was born April 9, 2002. In 2007, his daughter recovered from a serious illness, an
E. coli infection that began to cause her
kidneys to shut down and resulted in an extended hospital stay.
[Depp speaks about daughter's illness. SFGate.com.] However, earlier sources reported that she had
blood poisoning due to stepping on a rusty tack.
[Quillinan, Joy. Johnny's Daughter Lily Rose ‘Doing Much Better’ . VIP Glamour.net. March 9, 2007.]
Although Depp has not remarried, he has stated that having children has given him "real foundation, a real strong place to stand in life, in work, in everything."
"You can't plan the kind of deep love that results in children. Fatherhood was not a conscious decision. It was part of the wonderful ride I was on. It was
destiny;
kismet. All the math finally worked." The family divides its time between their home in
Meudon, located in the
suburbs of Paris, Los Angeles, and their villa in
Le Plan-de-la-Tour, a small town an hour and a half from
Saint-Tropez, in the south of France.
[Johnny Depp et Vanessa Paradis font tourner les têtes à Meudon (French) Retrieved on June 15-2006. ][Johnny Depp et Vanessa Paradis: prochain mariage? (French) Retrieved on May 10-2007.] Depp also acquired a vineyard estate in the Plan-de-la-Tour area in 2007.
Depp has 13
tattoos, many of them signifying important persons or events in his life, including an
American Indian in profile and a ribbon reading "Wino Forever" (originally "Winona Forever", altered after his breakup with Winona Ryder) on his right
biceps, "Lily-Rose" (his daughter's name) over his heart, "Betty Sue" (his mother's name) on his left biceps, and a sparrow flying over water with the word "Jack" (his son's name; the sparrow is flying towards him rather than away from him as it is in
Pirates of the Caribbean) on his right
forearm.
In 2003, Depp was quoted as criticizing the United States in Germany's
Stern magazine, commenting that "America is dumb, is something like a dumb puppy that has big teeth — that can bite and hurt you, aggressive."
Although he later asserted that the magazine misquoted him and the quotation was taken out of context, Stern stood by its story, as did CNN.com in its coverage of the interview. CNN added his remark that he would like his children "to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out."
[Johnny Depp Calls U.S. a 'Dumb Puppy' - Johnny Depp : People.com] The July 17, 2006 edition of
Newsweek reprinted the "dumb puppy" quotation, verbatim, within the context of a Letter to the Magazine. Depp has also disagreed with subsequent media reports that he says paint him as a "European wannabe" who enjoys the "simpler" life and anonymity that living in France provides.
One of Depp's closest friends is director
Tim Burton, with whom he has worked six times. He has referred to working with Burton as "coming home", and he wrote the introduction to
Burton on Burton, a book of interviews with the director, in which he called Burton "...a brother, a friend,...and
[1] brave soul".
[Burton, Tim. Burton on Burton. Faber and Faber. 2001. ISBN 0571205070.]
Career
[
Depp Walk of Fame.jpg|thumb|Johnny Depp received a [[Hollywood Walk of Fame] star on November 19, 1999.
]]
Television
Depp starred in a lead role on the
FOX TV television series,
21 Jump Street, which premiered in 1987. Depp accepted this role because he wasn't getting much work in the business and wanted to work with actor
Frederic Forrest, who inspired him. Later in the season, Depp's long time friend Sal Jenco joined the cast as a semi-co-star as the janitor named Blowfish. The series' success turned Depp into a popular
teen idol during the late 1980s. He found the teen-idol status an irritant, noting that he felt "forced into the role of product"
and that it was "a very uncomfortable situation and I didn't get a handle on it and it wasn't on my terms at all."
Depp promised himself that after his contract on the series expired, he would only appear in films that he felt were right for him.
Film roles
Depp's first major role was in the 1984 horror film
A Nightmare on Elm Street, playing the heroine's boyfriend and one of Freddy's victims. In 1986, he also appeared in a secondary role as a Vietnamese-speaking private in
Oliver Stone's Platoon. Depp then left his teen idol image in 1990, playing the quirky title role in the
Tim Burton film,
Edward Scissorhands. The film's success began a long association with Burton. Depp, an avid fan and long-time friend of writer
Hunter S. Thompson, played a version of Thompson (named
Raoul Duke) in 1998's
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, based on the writer's pseudobiographical novel of the same name. Depp also accompanied Thompson as his road manager on one of the author's last book tours.
In 2006, Depp contributed a personal foreword to
Gonzo by Hunter S. Thompson, a posthumous visual biography of the writer's legacy published by ammobooks.com. A close friend of Thompson's, Depp paid for most of Thompson's memorial event, complete with fireworks and the shooting of Thompson's ashes by a cannon, in
Aspen, Colorado, where Thompson lived.
[
depp blurry CC-BY-cropped.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Depp with longer hair, [[mustache] and
goatee similar to the style used in
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl]] film.
Depp's film characters have been described by the press as "iconic loners,"
and Depp has noted that this period of his career was full of "studio defined failures" and films that were "box office poison,"
stating that he believes film studios never "understood" the films he appeared in and did not know how to market them properly.
Depp has also said that he specifically chose to appear in films that he found personally interesting, rather than those he thought would succeed at the box office.
Depp's status as a major star was solidified with the success of the 2003
Walt Disney Pictures film
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,
for which his lead performance as the suave pirate Captain
Jack Sparrow was highly praised. The performance was initially received negatively by the studio bosses who saw the film, but the character became popular with the movie-going public;
in 2006, Depp's co-star from the sequel to
Pirates of the Caribbean,
Bill Nighy, described the role as probably being "one of the most popular performances of recent times."
According to a survey taken by
Fandango, Depp was also considered to be one of the main reasons audiences wanted to see the movie.
[Breznican, Anthony. Crazy for Johnny, or Captain Jack?. USA Today.com. July 10, 2006.] The film's director,
Gore Verbinski, has said that Depp's Jack Sparrow character closely resembles Depp's own personality, although Depp himself said that he modelled the character after
Rolling Stones guitarist
Keith Richards.
Depp, who has noted that he was "surprised" and "touched" at the positive reception given to the film,
was nominated for an Academy Award for the role. In 2004, he was again nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, this time for playing Scottish author
J. M. Barrie in the film
Finding Neverland. Depp next starred as
Willy Wonka in the 2005 film
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was a major success at the box office.
Depp returned to the character of Jack Sparrow for the sequel
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which opened on July 7, 2006 and grossed $135.5 million in the first three days of its U.S. release, breaking a box office record in reaching the highest weekend tally ever.
The next sequel to
Pirates of the Caribbean,
At World's End, was released May 24, 2007; Depp has mentioned his attachment to his Captain Jack Sparrow character, specifying that Sparrow is "definitely a big part of me", and expressing his desire to portray the character in further sequels.
Depp voiced Sparrow in the video game,
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow.
Depp and
Gore Verbinski are executive producers of the album
Rogues Gallery, Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys. Depp played the title role of
Sweeney Todd in Tim Burton's
film adaptation of the musical
Sweeney Todd,
for which he won a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The traditional ceremony for the
65th Golden Globe Awards did not take place due to the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Depp thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and praised Tim Burton for his "unwavering trust and support."
[Johnny Depp 'Overjoyed' by Golden Globes Win - Golden Globe Awards 2008, Johnny Depp : People.com]
As a child, Depp was obsessed with
Dark Shadows, a gothic-themed soap opera that aired on ABC from 1966 to 1971. As a result, he accepted
Warner Brothers proposal to make a film version of the show. In July 2007, a rights deal was struck with the estate of
Dan Curtis, the show's producer/director. Depp and
Graham King will produce the movie with David Kennedy, who ran Dan Curtis Productions inc. until Curtis died in 2006. Depp will also appear in
a film version of writer
Hunter S. Thompson's book,
The Rum Diary,
portraying the main character Paul Kemp. Depp's production company has also picked up the rights to the story of poisoned former Russian spy
Alexander Litvinenko.
[Cinema Fusion] Depp signed on to play one incarnation of the
Heath Ledger character in the 2009 film,
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus along with
Jude Law and
Colin Farrell. All three actors gave their salaries from the film to Ledger's daughter, Matilda.
[Salter, Jessica. "Heath Ledger's daughter given wages of stars in Terry Giliam's Dr Parnassus." Telegraph. 18 August 2008.] In upcoming films, he will portray the
Mad Hatter in Burton's
Alice in Wonderland Disney Studios also announced that a fourth installment of the
Pirates series is in development, in which Depp would reprise his Captain Jack Sparrow role.
Collaboration with Tim Burton
Depp has collaborated with director and close friend
Tim Burton in seven films, beginning with his breakout role in
Edward Scissorhands (1990), opposite
Winona Ryder and
Vincent Price. His next role with Burton was in the 1994 film,
Ed Wood. Depp later said that "within 10 minutes of hearing about the project, I was committed."
At the time, the actor was depressed about films and filmmaking. By accepting this part it gave him a "chance to stretch out and have some fun", and working with Landau, "rejuvenated my love for acting".
Producer
Scott Rudin once said, "Basically Johnny Depp is playing Tim Burton in all his movies,"
[Burton, Tim and Mark Salisbury. Burton on Burton. Faber, 2006. ISBN 0571229263. p.177-8] although Burton personally disapproved of the comment. Depp, however agrees with Rudin's statement. According to Depp,
Edward Scissorhands represented Burton's inability to communicate as a teenager.
Ed Wood reflected Burton's relationship with
Vincent Price (very similar with
Edward D. Wood Jr. and
Bela Lugosi).
Depp's next venture with Burton was the role of Ichabod Crane in the dark
Sleepy Hollow (1999), opposite
Christina Ricci.
Sleepy Hollow showcased Ichabod's feelings that reflects Burton's battle with the Hollywood studio system.
[Burton, Tim and Mark Salisbury. Burton on Burton. Faber, 2006. ISBN 0571229263. p.179] For his performance, Depp took inspiration from
Angela Lansbury,
Roddy McDowall and
Basil Rathbone.
[ Depp stated, "I always thought of Ichabod as a very delicate, fragile person who was maybe a little too in touch with his feminine side, like a frightened little girl."]
Depp did not work with Burton again until the 2005 release of two films, the first of which was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Depp modeled the character's hair on Anna Wintour.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) followed, bringing Depp his second major award win, the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Burton first gave him an original cast recording of the 1979 stage musical in 2000. Although not a fan of the genre, Depp grew to like the tale's musical treatment, commenting "How many chances do you get at a musical about a serial killer?"[ Depp recorded demos of himself in West Hollywood, working with Bruce Witkin to shape his vocals without a qualified voice coach.][ In the DVD Reviews section, EW's Chris Nashawaty gave the film an A-minus, stating, "Depp's soaring voice makes you wonder what other tricks he's been hiding... Watching Depp's barber wield his razors... it's hard not to be reminded of Edward Scissorhands frantically shaping hedges into animal topiaries 18 years ago... and all of the twisted beauty we would've missed out on had and Depp never met."]
The next Depp-Burton collaboration is the upcoming Alice in Wonderland (2010). Depp will play the Mad Hatter.
Other interests
Music
As a guitar player, Depp has recorded a solo album, played slide guitar on the Oasis song "Fade In-Out" (from Be Here Now, 1997), as well as on "Fade Away (Warchild Version)" (b-side of the "Don't Go Away" single). As well, he played acoustic guitar in the movie Chocolat and on the soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He is a friend of The Pogues' Shane MacGowan, and performed on MacGowan's first solo album. As well, he was a member of P, a group featuring Butthole Surfers singer Gibby Haynes and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. He has appeared in the music videos of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Into the Great Wide Open."
Winemaker and restaurateur
Depp and Paradis grow grapes and have wine making facilities in their vineyard in Plan-de-la-Tour north of Saint-Tropez.[ Retrieved on December 20-2007.]
Awards and nominations
Some of the awards that Depp has won include honors from the London Critics Circle (1996); Russian Guild of Film Critics (1998); Screen Actors Guild Awards (2004); and a Golden Globe for Best Actor. At the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, he won the award for "Best Villain" for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd and "Best Comedic Performance" for Jack Sparrow. Johnny has been nominated for three Academy Awards, in 2004 for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, in 2005 for Finding Neverland, and most recently in 2008 for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Depp Won his first Golden Globe for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in 2008.
Filmography
Television works
