Johnny Depp is an American actor born June 9, 1963, in the town of Owensboro. After having discreetly debuted in the world of music, he was as an actor that he became world famous. After remarkable performances in the television series 21 Jump Street (1987), he became the favorite actor of Tim Burton with whom he shot 8 successful films. Renowned for his roles as atypical and eccentric characters, Johnny Depp marks the critics in films such as Edward Scissors Hands (1990), Las Vegas Parano (1998) or the Pirates of the Caribbean saga (2003-2017) in the role of Jack Sparrow.
He became famous in the 1980s with his role in the television series 21 Jump Street offered to him by the famous producer Stephen J. Cannell and in The Claws of the Night. He then devoted himself mainly to the interpretation of original and eccentric characters such as Edward in Edward Scissors Hands.
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Childhood
John Christopher Depp was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro in Kentucky, Betty Sue Palmer, a waitress, and John Christopher Sr., engineer. He has a half-brother: Daniel, who is a writer and two sisters: Debbie, and Christie who is also his personal manager. Johnny Depp has German, French, and Irish origins. He also claims to have Cherokee origins although this is not recognized by any official Cherokee nation. In the book Johnny Depp: A Kind of Illusion, its author Denis Meikle states that the Depp family is linked to the French Huguenot Pierre Deppe, or Dieppe, who had settled in Virginia around the 1700s. However, the actor declares that he does not know the origin of his name, but specifies that he knows the meaning: “idiot” in German (it is indeed a minor insult which means “idiot” or “idiot”).
Young Johnny’s family often moves because of his father’s profession. In 1970, she moved to Miramar, Florida, an environment that the young boy quickly came to hate. He started smoking and drinking at age 12, self-injuring, truant often and petty theft. It nevertheless finds an early love of music and, as a teenager, he spends hours in his room playing the guitar. His parents divorced when he was fifteen and this hollow separating a gap between Johnny and his father.
Career
After leaving school at the age of sixteen, he joined the group Bad Boys – which would become The Kids – and opened for Iggy Pop on tour. Two years later, he traveled with his band to Los Angeles, but the group barely off. During this time, Depp, who is briefly married to makeup artist Lori Allison, sells pens over the phone for a living. Luckily, his ex-wife introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage, who persuaded him to organize a meeting with his agent, allowing him to land his first film role in The Claws of the Night (1984) by Wes Craven, first installment of the cult horror movie franchise featuring the character of Freddy Krueger. His group broke up soon after and Depp turned to the cinema.
Thinking to have found his way, he entered a theater training school, then obtained some secondary roles which allowed him to live properly, notably in Platoon (1986), Oliver Stone’s film on the Vietnam War. In 1987, he landed the lead role in the 21 Jump Street series – a series whose success hoisted him onto a fragile idol pedestal for teenage girls. After four seasons in the role of Tom Hanson, he succeeded, with the help of his agent, in breaking the contract by which he was bound to play in five seasons of the series, to turn to the film career which handed him the arm.
He began to headline in the satirical Cry-Baby with John Waters who raises brilliantly the career of the young actor in lampooning his status as teen idol. But it was Tim Burton who offered him in 1990 the role of critical recognition with Edward Scissors Hand. From then on, he became Burton’s favorite actor, with whom he would also shoot Ed Wood in 1994, Sleepy Hollow in 1999, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in 2005, Sweeney Todd: The Evil Barber of Fleet Street in 2007, Alice in Wonderland in 2010 and Dark Shadows in 2012. These collaborations are often acclaimed by critics and the public.
Because of the importance of his filmography, in 1999 he received an honorary César for all of his work. The same year, his attachment to France allowed him to play in the fantastic film The Ninth Gate, largely shot in Paris under the direction of Roman Polanski with the latter’s wife, Emmanuelle Seigner. The reviews are nevertheless very mixed, and the film received very freshly at the American box office. He has more chances with his second European essay, the romance The Chocolate, which was filmed in Burgundy with Juliette Binoche, who attracts the favors of criticism more than him. He will conclude this French period only in 2004, with an appearance alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg in the dramatic comedy They married and had many children by Yvan Attal.
Commercial confirmation and critical recognition
But while these different roles weaken his status as a profitable actor, he was entrusted in 2002 with the role of Jack Sparrow in the Disney studios blockbuster The Curse of the Black Pearl. He is given carte blanche to build this complex and elusive character. The film, which was released in 2003, surprises, and knows a huge critical and commercial success, relaunching the career of Depp who becomes one of the most famous actor in Hollywood, making him known to a young audience, and even earning him his first nomination to the Oscar for best actor. He thus regains his status as a profitable actor and trigger of riots that had made him flee from the filming of21 Jump Street.
He continued in 2004 with the film Rochester, the last of the libertines in which he has John Malkovich as a partner. The film tells the story of a famous poet who lived in the xviith century, notorious libertine and freethinker, in the reign of King Charles II of England. The film goes unnoticed, but not the biopic Finding Neverland, which allows him to lend his features to the poet John M. Barrie, and to give the reply to Kate Winslet. The film received excellent reviews and earned Depp his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
One of the most awarded actors of the 21st century
Johnny Depp is one of the most awarded actors of recent years. In 1996, he won the actor of the year award, awarded by the London Critics Circle Film Awards for his role in Ed Wood (1994). He then received a Palme d’honneur in 1999 for his very successful career. In 2003, he was declared actor of the year by the Hollywood Film Festival, when Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) was released. He then won an Empire Award in 2005 for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), then a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical in 2008 for Sweeney Todd: The Evil Barber of Fleet Street (2007). In 2019, Johnny Depp is currently filming for several expected feature films, including Minamata, slated for 2020 and most importantly, Fantastic Beasts 3, slated for 2021. He is an icon and one of the most familiar face in many Disney movies.
Net worth
His annual salary in some years has exceeded $ 100 million, easily making him one of the highest paid actors on the planet. To date, Johnny Depp’s many blockbuster films have grossed over $ 3.4 billion in America and $ 8.7 billion worldwide at the box office.
Johnny reportedly spent $ 3.6 million a year to maintain a staff of 40 full-time, $ 30,000 a month on wine, $ 150,000 a month on bodyguards, and $ 200,000 a month on jets private. He also reportedly spent $ 75 million buying more than 14 homes around the world, including an 18-hectare castle in France, a horse farm in Kentucky and several islands in the Bahamas. It has several yachts, more than 45 cars, 12 souvenir warehouses and an art collection including works by artists such as Andy Warhol.
Private Life
From 1983 to 1985, Johnny Depp was married to Lori Anne Allison. From 1986 to 1988, he had a relationship with actress Sherilyn Fenn.
In 1988, he met Jennifer Gray, lead actress of Dirty Dancing alongside Patrick Swayze. They get engaged two months after their first meeting. Their relationship will however be short-lived and they separate in the spring of 1989. Of all Johnny Depp’s relationships, it will be the most discreet. The couple will rarely appear in public.
From 1989 to 1993, he was in a relationship with the American actress Winona Ryder. They meet at the premiere of the movie Great Balls of Fire! and begin a romantic relationship soon after. Madly in love, Depp decides to get a tattoo of “Winona Forever” (“Winona Forever”) on his arm soon after their engagement. He will modify his tattoo after their separation; it now reads “Wino Forever” (“drunkard forever”).
He then lived for three years in a well-publicized relationship with the British model Kate Moss. They separated in 1997. During this period he was very close to the British group Oasis, even participating in the album Be Here Now on which he played slide guitar on the song Fade In-Out.
From June 1998 to June 2012, he was the companion of the French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, with whom he had two children: Lily-Rose Melody (born on May 27, 1999) and Jack John Christopher III (born on April 9, 2002). He bought a neo-Gothic 700 m 2 house in Hollywood from 1927, which legend has it that it is the one where Béla Lugosi, interpreter of Dracula, would have lived. During his repeated filming in the Caribbean, he falls in love with the island of Plan, which he offers to his family as a privileged vacation spot. He lives with his children and his partner in their property in the Var, in Plan-de-la-Tour, in France. In June 2012, Johnny Depp announces via a press release from his agent his separation from Vanessa Paradis after 14 years together. He affirms that it took place amicably and that they are parting as good friends. They have repeatedly shown their good understanding since.
The actor suffers from a disorder, oniomania. In conflict with his wealth manager, the latter revealed that in “twenty years, the star has spent $ 480 million, an average of $ 55,000 per day. A ranch in Kentucky, an atoll in the Bahamas, five villas in Beverly Hills: the actor acquired 14 homes for a total amount of $ 75 million, 200 works of art by Warhol, Basquiat, Klimt or Modigliani, 45 automobiles luxury, 70 vintage guitars, thousands of star relics ”.
Scandals
In 2020 he has been sued by Amber Heard, and accuses him of having cut her finger with a broken bottle of alcohol, the latter accusing him of repeated domestic violence. Although he was supported by Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder, he lost his libel case against The Sun, a newspaper relaying the accusations of his ex-wife, then he appealed against this judgment. In order to be able to finish the filming of the film Fantastic Beasts 3, he asks that the continuation of the trial be postponed until the end of filming.
Filmography
●1990: Cry-Baby by John Waters
●1990: Edward Scissorhands by Tim Burton
●1991: Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare by Rachel Talalay
●1992: Arizona Dream by Emir Kusturica
●1993: Benny and Joon by Jeremiah S. Chechik
●1993: Gilbert Grape by Lasse Hallström
●1994: Ed Wood of Tim Burton
●1994: Don Juan DeMarco by Jeremy Leven
●1995: Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch
●1995: Murder pending (Nick of Time) of John Badham
●1996: Cannes Man by Richard Martini
●1997: Donnie Brasco by Mike Newell
●1997: The Brave of himself (director and screenwriter)
●1998: Las Vegas Parano by Terry Gilliam
●1998: I Love LA by Mika Kaurismäki
●1999: The Ninth Gate (The Ninth Gate) of Roman Polanski
●1999: Intrusion of Rand Ravich Spencer Armacost
●1999: Sleepy Hollow: The Legend of the Headless Horseman by Tim Burton
●2011: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Fountain of Youth by Rob Marshall
●2011: Rum express ( The Rum Diary ) by Bruce Robinson
●2011: Jack and Julie ( Jack and Jill ) by Dennis Dugan
●2012 : 21 Jump Street by Phil Lord and Chris Miller
●2012: Dark Shadows by Tim Burton
●2013: Lone Ranger: Birth of a hero ( The Lone Ranger ) by Gore Verbinski
●2013: Lucky Them by Megan Griffiths
●2014: Transcendence of Wally Pfister
●2014: Tusk of Kevin Smith
●2015: Into the Woods by Rob Marshall
●2015: Charlie Mortdecai ( Mortdecai ) by David Koepp
●2015: Strictly Criminal ( Black Mass ) by Scott Cooper
●2016: Alice through the Looking Glass ( Alice Through the Looking Glass ) by James Bobin
●2016: Yoga Hosers by Kevin Smith
●2016: Fantastic Beasts ( Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ) by David Yates
●2017: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Revenge Salazar ( Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ) by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg
●2017: Murder on the Orient Express
●2018: Fatal Seduction