Jhonny Depp

http://www.lifetimetv.co.uk/biography/biography-johnny-depp
Johnny Depp’s full name is John Christopher Depp II, and he was born into a typical American “blue-collar” family in Owensboro, Kentucky, a town that’s sometimes called “the barbecue capital of the world.” His father, John senior, was a city engineer and his mother, Betty Sue, was a waitress. His siblings are Danny, (aka DP, who now works as a scriptwriter), and sisters Debbie, who is now Depp’s personal manager, and Christine.
Depp was always closer to his mother than his father, and perhaps closest of all to his grandfather, whom he nicknamed Pawpaw. He visited his grandfather often and recalls happy times picking tobacco together. As a sensitive seven-year old boy, Depp was utterly devastated when his beloved grandfather died. Further upheaval came when the family relocated to Florida shortly afterwards and he moved away from the only secure home he had ever known. It took John senior quite some time to find work, and the Depp family were forced to live in a succession of motel rooms, moving no less than twelve times until their fortunes improved.
Perhaps on account of his troubled family history, Depp was a poor high school student. He took up smoking at the age of 12, and reputedly lost his virginity at 13. He was later suspended for mooning at a gym teacher and then turned to petty theft and vandalism. His salvation arrived, however, in the unlikely shape of his fundamentalist Christian minister uncle. In the course of family get-togethers, Depp got to attend his uncle’s evangelical Sunday services and it was here that he discovered his love of music. His mother promptly gave him a guitar as a present, and Depp locked himself in his bedroom and taught himself how to play. His lifelong love of rock and roll was born, and he was soon well on the road to becoming a skillful garage rocker.
At the age of 16, Depp dropped out of high school so that he could focus on his music full-time. It was the late 1970s and punk rock was at the height of its popularity. He joined a punk band called The Flame, who soon succeeded in securing gigs at a string of Florida nightclubs. The band’s fortunes prospered, and after changing their name to The Kids, they were soon playing support to such big names as Iggy Pop, Talking Heads and The B52s. The band then relocated to Los Angeles in search of a recording contract, where Depp’s future destiny awaited him.
Whilst living on the West Coast, Depp met and married make-up artist Lori Anne Allison. The marriage was short-lived, but proved to be a major turning-point in his career. Depp’s new wife had a hunch that he might have a future in acting, and so she introduced him to her friend Nicholas Cage. Cage was very taken with Depp’s wild young “rocker” image and persuaded him to meet his agent Ilene Feldman - who in turn secured Depp an audition for a movie by Wes Craven that was about to go into production. Rumour has it that Craven cast Depp because his young daughter took a shine to him - and before long, the viewing public had their first glimpse of the future screen idol, in the role of a young hunk being devoured by a killer bed in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’.
The film was a critical success, but Depp still felt that his future lay in music, rather than the cinema. But he was forced to reconsider when The Kids suddenly split up, and he found himself without a band to play with. After acting in a teen sex comedy, ‘Private Resort’, Johnny decided to take his “second string” of acting more seriously, and enrolled for drama classes with Peggy Feury at The Loft, a Los Angeles acting academy. The classes paid off, and he soon secured his next movie role as Private Lerner in Oliver Stone’s Vietnam movie ‘Platoon’. But his fortunes then ebbed again, as the good parts he’d hoped for failed to materialise. And when an offer finally appeared - that of playing a young police officer in a new TV series, ‘21 Jump Street’, Depp turned it down, as he considered it beneath him. But the producers persisted, so he finally accepted the part, whilst secretly hoping that the series would only run for one season! But the show took off, and Depp - who played Officer Tom Hanson - soon became its favourite character and an overnight teen idol and pin-up. During the show’s run he reputedly received 10,000 fan letters a month. Depp felt trapped and feared his image would be ruined - but then controversial director John Waters offered him a part in his new film, ‘Cry Baby’, along with porn queen Traci Lords, which he accepted with alacrity.
With his image as a screen rebel now restored, Depp was a natural choice for the lead role when maverick director Tim Burton was looking around for a twentysomething actor to play the curious role of Edward Scissorhands, a boy who was both creative and destructive at the same time. Depp instinctively warmed to the challenging role, perhaps because the script resonated with the deep feelings of isolation and unhappiness he had experienced as a teenager growing up in Florida. The film was a massive critical success and established Depp once and for all as a leading Hollywood player. On the personal front, he also enjoyed an off-screen romance with leading lady Winona Ryder, to whom he was engaged for three years. They’d met at the movie premiere of ‘Great Balls of Fire’, and Depp announced that Ryder was “the one”. He even had “Winona Forever” tattooed on his arm (alongside the Betty Sue tattoo he proudly wore in honour of his mother) - later having it surgically modified to “Wino Forever” when he and Winona finally split up in 1993.
Depp’s career went from strength to strength during the 1990s, as he starred in an impressive line-up of successful movies. In ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ he acted alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, who played his disabled brother. He then starred in ‘Benny and Joon’, where he portrayed the life and work of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. But whilst Depp’s reputation as a brilliant actor was growing year by year, his private life was becoming increasingly rocky. He became involved in a volatile on-off relationship with supermodel Kate Moss and rumours of his heavy drinking and drug-taking abounded. Depp’s private reputation hit rock bottom when actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose outside his night-club, The Viper Room, in Los Angeles. Depp finally split with Kate Moss in 1998, and soon afterwards met French singer and actor Vanessa Paradis: the couple married soon afterwards. Unfortunately, they separated in June 2012. Depp is now engaged to actress Amber Heard.
Despite the ups and downs of his personal life, Depp’s professional fortunes have gone from strength to strength since the early 1990s, although he has consistently spurned the more predictable Hollywood lead roles in favour of the more quirky, off-beat parts at which he excels. He was widely acclaimed for his portrayal of an undercover cop in ‘Donnie Brasco’, where he played opposite Al Pacino’s mobster character. Interestingly, Depp spent time hanging out with the real-life “Brasco”, Joe Pistone, in order to research his movie role more thoroughly. After the success of Donnie Brasco, Depp got the chance to direct for the first time in ‘The Brave’, a film in which he also starred as a Native American Indian alongside Marlon Brando. Interestingly, Depp also wrote the screenplay, in conjunction with his brother DP, a budding scriptwriter. Since his directorial debut, Depp went on to also direct several music videos for his wife Vanessa.
Depp then played a series of controversial, challenging roles in which he explored the darker side of human nature through the lens of a succession of troubled screen heroes. He played Hunter S. Thompson in Terry Gilliam’s wacky ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, a role he also researched by actually living with Thompson himself and going hunting with him! He then played Jack Kerouac in a film called ‘The Source’, followed by the role of a rare book dealer in Roman Polanski’s chiller-thriller, ‘The 9th Gate’. After the sci-fi movie, ‘The Astronaut’s Wife’, Depp was invited to star in a new Tim Burton film, ‘Sleepy Hollow’, where he played the role of Ichabod Crane, a Victorian sleuth on the trail of a headless horseman who is terrorising a small New England town and murdering its inhabitants one by one. Although Depp was criticised by some reviewers for bringing humour to the role, his portrayal of the shy detective was widely recognised as masterful.
Sleepy Hollow was a huge Hollywood success, but Depp then shunned the limelight for a while, and took a role in the art house director Sally Potter’s film, ‘The Man Who Cried’. Before long, however, he was back in the limelight and playing the guitar on screen in the role of Roux in ‘Chocolat’ (2000), which led to his being nominated for an Oscar. Depp apparently modelled the Irish brogue he used for this character on his friend Shane McGowan of The Pogues, with whom he also appeared on Top of The Pops.
After Chocolat, Depp opted for two “outsider”-type roles: first, he played George Jung, an American cocaine baron in ‘Blow’, and then Inspector Frederick Abberline, a policeman with a drug problem on the trail of Jack the Ripper alongside Robbie Coltrane and Heather Graham in ‘From Hell’. 'From Hell' wasn’t a big hit, but when Depp returned to the big screen, it was with ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’ - which was one of the box office smash hits of 2004. Depp camped it up in the role of Captain Jack Sparrow, and totally stole the show from pirate Captain Barbarossa (Geoffrey Rush) and the two star-crossed lovers, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom. Depp is said to have based his portrayal of Captain Jack on the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, and once again injected an element of unexpected humour into his character acting that helped make the film into an overnight blockbuster.
Following the stupendous success of Pirates of the Caribbean, Depp chose two leading roles in films that appealed widely to younger audiences, perhaps reflecting his own newfound real-life role as a father - his daughter Lily-Rose Melody was born in 1999, followed by the birth of his son Jack in 2002. He played J M Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, in ‘Finding Neverland’, in which the writer befriends a group of children and their dying mother, played by Kate Winslet. Depp’s brilliant acting in Neverland led to a second Oscar nomination. The following year, Depp went on to star in another Tim Burton film, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, where he played chocolate factory owner Willy Wonka.
Depp is on record as saying that Captain Jack Sparrow is his favourite part out of all the screen characters he has ever played, and he returned to the screen in the sequel to ‘Pirates of The Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest’, which was released in 2006. The sequel proved to be even more popular than the original movie and became only the 3rd film in history ever to break the $1 billion international box office barrier - the other two being James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ and Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’.
Following his 1998 role in ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, Depp’s love of Hunter S. Thompson led him to accepting the role of narrator in the award-wining documentary ‘Gonzo; the Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson’, released December 2008. The documentary by Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney (‘Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room’ and ‘Taxi To The Dark Side’) had unprecedented access to hundreds of photographs and over 200 hours of audiotapes, home movies and documentary footage which were made available by Hunter S. Thompson’s estate.
Not only did Depp give life to Hunter’s words, the actor also bankrolled Thompson’s spectacular funeral (photographed for this film) in which the good doctor’s ashes were fired from a rocket launcher mounted with a towering two-thumbed fist whose palm held a giant peyote button.
After appearing for a third time as Captain Jack Sparrow in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’, Depp teamed up once more with his favourite director in ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’. The 2007 Tim Burton film led to a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a National Movie Award for Performance, as well as another Academy Award nomination. A Satellite Award for Best Actor nomination also came his way following 2009’s ‘Public Enemies’, in which he portrayed American gangster and bank robber John Dillinger.
Depp gained further recognition after collaborating once more with Burton in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (2010), receiving Golden Globe and MTV Movie Award nominations for his adaptation of author Lewis Carroll’s fictional character the Mad Hatter. The fantasy adventure was a commercial success and grossed over $1 billion worldwide, pushing Depp’s bankability to new heights. The same year also saw Depp star alongside Angelina Jolie in ‘The Tourist’, which received hugely negative reviews, but performed well at the box office.
Depp’s versatility landed him a lead role in the animation ‘Rango’ (2011), and he returned to his old seafaring lifestyle in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’. his latest roles have been in 'Into The Woods' (2014), 'Tusk' (2014), 'Black Mass' (2015) and 'Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' (2016).
Despite all of his phenomenal box office success, Depp has yet to be rewarded for his prodigious acting talent by receiving an Oscar. He has, however, won Golden Globe awards for roles in 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Ed Wood', 'Benny and Joon' and 'Finding Neverland' among others. Depp himself appears to be totally unconcerned with this lack of tangible acknowledgement from the motion picture industry and simply says: “I never really wanted to be an actor or a director. I was a musician and still am. The other stuff just happened.”

THE STORY OF A SCHOOLBOY MISFIT TURNED HOLLYWOOD STAR
Johnstone, Nick (2010). Jhonny depp- The illustrated Biography 4th edition Chalton Books Ltd

http://johnny-depp.org/johnny/biography/birthtochildhood/
Childhood
Johnny Depp came into this world on June 9th, 1963 as John Christopher Depp II. He was born in Owensboro, Kentucky in the United States. Owensboro is a small town in the mid-western U.S. on the southern banks of Ohio. His parents are John Christopher Depp Senior and Betty Sue. His father was a city engineer and his mother was a waitress in small coffee shops. Johnny says that he can remember sitting with his mother after her shifts and helping her count out all her tip change and money from that days work. He has always been very close to his mother and talks with great admiration about her and all her hardwork and persistence in striving to provide for the children as they grew up. He is the youngest of four children, two by an earlier marriage, to whom he has always been very close. His three siblings are 10 year older Danny (also known as DP and a screenwriter today), Debbie and Christie (today Christie Dembrowsky is Johnny’s personal assistant).
Johnny’s earliest childhood memory is catching lighting bugs, “creatures that are both fascinating and beautiful.” Early on, his family began to call him Johnny to differentiate him from his father in the home. He also took on lots of other nicknames from his siblings such as “Johnny Dip” and “Dippity dog.” Johnny and all his siblings have great ethnic features which Johnny says comes from his Irish and German and “god knows what” ancestry, but he is sure of his Indian origins. His great-grandmother (who lived to be 102 years old) was 100 percent Cherookee. Johnny was closest to his grandfather, whom he loving reffered to as “Paw Paw”. While he was still very young, Johnny “remembers picking tobacco in the fields with him and listening to him tell stories.” He has spoken of being nearly inseparable from him and when his grandfather passed away, Johnny was heart broken. Not able to deal totally with the loss, Johnny has said that he dealt with it from a supernatural point of view, as he began to feel his grandfathers presence close to him. He said that this has “continued throughout life especially when he has been in times of crises.”
Soon after his grandfathers passing, at the age of seven, his family moved to Miramar Florida where they spent a long time living in motels until his father found secure work as director of public works . Miramar was a small town and Johnny says that “there were two grocery stores that faced each other and nothing really happened there.” Johnny remembers that they lived in probably twenty houses by the time he was fifteen. He says that whenever he packs a suitcase to go on his many trips “it can trigger old memories of moving.” The move was very hard on Johnny and for a time he felt an era of instability and uncertainity, which brought out his wild side. Johnny admits that he feels he was a “weird kid who wanted to be Daniel Boone to Bruce Lee”. As Johnny began to get older his interests changed to music. His Uncle was a preacher and had a gospel group that preformed in the church. Johnny loved the music and saw a type of preforming as his Uncle stood at the podium and called out to the audience to “come and be saved”. He learned how to capture a crowds attention and was more interested in the effect and role that the mucic played on the people, than the preaching itself. Another influence of music came from his brother Danny, who he shared a room with. His brother was into rock music and opened Johnny up to Van Morrison, Kiss and Bob Dylan. Johnny continued to grow more wild and to escape into his own fantasy world. He was fascinated with recklessness and danger. He played Evil Knievel and the second World War. He dug tunnels in the yard with his friend and had a secret plan to dig an escape tunnel from his room in the house to the backyard.
Because of his outsider treatment at school and his own feelings of not belonging, Johnny began to totally come about as a dreamer and was constantly in trouble during school. He had problems with one particular teacher who decided to single him out and embarress him in front of the class. Johnny finally had enough and before he left the room, dropped his pants and mooned her! Johnny was suspended and from then on labeled a troublemaker. He lived up to the label well as he began to pull stunts with his friends, like soaking a shirt in gasoline and catching it on fire to try and imitate Gene Simmons fire eating stunt. For a split second it backfired and Johnny’s face was caught up in the flames. That night when his mom came home Johnny told her that he was burned by fireworks, so he wouldn”t get into trouble. He started to pull typical pranks like egging cars and school fell away to the back burner.
Johnny’s cousins played in his Uncles gospel group and Johnny says that he was obsessed with the electric guitar, so his mother bought him one from them for twenty-five dollars and he proceeded to lock himself away in his room for almost a year until he had taught himself to play. His love for music became his new passion and he finally had found a release for his inner aspirations. He started to play with little garage bands and formed his first band which he called Flame. Johnny wasn”t just good at the music, but also all the visual mystic that went along with the rock-n-roll lifestyle. He began to steal clothes from his moms closet and started to “wear her crushed velvet shirts and searsucker bellbottoms.” He as said in an interview that he wished he had platform shoes but “just couldn”t find any.” Johnny’s love for music grew as he says he would listen to anything he could get his hands on, including Peter Frampton to Brahms and Mozart. He used to listen to all the different groups coming through the walls from his brothers bedroom and would soak in anything he could mimic.

Other than music, Johnny’s school life was not going well. He was in the third year of high school but said that he “had about eight credits” and was bored out of his mind. He hated school and hung out with the “bad” crowd. He would even take his guitar to school with him but would constantly skip class and go to the music practice rooms to sit and play his instrument. Johnny admits that his teen-age years were not filled with positive actions. At twelve he was smoking and drinking and breaking into school and destroying “just about anything I could.” All Johnny’s friends were fellow musicians and he began to find his “place in life” with his dreams on rock-n-roll stardom. While he was still only thirteen, his group began to go and play at the local clubs, Johnny would carry a fake ID to try and fool the clubowners and found himself in his first “acting” gig trying to fit into an adult world. He lost his virginity to a girl who hung out with the band. She was a “little older” and according to Johnny was also a virgin. They first slept together in the back of the blue Ford van that belonged to the Flame bassiest. Johnny says that they dated a short time but lost touch afterward. Johnny continued to run wild and says by the age of fourteen he had “tried just about any kind of drug there was”. He began to see himself on a downward spiral that he knew would certainly lead to disaster and he started to see that the other kids who were on this road were heading nowhere fast. He decided that he needed to slow down and showed remarkable maturity in an ability to forsee the future that his behavior would hold for him. Just at the brink of this epifiny, his parents announced their divorce.
Although the divorce was not a total surprise to anyone, Johnny took it hard and straight to the heart. He has stated, “I could remember my parents fighting with us kids in the next room listening.” Johnny took on the responsibility of consoling his mother and making sure that she was in good spirits. He has said that his own hurt and pain were only second to his concern for her well-being. “My mother took it pretty hard and I felt it was my job to take care of her emotionally” Johnny has said.

Youth n marriage
About this time in his life, his brother Danny lent Johnny a copy of Jack Kerouac’s book called “On The Road.” Reading this book, Johnny said would change his whole life, the way that he looked at himself and what he wanted for his own future. He had never been much of a reader and still took no interest in school academics. Johnny said that when he read the book he felt that the book was speaking just to him and that he soaked up all the information and took it to heart. He began to dream of a better life, one that he had never seen or experienced. Johnny knew that he didn’t just want a mundane life of working nine to five. He knew that there was something more for him out there. This prompted him to start reading more and more. He read through books by such authors as Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg. Johnny has said “I had found the teachers and the proper motivation for my life there.” Seeing more of a potential in another kind of living, Johnny finally did the inevitable and dropped out of school. He stated once in an interview, “I knew that’s what I was going to do, then this counselor called me in his office. He looked me in the face and told me with a sigh, “You know Johnny, I just don’t think that high school is for you.’ He actually did me a great favor.”
Johnny’s great plan was to follow his dream to rock stardom. He moved out of his mother’s house and got a job pumping gas at a little station in town. He found solace in his band The Kids and bought a 1956 cream Fender Telecaster guitar. He was still inspired by the forward rock style of Keith Richards and a string of other styled guitarists. He started to date Lori Allison an older sister of one of the band members he played with. As the band started to really take off so did Johnny’s romance with Lori. The Kids were building up a fan base for themselves and started opening for acts such as the B-52s, The Pretenders and the Talking Heads. Then in 1981 they got a great break opening for Iggy Pop. Iggy had been one of Johnny’s influences in his music and a chance like this didn’t seem to sink into Johnny at all. That night at the bar Johnny got drunk and started to act out of a drunken demeanor, screaming at Iggy and shouting insults like, “You think your better than me?” Iggy was annoyed and called Johnny a “little turd.” Johnny still suffered pain from his parents split up and an empty heart so he proposed to Lori and she said yes right away. Johnny has said that even though he knew he was too young to be married, “I was looking for stability,” and he thought he would find this in marriage.
The Bands success led them to decide a next step was needed. Under the advice of the booker Don Ray, they decided to go looking for a record deal in California.They pulled their money together and started the drive to California from Florida. Once they arrived in California and realized that they were back on the bottom of the food chain, they changed their name to Six Gun Method and waited for their lucky break. Johnny took whatever work he could find to pay the rent. He worked as a mechanic, a construction laborer and screen printer. Then on December the twentieth, 1983 Johnny and Lori were married.

Once Lori and he were married, Johnny started working at a regular job selling pens as a telemarketer. Johnny has been very outward about this job as he laughs and jokes saying’ “Yes, it was like a different role for every call, you know, you just had to mix it up to keep yourself from being bored to death.” Soon after, Lori and Johnny decided that the relationship just wasn’t working and they split up. Johnny has never made a statement about the split and has kept that part of his private life just that, private. Even though they were about to be divorced, it was Lori that would make the introduction for Johnny that would change his future forever.

Way to films

Lori and Johnny were still on good terms and believing in Johnny’s special talent, she introduced him to her friend, Nicholas Cage.
Nicholas was already an actor in his own right having starred in Rumblefish. Nicholas and Johnny hit it off right away and became great friends immediately. Nicholas suggested to Johnny that he try acting. Johnny laughed at first, but realized that acting might be a great way for him to bring in some much needed money and bankroll his music. Johnny went to meet Nicholas’ agent . She loved Johnny as soon as he walked in and much to his surprise she signed him right away even though he had no experience at all. The very first thing thatshe sent Johnny to do was to go audition for the new Wes Craven film. As soon as Johnny saw the script he was concerned. The part was written for a tall blond haired, football jock. Johnny showed up for the audition in earrings and spiked hair. He himself has stated while chuckling “I showed up for the part looking like a f**king catacomb dweller.” But Johnny had practiced the part and nailed the audition lines. There was no way for him to hide his charisma and charm and he won the director over easily. Craven’s daughter and her friends were at the reading and went absolutely wild over Johnny and his sex appeal. When Wes saw this, he was pushed over the edge and offered Johnny the role. Not expecting much, Johnny was just thrilled to be getting paid at all! No one is totally sure about this fact, but it is known that Johnny was really hard up for money by this time and has even been rumored to have had stolen sandwiches from the 7-11 just to eat. He himself has said that he was “deadass broke.” After playing in bands for over six years and not achieving much financial accomplishment at all, Johnny was not expecting, nor prepared for over night success. Working on the film for six weeks, he received 1,200 to 1,500 a week, which was more money than he had ever seen before. “It was amazing to me that anyone would even want to pay me that much money?”he has said. Johnny was suddenly encouraged and decided to throw himself into this new adventure, reading up on method acting and trying to get a little more serious about the drama roles that he really wanted. Even though the Nightmare on Elm Street was a great success, the other roles came a little harder to Johnny and he took whatever role he could to maintain his only way of earning money. His next role was in a student film (called “Dummies“) directed by Laurie Frank. He was cast opposite a young actress named Sherilyn Fenn and during the only three-day shoot, they got along so well that they started dating and soon fell madly in love. He was twenty-two and she was seventeen and soon began to live together. Different sources give different accounts to this time in Johnny’s life and he does not openly talk about a black and white time line, but around this time his band The Kids broke up. Some say it was a bad break up and quote Johnny saying, “yeah it was bad they still hate me,” but other sources have quoted Johnny saying that he just became to busy in his pursuit of acting in this time and also started playing with the band The Rock Angels.
The Rock Angels were also from Florida and had played on the same circuit as The Kids. They had lost a guitar player and Johnny stepped in his place. Glam rock being the big thing, they played well together and hoped for a bright future in the world of music.
During this era, Depp made two more films that both bombed for different reasons. The first film was Private Resort with Rob Marrow playing Johnny’s best friend. This was your basic eighties teen flick. Containing nothing more than the shallow humor and sexual connotations that were so popular in that day and age. Even though at the time the movie was a total failure, it has become a favorite trivia point among Johnny Depp fans. The next film that Johnny was to work on was a made for cable movie named Slow Burn. This was a mystery in the Hitchcock style of suspense in which Johnny played a millionaires son who is searched out by his father. Very few people have actually seen this film but it has gotten some critics to say many positive things about the young Depp’s ability. Some people say that Johnny deliberately leaves these two movies off his resume, but when asked, he is very open and has said; ” yeah I made some sh*tty movies when I first started out, but I’m not embarrassed by them, especially as I didn’t think that I was going to be an actor – I was just trying to make some money – I was still a musician. I mean I was still trying to just finance my real dreams.”
It was soon after this that Jacobs called and asked him to read for a part in the war movie Platoon, written and directed by Oliver Stone. Platoon was the kind of role that Johnny had been looking for. Johnny loved the script and hoped that he would land a role. After he met with Stone, the director liked him so much that he called Jacobs the very same day and offered the part to Johnny. So, Johnny got to take his first big adventure off to the Philippines to start training “boot camp” for the movie. He left Sherilyn behind and missing her so completely he scrawled her name across his helmet. (You can notice this in the movie, if you pay close attention.) The training was intense and for thirteen days, Johnny and the rest of the cast were smack in the middle of the jungle and over 100-degree weather, performing typical army war tactics. Neither he nor any of the others were prepared for the experiences that they would have there. From the typical movie set and boot camp problems to the crew coming down with a sickness, Johnny had a unique ride and view of his first major film. After 54 days in the jungle, filming was complete and Johnny returned home. Platoon would gross about 8.1 million dollars and was the top grossing film of 1987. Stone, with regret, saw Johnny’s role cut more than in half and damaged immensely.
Johnny’s relationship with Fenn became spotted with one night stands and turned into an on and off again stormy romance. Johnny states that even thought he is painted as a wild child, he really still held onto his roots and strong upbringing when it came to relationships. Honesty and openness, which may have brought about some of the problems, were not a problem for him. He has said, ” I think I am a mixture of a romantic and a realist. I am very considerate of other people’s feelings. I believe in the idea of stability and marriage, while at the same time the realistic notion of divorce. I whole-heartedly believe that in a society where people get divorced every five minutes you can still stay married for 50 or 75 years. Its been done and its beautiful.” Even though his heart was in the right place, he shied away from a commitment and went his own way. It was about this time that Johnny, under the recommendation of Nicholas Cage, attended the Loft Studio. Johnny believed that if he was ever going to obtain serious roles, then he should learn more about the craft. He was not there long, because it was then that Jacobs called again with a television offer that would turn the next page in Johnny’s life and career.

Teen idol

When Johnny got the call for the television show 21 Jump Street, he immediately said no. Johnny didn’t want to sign a contract that would commit him for years and years. Also, he felt that coming from a greatly appreciated film like Platoon, gambling on a new untested television show was a chance he wasn’t willing to take. When asked about the initial call Johnny said, “When they called and ask me to sign onto the show, I said, No, no, no, no, no, no?..I didn’t want to sign some big contract that would bind me for years, so they got someone else to do it. They fired him after about a month and then they called me again and said, ‘Will you Please do it?’ My agents said that the normal lifespan of a television show is thirteen episodes, one season, if that. So I finally said ok.” Part of this decision was a chance at security and a real current income. The first step for the producers was to finish taping the pilot episode. Johnny would play detective Tom Hanson, a police officer who looked too young for the job. Hanson was looked down on by his fellow officers and had something to prove. He is offered a position in the Jump Street program, posing undercover to arrest and protect the young kids in the high schools. 21 Jump Street took off as a huge hit; as it came on the heels of the huge anti-drug campaigns in the mid 1980’s. Unable to commit to both the Rock City Angels and the TV show, Johnny was forced to quit the band. A couple of months after, the band was signed by Greffen records to a 6.2 million dollar contract, which may have seemed at the time Johnny missed out on his chance, but a couple of months later the label dropped the band and Johnny was still attached to the show. Johnny was relocated to Vancouver Canada to shoot the program. After filming there for a few months, Johnny moved his mother and stepfather there to be with him. He tried to talk Sherilyn Fenn to move there with him also, but she would not leave Hollywood because she needed to be there for her auditions and her film opportunities. Johnny and Fenn would spend awhile traveling back and forth to visit each other between their work responsibilities and she even appeared on an early episode of Jump Street.
Right from the get go, Johnny had difficulties playing the character of Tom Hanson. Johnny has said, “I don’t believe in having undercover cops in high school it’s spying.” He also has said about Hanson that, “the only thing that I have in common with him is that we look alike.” Johnny was being paid 45,000 per episode and even though the money was a godsend, he was lonely and having his mother there was a great comfort to him. As soon as the first episodes aired, the show was an over night success. Even though the show was built around a full cast, there was something about Johnny that shoved him in the spotlight above all the others. This was situation that Johnny wasn’t prepared for. It however, brought a great opportunity to the eyes of the producers, who immediately played up the presses love for Johnny and shoved him into every teen magazine capable. This was yet another predicament that he was not equipped to handle. Feeling that he was an ordinary guy and not that attractive, Johnny could not believe how the adoring fans swooned over him. Part of his job now included, fifteen-hour days, script memorization and fittings, but also posing for photo shoots with a gun and sitting through interviews about his favorite color, food and movies. If there has been one thing that Johnny has been very vocal about, it is this time in his life, where his stardom truly began and where he felt he was being exploited the most. There have been many quotes by Johnny about this time in his life but one quote still applies today, “Those are things that are out of my control. It’s very nice to be appreciated, but I’m not really comfortable with it. I’ve never really liked being the center of attention. It just comes with the territory?”
The next change in his life came when he proposed to Fenn. This could have proved to hurt Johnny’s popularity because the girls would see him as unavailable, but instead they saw him as a wonderful guy, and his popularity continued to rise. The girls continued to follow him everywhere screaming and the fan mail began to pour in by the thousands. The star mail handler company of Fan Handle stated that Johnny received more mail than Michael J. Fox or Rob Lowe, more than 10,000 pieces a month. “Some letters are kinda weird, yeah I get those for sure, Letters threatening to kill themselves if I don’t write or asking for advice??but I’m not all that stable myself so who am I to give advice?” The shows success was in the background to Johnny who began to get overly frustrated; realizing the span between real life and camera contained a gap larger than he had contemplated.

Early film career

Johnny had taken to blowing off steam on the set and also in real life as he has said that “it wasn’t really rebellion, it was just feeling uncomfortable in my own skin and not really knowing where my place in life was” However he was labeled as the rebel and to those not acquainted with him, viewed on as the same. He has admitted to his down fall in his understanding of life as he said in one interview (rolling stone 2008. ) “I was a dumbass,” Around this time his relationship with Fenn faded out and he was seen with a couple other starlets including Jennifer Grey (from Dirty Dancing). There are plenty of stories about his actions on the set of 21 jump street including setting his underwear on fire and making up the script as he went along. He would throw out his own absurd ideas for the script, feeling this was one way to discount the scripts that he was uncomfortable with. Johnny was open about his feelings that the scripts be more “up to date” and dealing more with what the young people were experiencing in their lives at the time. Although these things may have been viewed by others as out in left field, some were deliberate attempts to be outrageous although some others were serious suggestions to bring Johnny’s ideas of important issues to light. He also was not happy about the fact that he was called upon by the show to speak about different subjects that he felt he had no authority to present to the public. “They wanted me to get on camera in these public announcements telling kids to stay in school, when everyone around knew that I was a drop out. I mean who am I to look these kids in the face with hypocritism?”
Finally, after living with the frustrations in a seemed trap, he was able to accept his next film entitled Cry Baby. The offer came in the form of a letter sent to him by John Waters himself. Johnny read the the script and loved the idea of making fun of his huge “teen idol image.” This satire was exactly what the doctor ordered for Johnny. A way to blow off some steam while using his talents to share in a creative project that would allow him to start spreading his wings. Waters was looking for an actor that could take a step back and laugh at himself and he also wanted a young actor that could pull in the “hip” crowd. He found Johnny exactly what he wanted for the role, talented, willing to take a gamble on a role and more than willing to poke fun at the image he so wanted to shed. Johnny was more than happy to oblige Waters and dove right in to the film. He was even more pleased when John encouraged him while filming to contribute to the script with his own input and ideas. Johnny had nothing but praise for Waters saying that “John would actually want to hear my ideas, he would go out there and work with me if I had a problem with a part of the film, he’s the only director I have worked with that would go there.” Johnny’s character was a guitar player and musician and even though Johnny did not himself provide the vocals for the musical numbers, he was very involved in supervising the choices of vintage guitars and amplifiers for the film. He also was able to not pretend to play the guitar numbers but show them in the real life talent he possessed. This was just another asset to the choice of this role for him. Johnny’s costars and peers in the film would soon find that Johnny was a joy to work with and he befriended many of them who he kept in contact with in the years to come. They found him hardworking and dedicated and also willing to learn and try new things. “It is rare to find a young star willing to take constructive criticism and suggestions like Johnny welcomed them”, stated Waters. Cry baby found quick audience and a worldwide appeal as it became hugely popular in other countries even more than in America, partly due to the fact that the genre was lost on the young crowd in the U.S. who had outgrown the Elvis idea of the fifties. Johnny still had to return to 21 for one more season, but was finally able to start shedding his skin thanks to Cry Baby.
This was about the time that Johnny met Winona Ryder at her premiere for the film Great Balls of Fire (1989). It has been said that they met in the lobby and it was love at first sight for them both. “It was a classic glance like in West Side Story where everything else went foggy,” Johnny is quoted to have said. A couple of months later they were introduced properly by a mutual friend. Johnny shared this thought; “When I met Winona and we fell in love it was absolutely like nothing ever before-ever. They found that they shared many things in common and became “Hollywood’s newest couple.” Of course their relationship was played out in the tabloids and the press and to this day is still talked about among many. There are a great deal of quotes and information about this part of Johnny’s life and even now after all this time it lingers as a time-mark in his public life. For this reason it is not necessary to expand much more on this subject.
The next film offer to come Johnny’s way would be the film Edward Scissorhands. He had been after Winona to play opposite him in the film and she agreed. She was already committed to another film, but for certain reasons could not fulfill that commitment and so she gladly accepted the film offer. The film was directed by a young upcoming director named Tim Burton. The idea came from Tim’s own personal inability to communicate as a child. He felt that he could not express himself in a proper way and so he wrote the script of Edward to help portray his feelings of Americas inability to accept diversity itself. Edward the main character was a boy with wild hair and pale skin, he possessed scissors in place of hands and was stored away from the world not only outside but inside as well. Johnny has spoken many times about the role in which he was meant to play, “I felt so attached to this story?How could I convince the director that I was Edward, that I knew him inside and out?” Johnny was sure that this was a once in a lifetime chance and the meeting between the two genius minds was arranged right away. (This was a meeting of destiny and unbeknownst to either one of them would help to mold their futures.) They met at the coffee shop of the Bel Age Hotel in Los Angeles. There they were, these two individuals who although think above the normal mind and imagination, stumble and stutter through their wording and share a awkwardness for using words to relate. Even now it can be seen talking to them together that they share a certain understanding and mindset, also a uncomfortable feeling in explaining thoughts and impressions. Johnny and Tim have both talked on numerous occasions about their first meeting. Johnny has said, “After sharing three of four pots of coffee, stumbling our was through each other’s unfinished sentences but somehow still understanding each other, we ended the meeting with a hand shake and a ‘nice to meet you’.” Tim has said this about his first meeting with Johnny, “Johnny is very much known as a teen idol and he’s perceived as difficult and aloof. As a person he’s funny and warm, a great guy. He’s a normal guy-at least my interpretation of normal-but he’s completely the opposite of this perception.
So the themes of Edward, of image and perception, of somebody being perceived to be the opposite of what he is, was a theme he could relate to.” Tim was glad to have Winona in the other leading role, he had worked with her before on Beetlejuice. Johnny has talked about the fact that this was a very difficult time for him and that he relied greatly on the experience and input of the other more seasoned actors on the set. He also said that Edward was such an unique individual that he saw him as “having the innocence of a new-born or the unconditional love of a puppy.” Johnny was very honored to work with such a seasoned cast and felt close to them all, especially Vincent Price who was a father figure to Johnny during the filming and whom he had contact with until Price’s death, soon after the film. At first Johnny said that it was difficult trying to move around and live in the costume with no hands, but soon it became a part of him and felt very comfortable. There was more than one incident on the set with the blades as in one scene when Anthony Michael Halls character has to confront Edward and Johnny accidentally punctured Hall slightly on the arm. Johnny apologized over and over again to Anthony, who told Johnny “it’s cool man.” The experience of working on Edward Scissorhands encouraged Johnny tremendously, he had found new friends and let his new experience guide him through his beginnings of the “movie making monster” that can be somewhat aggravating. Johnny was adamant about staying true to the roles he felt drawn to. “I never want to settle into complacency?to be satisfied is to stop growing”, Johnny has this feeling of his work and goals in his films.

Serious acting

When Edward was wrapped Johnny began on a strange part of his life. He did a short cameo on the new Freddy’s Dead as a thank you for the start in his career . Immediately after this Winona and Johnny’s relationship ended and it ended publicly, which made it harder for Johnny. The press was very unkind and as usual, a lot of news was sread that was totally untrue. Johnny said about this time following in his life, “It was a really lonely time for me, I did feel very lost at times and confused about everything. I poisoned my self by drinking, smoking, I didn’t eat right, no sleep, lots of cigarettes?..I did feel very lost at times, confused about everything.” Another important quote of Johnny’s from that time, addresses his loneliness, ” Being lonely is scary, I’ve been lonely many times.” In the midst of his personal life problems, Johnny began to go back to work and wanted to show his ability and versatility by choosing a role that he felt could become a part of him.
Johnny decided to take his next role all the way on the other side of the fence, with the film, “Arizona Dream.” Which he chose because of his fondness for another director, Emir Kusturica.
The film was put on hold for a couple of months and Johnny went back to his music roots by making a guest appearance on Tom Patty’s music video, “The Great Wide Open,” which has become a cult favorite in the Depp world of fans. By the time the video was completed, it was time to start on the film. In Arizona Dream, Johnny plays Alex Blackmar, who was a twenty year old young man who was orphaned as a child when his parents were killed in a car crash. Johnny was more than happy to work with another director that would allow him to stretch and improve his ideas throughout the script. Playing another character that could be considered an oddball or outcast was especially appealing to Johnny who said in an interview, ” What interests me is that so-called “normal” society considers them outcasts or on the fringe, or oddballs?I see them as receivers. I’ve identified with them since I was very young” The endeavor of filming was choppy at best and had some hang-ups but in the end was a great experience for Johnny. The influence of Kusturica was said to show in Johnny ,who some people interpreted as changing to please others, but in a sense Johnny was beginning to search for his true self. This showed in the change of clothing and jewelry he wore. Before the film was even finished Johnny made on of his first trips to France to help promote the film at the Cannes Festival (1992) with Kusterica. This was a good place for the film when it was released, it enjoyed great success in France and it has also had a great cult following on DVD.
Johnny’s next project would further the opinion that he liked to take the off the wall characters on that next level. When Johnny first signed on to do the character in “Benny and Joon,” he was more than pleased to be able to work on another film with a director that was unknown and more than willing to hear his input and view of the way that he saw the character himself. The character of Sam was just too much for Johnny to resist. Sam was a wonderful challenge for Johnny who could continue to draw on his fondness for the silent film era. Sam was living in a world influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, this was right along the lines of Johnny’s interest in the silent comedy starts of the past. Johnny said, ” I had such a great time rediscovering Keaton, Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Comedy, especially when it is so physical, is extremely demanding. I developed an even greater respect for those guys, as I began to try to do what they had accomplished in such a seemingly effortless way? I enjoyed the slapstick parts for the movie although I sustained some injuries.”
After Benny and Joon wrapped, Johnny was beginning to get a lot of scripts that he felt were sent to him because of his kooky, offbeat persona, he didn’t want to be labeled, but when he read the script for Gilbert Grape, he knew that this was a role he would have to play. When the writer of the novel and script, Peter Hedges, met Johnny, he remembered; “When I met him, he was this very quiet, really shy guy who was teaching us magic tricks and I thought,, ‘ok he could be Gilbert.’ He comes with this physical beauty that’s just astonishing and at the same time he has no interest in being that.” Johnny was instantly in tune with what the character of Gilbert needed. He understood the “numbness that he had to have, so that he’s not affected too much by everything. There are things in my life that parallel things in Gilbert’s life.”
Gilbert Grape was a young man who had his world sprawling around him and yet found a way to cope and deal with his situation by pulling down deep and finally opening up to the reality of what is and CAN be in his life. Johnny put so much time and emotion in his characters development, he dug down deep into the psychological aspects of what Gilbert himself would be feeling. “Pure love and devotion that turns into a kind of resentment and unhappiness that is shameful to admit.” said Johnny. During the filming of the movie, Johnny was experiencing his own emotional and mental confusion and misery. He talked about it years later when he was able to open up about this time in his life, “It was a hard time for me- I was having a weird time myself, but I was trying to escape from my own brain; I didn’t know what was right and what was wrong, I didn’t know who was and who wasn’t..it was all very confusing. I don’t know if I subconsciously made myself miserable for a little bit because I knew that’s what the character needed, or if it was just what I had to deal with at that particular time.” Unbeknownst to Johnny, his life was about to experience more personal pain to dump on top of what he was already feeling.

The Topsy-Turvy Years

After wrapping up “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”, Johnny’s personal life took a sweeping downturn. Earlier, in 1989, he had met actress Winona Ryder, whom he had started dating in 1990, and gotten her name tattooed on his arm. Johnny and Winona had a turbulent relationship, made even more so by the press which continually cast them into the limelight. In 1993, they finally decided to call it quits. Johnny described it as an “amicable split” while the press reported “unavoidable personality conflicts.”
Soon after this, Johnny immersed himself in work, maybe hoping to ignore as much of his personal life. He again teamed up with Tim Burton for their second collaboration, “Ed Wood”, a black and white biopic of the unsuccesful director.
As quoted from Johnny “After ten minutes of hearing about this, I was commited. At this period in his life, Johnny was depressed about nearly everything in his life, including films and filmmaking, and he claimed that this role was “an opportunity to stretch out and have some fun.” Although the film grossed rather badly in the box office (probably due to its limited release), it went on to recieve soaring praises and critical acclaim, being decribed as “an accurate portrait of an inaccurate man.”
In the midst of his tension, on both film-making and personal life, Johnny had a slice of solace, his nightclub, which he co-owned. He described it as “a place where all of us who loved similar music could just, you know, come and relax.” It was frequented by high profile characters, like Jen Aniston, Christina Applegate, Lisa Marie Presley and many others. However, in 1993, Johnny was playing at his club when they noticed River Phoenix, the teen idol, was behaving strangely. He was rushed outside, and collapsed outside, later learning he had died due to a drug overdose.
The media went frantic, describing his club as “A den of drugs, sex and death…”. Mourners made a shrine for River outside the club, and Johnny himself respectfully closed down the club for three days. However, he was angry. He had never sold drugs in his club, and he found himself arguing River’s squeaky clean image. Johnny closed down the club every year on River’s death anniversary.
However, Johnny’s own life was crashing down on him, slowly but surely. “I was depressed, I felt like there was nothing left for me to live for.” he was claimed as saying. In 1994, Johnny was arrested for trashing a hotel room suite in New York, and later, all he had to say about the incident was to blame an armadillo for wrecking the room. After the security guards asked him to evacuate, he refused, saying he paid for the room. They had no choice but to call the authorities. When asked about the event later, he was reported as saying “All I regret is that my mum had to see me being arrested…in those kind of clothes!”
Of course, the media wouldn’t let this incident pass by them, instead choosing it to capitulate on Johnny’s “Hollywood bad-boy” image. Johnny in his handcuffs were splashed all over the media, and wildly exaggerated versions of the story were being passed around. Johnny was once again the unwilling centre of attraction. When another young musician destroyed hotel property, a few years later, he was widely known as “doing the Johnny Depp.”
Johnny chose to ignore the rumours and bury himself in his next project, “Nick of Time”, playing Gene Watson, a mild, bespectacled man who has to assasinate a governor in order to save his daughter, who was held for ransom. This rather lacklustre thriller grossed about 8 million, which, although larger than the production costs, did not cause much impact. However, Depp would soon be the centre of the media’s attentions again, this time because of a certain waif-like model.
Johnny met Kate in 1994, soon after wrapping up Ed Wood. “At the time, both of us were thriving on cigarettes and not sleeping.”, Depp was reported to have said. Their relationship, like his with Winona, was highly publicized, since she was a high profile model, and he was “Hollywood’s Current It-Boy.” Johnny had come to Kate’s defence many times, on her “anorexic” label, saying that she “ate as well as any man I know.” Needless to say, Johnny despised the media at this time, as he would very well have more reason for in the future.

After The Storm, Comes The Calm

Johnny’s and Kates relationship was targeted by the media, as much as his with Winona, as Kate was also naturally a private person. In the midst of defending each others careers and figures, Johnny chose the time to star in another movie, Dead Man. Dead Man was a black-and-white, grainy, indie flick about an accountant who lost his parents and meets Nobody, and many other queer characters in this gunslinging, Acid Western film that garnered rather good reviews. However, after this role, Johnny moved on to take a role that put him in the view that many females fans saw him in. That of the world’s greatest lover, Don Juan DeMarco.
In Don Juan, Johnny plays a man taken in for attempted suicide as he explains his past, and how it led him to think he was indeed Don Juan DeMarco, the world’s greatest lover, in this uber-romantic film which grossed enough to place it roughly #4 on the charts. However, although Johnny’s film was ultra romantic, Johnny’s own personal lovelife was being shot at by the media, there being many cases of reported breakup which he denied. However, it was when he was with Kate, that Johnny was at his wildest.
After wrapping up a small cameo in Cannes Man, Johnny put on his directing gloves and directed “The Brave”, which he starred in. The Brave was a rather short film, about how a man, in order to earn money for his family, signs himself up for a snuff film (torture and death film). After the premiere of that, Johnny immediately busied himself with Donnie Brasco, which co-starred Al Pacino, a crime-drama-thriller which saw Johnny playing a double life. With a new project, Johnny met a person that would become his friend and mentor till his untimely death in 2005: Hunter S. Thompson. Johnny and Hunter immediately bonded, as Johnny played Raoul Duke in Hunter’s book, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.
Around this time, Johnny and Kate split up, quietly. The media was thrown into a slobbering frenzy, yet unsure as to whether Johnny and Kate had split up or not, as both of them led very private lives. Car stickers were printed, “Honk if you’ve been engaged to Johnny Depp!”, referring to his “dog” behavior. Johnny claimed he wasn’t “good enough for her”, and later, he also said that his life basically consisted of “coming home, crying, not sleeping, eating, and a beer.”
Yet soon, almost immediately after breaking up with Kate, Johnny saw a “back.” When the back turned around, he set eyes on Vanessa Paradis, the French singer and model whom would be his partner for the next thirteen years. Johnny had noticably cooled off from his “wild boy” ways after meeting Vanessa, however, he was arrested for the second time in 1999, after brawling with paparazzi after they refused to leave him alone.
Apart from this incident, Johnny’s life ran smoothly, as he filmed The Ninth Gate, a horror movie about a book which could summon the devil, another cameo in L.A Without A Map, and Sleepy Hollow, the film version of the long told, eerie fairy tale, with certain twists, directed again, by his longtime collaborator, Tim Burton. With those steps forward, Johnny prepared for the new millenium as he it upon another huge step of his life, one which would change him forever; fatherhood.

Rich Pirate Daddy
On May 27, 1999, something happened that turned Johnny’s life around, something that would never let him be the same ‘wild boy’ of his youth ever again. He was a father. Depp announced that fatherhood gave him “real foundation, a real strong place to stand in life, in work, in everything.” He had also made a decision that he would TRY to act in films which his children could watch, later on. Lily-Rose Melody Depp changed Johnny’s life, much as he gave her hers.
However, fatherhood did not keep Johnny from his film career. After putting the finishing touches on The Astronaut’s Wife, a movie in which he plays an astronaut who is possesed by aliens, ohnny moved on to shoot a seventeen minute role in Chocolat, playing a guitar playing gypsy. Johnny also contributed to the movie’s soundtrack. As the new millenium crashed down upon them, Johnny put on his women’s clothes and played a minor role in Before Night Falls, as a transexual, and also a liutenant.
He did two more movies, From Hell, and also The Man Who Cried, a film that earned a low box office gross, due to it’s straight to DVD limited release, before teaming up with Penelope Cruz to film Blow, where he was a drug dealer, whose duty as a father often got into the way with his drug dealings. He again acted in an action movie, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, playing Inspector Sheldon Sands.
On April 9, 2002, Johnny’s family of three expanded to four, as Johnny “Jack” Christopher Depp III was born. Johnny was exhilarated, “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.” , he claimed. However, after fatherhood, Johnny would move on to what would be his biggest role, the one that brought the name Johnny Depp to the lips of every child, teenager and adult.
Gore Verbinski’s Pirates Of The Caribbean was expected to be any other Disney movie, maybe even worse than some, as it was based on a Disneyland theme park amusement ride, even named after it. Johnny got the role, however, he raised many director’s eyebrows on the set as he tweaked the design of Jack Sparrow until it satisfied him. “Drunk and gay! That’s what I thought at first. A gay pirate, noticably tipsy, I wanted to shoot the man!” exclaimed a trustee. However, Johnny and his supporters stuck to his modified Jack Sparrow until the movie released, and floods poured into theatres to see the “drunk, hilarious, and maybe even vulgar” pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow. Johnny himself was nominated for thirteen awards all over the world, five of which he won. Captain Jack Sparrow had made his mark, and he would indeed return.
It was around this period that Johnny was famous for two more things, other than acting. One was his alleged comments about the U.S, as he wanted 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.” However, Johnny vehemently declined that he ever said this. Johnny also started appearing even more in magazines, hundreds of magazine covers plastered with his face, as he regained his ‘superstar’ status. This time, he wasn’t famous for being the “wild boy”, or the “womanizer” or even the “teen heartthrob.” This time he was “Hollywood’s It-Man”, “Man of the Hour” and “Sexiest Pirate Ever”, all three being magazine headlines. However, Johnny started appearing on the Forbes magazine, under Highest Paid Actor, and usually in the top ten of “Richest Actors Ever.”
In 2005, when his friend and mentor, Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide, Johnny arranged to have his ashes shot from a cannon, as he requested.

Johnny starred next in Finding Neverland, a film about the author of Peter Pan, J.M.Barrie. It was in this movie he met Freddie Highmore, a talented young actor he would nominate for his next film. Johnny fast forwarded to (or turned back time to?) The Libertine, a dark, brooding film about the Earl Of Rochester, back in the 17th century, filled with gritty scenes. He next did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a movie on the classic tale by Roald Dahl, in which he nominated Freddie Highmore, whom he met on Finding Neverland, to play the title role of Charlie, while Johnny himself played a “squeaky, germophobic Wonka.” In the same year, Johnny collaborated with Tim Burton (yes, once again) to film (or to lend a voice to) Corpse Bride, him voicing the nervous Victor Van Dort, a role many compared to that of his Ichabod Crane.
Johnny’s life seemed perfect. A lasting relationship with his girlfriend, two adorable children, money pouring in, and film roles being offered here and there. Oh yes, Jack Sparrow would return, along with a singing barber from Fleet Street.

Johnny Depp: A Short Biography
By Andrea Eller

Born in Kentucky in 1963 to an engineer and a waitress, some may see Johnny Depp’s success to be that of just being in the right place at the right time, but to others it may be the act of pure fate. It's true, he did not always want to be an actor, in fact, he had always had the dream of playing in a rock band. His high school band, called “The Kids”, went as far as opening for Iggy Pop before the band broke up in his teen years. He was known as a rebel, doing things his way and taking whatever measures needed to get to the top of the music charts. And had it not been for meeting Nicholas Cage, this great actor may have never graced the screens with some of the most memorable roles in history, which have changed the movie world forever. After his first lead in a movie with Tim Burton, the director was floored and Johnny has been asked to return to Burton’s sets multiple times. Since then, his acting career has grown at an astounding rate that even he cannot believe. He once even said “I hate fame. I’ve done everything I can to avoid it,” but this still has not stopped the public from sending him their admiration. Johnny Depp is beloved both nationally and internationally and has over 300 internet fan sites to date that are dedicated to him and him alone. His “go-get-it” personality and indifference towards fame has made this man a hit amongst all walks of life, and his looks have made him famous amongst women. In fact, he has been named one of the hottest people alive numerous times and won the number one spot as the sexiest man alive by People Magazine in 2003. This certainly has not hurt his sales in films as he has been known to tip waiters with thousands of dollars and has given two million dollars to the hospital that his daughter attended while overcoming kidney failure. He adopted and saved the life of the horse used in filming a movie about the Headless Horseman and has gone out of his way to keep his promise to a 12-year-old boy who wanted nothing more than to own this actor’s hat. You know him as a pirate, you’ve seen him as a man with scissored hands, and loved him as the proprietor of a chocolate factory, and there is no doubt he is one of the most talented actors of this century; that is the life of Mr. Johnny Depp.