Johnny Depp

Actor

Johnny Depp was first famous as a heartthrob cop on the teenybopper drama 21 Jump Street (1987-1990). Then he gave up TV for the movies, playing the fantastical title character in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990) and winning critical acclaim in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993, co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio). Depp became known as a handsome and thoughtful actor who craved variety; In the 1990s he took a wide range of roles, from the lead in Don Juan DeMarco (1995, with Faye Dunaway and Marlon Brando) to Ichabod Crane in Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999, with Christina Ricci). In 2001 he played real-life cocaine trafficker George Jung in the movie Blow (co-starring with Penelope Cruz), and he was a box office superstar as the comically swaggering pirate Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (co-starring Orlando Bloom) and its sequels (2003-07). That role earned him an Oscar nomination in 2004, and he followed up with another nomination for playing J.M. Barrie (the creator of Peter Pan) in Finding Neverland (2004). As if he hadn't wowed audiences enough, Depp sang in Burton's 2007 film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and earned a third Oscar nomination for best actor.

Extra credit: Depp owns the Viper Room lounge in Los Angeles... He turned down the lead role in Speed (1994), which was then taken by Keanu Reeves... Pirates of the Caribbean was loosely based on the Disneyland thrill ride of the same name... Depp's longtime companion is French pop singer and actress Vanessa Paradis. They began dating in 1998 and have two children together: daughter Lily-Rose Melody Depp (b. 1999) and son John Christopher Depp III (also known as Jack, b. 2002).

Blog posts mentioning Johnny Depp:
Oscar Nominees 2008