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 seven 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
Childhood
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. The Depp family in the
United States began with 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 [in 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."
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.
His mother married, as her second husband, Robert Palmer (died 2000), whom Depp called "an inspiration to me".
Depp engaged in
self-harm
as a child, due to the stress of dealing with family problems, which
resulted in several self-inflicted scars. In a 1993 interview, he
reflected on 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
With the gift of a guitar from his mother when he was twelve, Depp began playing in various
garage bands.
His first band was in honor of his girlfriend, Meredith.
[citation needed] A year after his parents' divorce, Depp dropped out of high school to become a rock musician.
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, but the group split up 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, the 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 pens. His wife introduced him to actor
Nicolas Cage, who advised Depp to pursue an acting career.
Depp and his wife divorced in 1985. Depp later dated and was engaged to actress
Sherilyn Fenn (whom he met on the set of the 1985 short film
Dummies). Both Fenn and Depp auditioned for the 1986 film
Thrashin'
and they were both cast, with Depp being chosen by the film's director
to star as the lead, which would have been Depp's second major role.
Depp was later turned down by the film's producer, who rejected the
director's decision.
Acting career
Television
Depp starred in a lead role on the
Fox television series,
21 Jump Street, which premiered in 1987.
Depp accepted this role to work with actor
Frederic Forrest,
who inspired him. 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.
Despite this success, Depp felt "forced into the role of product."
Depp subsequently decided to appear only in films that he felt were right for him.
Depp and his co-stars,
Peter DeLuise and
Holly Robinson, briefly reprised their roles in cameo appearances in the series'
2012 feature film adaptation, which featured a much more comedic tone than the series.
Film roles
Depp's first major role was in the 1984 classic horror film
A Nightmare on Elm Street, playing the boyfriend of the heroine,
Nancy Thompson (played by
Heather Langenkamp) and one of
Freddy Krueger's victims.
Depp was the first choice and was cast to star in the 1986 American skater drama film
Thrashin', chosen and cast by the director but ultimately rejected by the film's producer.
In 1986, he appeared in a secondary role as a
Vietnamese-speaking private in
Oliver Stone's
Platoon. In 1990, he undertook the quirky title role of the
Tim Burton film,
Edward Scissorhands. The film's success began his long association with Burton.
Depp, a 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 accompanied Thompson as his road manager on one of the author's last book tours.
In 2006, Depp contributed a foreword to
Gonzo: Photographs by Hunter S. Thompson, a posthumous biography published by ammobooks.com. In 2008, he narrated the documentary film
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. 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.
He returned to Thompson's work with a
film adaptation of the novel
The Rum Diary, released in 2011.
Critics have described Depp's roles as characters who are "iconic loners."
Depp has noted this period of his career was full of "studio defined failures" and films that were "box office poison,"
[19] but he thought the studios never understood the films and did not do a good job of marketing.
Depp has chosen roles which he found interesting, rather than those he thought would succeed at the box office.
The 2003
Walt Disney Pictures film
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was a major success,
in which Depp's performance as the suave but shambling pirate Captain
Jack Sparrow was highly praised. Studio bosses were more ambivalent at first,
but the character became popular with the movie-going public.
According to a survey taken by
Fandango, Depp was a major draw for audiences.
The film's director,
Gore Verbinski, has said that Depp's character closely resembles the actor's personality, but Depp said he modeled the character after
The Rolling Stones guitarist
Keith Richards.
Depp was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actor for the role.
In 2004, he was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actor, 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, a major success at the box office and earning him a nomination for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
Depp returned to the role 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 of the
highest weekend tally.
The next sequel to
Pirates of the Caribbean,
At World's End,
was released May 24, 2007. Depp has said that Sparrow is "definitely a
big part of me", and he wants to play the role in further sequels.
Depp voiced Sparrow in the video game,
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow.
Johnny Depp's swashbuckling sword talents as developed for the character of
Jack Sparrow, were highlighted in the documentary film
Reclaiming the Blade. Within the film, Swordmaster
Bob Anderson shared his experiences working with Depp on the choreography for
The Curse of the Black Pearl. Anderson described in the film Depp's ability as an actor to pick up the sword to be "about as good as you can get."
Depp and
Gore Verbinski were 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, for which he won a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Depp thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and praised Tim Burton for his "unwavering trust and support."
Depp played the former
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.
He portrayed the
Mad Hatter in Burton's
Alice in Wonderland, and the titular character in
Rango.
Future roles
In 2007, Depp accepted
Warner Bros.' proposal to make a film of the
gothic soap opera
Dark Shadows, a series that aired on
ABC from 1966 to 1971. He had been a fan as a child. Depp and
Graham King will produce the movie with David Kennedy, who ran Dan Curtis Productions inc. until Curtis died in 2006.
Depp will film a documentary about
Keith Richards. Depp will star in and produce an adaptation of the comic book
Rex Mundi.
Depp will collaborate with
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides director
Rob Marshall again to create a remake of
The Thin Man.
Depp also showed interest in starring in the next
Sin City films, with
Robert Rodriguez wanting him to star as
Wallace.
Depp was going to star as
Tonto in an upcoming
Lone Ranger
film, but the project had been shelved due to budgetary concerns as
well as a lacklustre response to a recently-released Western-genre film (
Cowboys & Aliens).
The project was revived and the film will be released on May 31, 2013.
Depp plans to star as Carl Kolchak in the project
Night Stalker,
and has bought rights to the comic book
The Vault.
sumber: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Depp
