Johnny Depp is an American film actor, recently noted for his role of Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean films. Since his acting career began in 1985, Depp has become known for his roles as a romantic outcast, perhaps epitomized by the title role in Edward Scissorhands (1990). With this film, Johnny Depp began a fruitful professional relationship with director Tim Burton, known for his macabre and fanciful work. Throughout his career, Johnny Depp has devoted himself to projects and characters that appeal to him, so fans of the actor are likely to appreciate nearly all of his film work. Johnny Depp has been nominated twice for the Best Actor Academy Award and won a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2004 for Outstanding Performance for the role of Jack Sparrow.
Johnny Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky on 9 June 1963. His family moved around a lot, and Johnny Depp had lived in over 20 different places by the time he was seven years old, when the family settled in Miramar, Florida. Depp's first dream was to be a rock star, after his mother gave him a guitar when he was 12. He dropped out of high school in 1979, a year after his parents divorced, to pursue his goal, eventually making his way to Los Angeles with a band called The Kids.
In Los Angeles, Johnny Depp fell in love with the sister of one of his band mates, Lori Anne Allison, and the two married in December 1983. The Kids did not survive the ensuing drama and never secured a record deal. Depp collaborated with another band, Rock City Angels, but had trouble making a career out of it. His marriage to Lori Anne did not last long, ending in 1985 in divorce, but before their break-up, she introduced him to actor Nicholas Cage, who encouraged Depp to begin acting.
Depp's screen debut was in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1985), but his big break was the television series 21 Jump Street, which ran from 1987 to 1991. Johnny Depp became a teen heartthrob, but found the experience personally unrewarding. Nevertheless, the series earned him a certain degree of fame, allowing him the freedom to be more discriminating in his selection of roles in the future. Depp's reputation for playing the misunderstood antihero began with two 1990 films, Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands and John Waters' Cry-Baby.
Some of Johnny Depp's other notable roles include the title character in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994); Raoul Duke, author Hunter S. Thompson's alter ego, in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998); Scottish children's author J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland (2004); and Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Depp earned his two Best Actor nominations for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003 and Finding Neverland in 2004. He made his voice debut in Tim Burton's 2005 Academy-Award-nominated animated feature, Corpse Bride.
Johnny Depp is married to French actress Vanessa Paradis, and the couple have two children. He has homes in Los Angeles and France and owns an island in the Bahamas. His upcoming film projects include the title role in Sweeney Todd and a recurrence of Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, both slated for a 2007 release.
