djmessanger1

dreamer
2010-04-17 01:44:56 (UTC)

jhonny deep

John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II[1] (born June 9, 1963)
is an American actor and musician known for his portrayals
of offbeat, eccentric characters such as Jack Sparrow in
the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, Raoul Duke in
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Sam in Benny & Joon.

Depp rose to prominence in a lead role on the television
series 21 Jump Street and quickly became regarded as a
teen idol. Uncomfortable with that characterization, he
turned his focus to film roles that he felt were right. He
initially came to film prominence as the titular character
of Edward Scissorhands, and later found box office success
in roles such as Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow, Jack
Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and
his role as the quirky Willy Wonka in Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory.

He has collaborated with director and close friend Tim
Burton in seven films, the most recent of which are Alice
in Wonderland and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street (2007). Depp has garnered acclaim for his
portrayals of real life figures such as Edward D. Wood,
Jr., in Ed Wood, Joseph D. Pistone in Donnie Brasco and
George Jung in Blow (2001). More recently, he portrayed
legendary bank robber John Dillinger in Michael Mann's
2009 film Public Enemies.

Films featuring Depp have grossed over $2.6 billion at the
United States box office and over $5.7 billion worldwide.
[2] Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three
times, Screen Actors Guild Awards four times and Golden
Globe Awards eight times, Depp won the Best Actor Awards
from the Golden Globes for his role in 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.

Early life
Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, the son of Betty Sue
Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp,
Sr., a civil engineer.[3] He has one brother, Daniel, who
is a novelist, and two sisters, Christie (now his personal
manager) and Debbie. Depp has German, Cherokee (mostly
from a great-grandmother), and Irish ancestry.[1][4]
According to biographies, the Depp family originated with
a French Huguenot, Pierre Deppe or Dieppe, who settled in
Virginia around 1700.[5] Depp stated he did not know the
origin of his surname and joked about the name translating
to "idiot" in German.[6][7] 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. He
engaged in self-harm as a child, due to the stress of
dealing with family problems and his own insecurity. He
has seven or eight scars from practicing self-harm. In a
1993 interview, he explained 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".[8]

1980s
Depp's mother bought her son a guitar when he was 12, and
Depp began playing in various garage bands. His first band
was in honor of his girlfriend, Meredith. A year after his
parents' divorce, Depp dropped out of high school to
become a rock musician. As he once explained on Inside the
Actors Studio, 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. The group split before
signing a record deal. Depp subsequently collaborated with
the band Rock City Angels[9] 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, a
makeup artist and 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 ink pens. Later, his wife
introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage, who advised Depp to
pursue an acting career. In 1985, Depp and Allison
divorced. After his marriage ended, Depp dated and was
engaged to Sherilyn Fenn (whom he met on the set of the
1985 short film Dummies).

1990s and 2000s
In 1994, Depp was arrested and questioned by police for
allegedly causing serious damage to a New York City hotel
suite.[10] Since 1998, following a relationship with
British supermodel Kate Moss, Depp has had a relationship
with Vanessa Paradis, a French actress and singer whom he
met while filming The Ninth Gate.[11] He was arrested
again in 1999 for brawling with paparazzi outside a
restaurant while dining in London with Paradis.[12]

The couple have two children. Daughter Lily-Rose Melody
Depp was born May 27, 1999, and son John "Jack"
Christopher Depp III was born April 9, 2002.[13] In 2007,
his daughter recovered from a serious illness, an E. coli
infection that began to cause her kidneys to shut down and
resulted in an extended hospital stay.[14] To thank Great
Ormond Street Hospital, Depp visited the hospital in
November 2007 dressed in his Captain Jack Sparrow outfit
and spent 4 hours reading stories to the children. He
later donated £1 million (about $2 million) to the
hospital in early 2008.[15]

Although Depp has not remarried, he has stated that having
children has given him "real foundation, a real strong
place to stand in life, in work, in everything."[16] "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." The family divides its time
between their home in Meudon, located in the suburbs of
Paris, Los Angeles, an island he bought in the Bahamas,
and their villa in Le Plan-de-la-Tour, a small town an
hour and a half from Saint-Tropez, in the south of France.
[17][18] Depp also acquired a vineyard estate in the Plan-
de-la-Tour area in 2007.[19]

Depp has 13 tattoos, many of them signifying important
persons or events in his life. They include a Native
American in profile and a ribbon reading "Wino Forever"
(originally "Winona Forever", altered after his breakup
with Winona Ryder) on his right biceps, "Lily-Rose" (his
daughter's name) over his heart, "Betty Sue" (his mother's
name) on his left biceps, and a sparrow flying over water
with the word "Jack" (his son's name; the sparrow is
flying towards him rather than away from him as it is in
Pirates of the Caribbean) on his right forearm.

In 2003, Depp comments about the United States appeared in
Germany's Stern magazine, commenting that "America is
dumb, is something like a dumb puppy that has big teeth —
that can bite and hurt you, aggressive."[20] Although he
later asserted that the magazine misquoted him and the
quotation was taken out of context, Stern stood by its
story, as did CNN.com in its coverage of the interview.
CNN added his remark that he would like 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."[21] The July 17, 2006 edition of Newsweek reprinted
the "dumb puppy" quotation, verbatim, within the context
of a Letter to the Magazine. Depp has also disagreed with
subsequent media reports that he says paint him as
a "European wannabe", saying that he just likes the
anonymity of living in France and his simpler life there.
[20]

Career
Television
Depp starred in a lead role on the Fox TV television
series, 21 Jump Street, which premiered in 1987. Depp
accepted this role because he was not getting much work in
the business and wanted to work with actor Frederic
Forrest, who inspired him. Later in the season, 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. He found the teen-idol status irritating, noting
that he felt "forced into the role of product"[22] and
that it was "a very uncomfortable situation and I didn't
get a handle on it and it wasn't on my terms at all."[23]
Depp promised himself that after his contract on the
series expired, he would only appear in films that he felt
were right for him.[22]

Film roles
Depp's first major role was in the 1984 horror film A
Nightmare on Elm Street, playing the heroine's boyfriend
and one of Freddy's victims. In 1986, he also appeared in
a secondary role as a Vietnamese-speaking private in
Oliver Stone's Platoon. Depp then left his teen idol image
in 1990, playing the quirky title role in the Tim Burton
film, Edward Scissorhands. The film's success began a long
association with Burton. Depp, an avid 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 also accompanied Thompson as his
road manager on one of the author's last book tours.[24]
In 2006, Depp contributed a personal foreword to Gonzo by
Hunter S. Thompson, a posthumous visual biography of the
writer's legacy published by ammobooks.com. A close friend
of Thompson's, 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.[25]


Depp with longer hair, mustache and goatee similar to the
style used in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the
Black Pearl film.Depp's film characters have been
described by the press as "iconic loners,"[26] and Depp
has noted that this period of his career was full
of "studio defined failures" and films that were "box
office poison,"[27] stating that he believes film studios
never "understood" the films he appeared in and did not
know how to market them properly.[26] Depp has also said
that he specifically chose to appear in films that he
found personally interesting, rather than those he thought
would succeed at the box office.[26]

Depp's status as a major star was solidified with the
success of the 2003 Walt Disney Pictures film Pirates of
the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,[26] for which
his lead performance as the suave pirate Captain Jack
Sparrow was highly praised. The performance was initially
received negatively by the studio bosses who saw the film,
but the character became popular with the movie-going
public.[26] In 2006, Depp's co-star from the sequel to
Pirates of the Caribbean, Bill Nighy, described the role
as probably being "one of the most popular performances of
recent times."[27] According to a survey taken by
Fandango, Depp was also considered to be one of the main
reasons audiences wanted to see the movie.[28] The film's
director, Gore Verbinski, has said that Depp's Jack
Sparrow character closely resembles Depp's own
personality, although Depp himself said that he modelled
the character after Rolling Stones guitarist Keith
Richards.[29] Depp, who has noted that he was "surprised"
and "touched" at the positive reception given to the film,
[26] was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for
the role. In 2004, he was again nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Actor, this time 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, which was a major success at the
box office.[29]

Depp returned to the character 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 in reaching the highest weekend tally ever.
[30] The next sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean, At
World's End, was released May 24, 2007; Depp has mentioned
his attachment to his Captain Jack Sparrow character,
specifying that Sparrow is "definitely a big part of me",
and expressing his desire to portray the character in
further sequels.[16] Depp voiced Sparrow in the video
game, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow.
[31] 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.
Anderson who also trained Errol Flynn, another famous
Hollywood pirate, described in the film Depp's ability as
an actor to pick up the sword to be, "about as good as you
can get."[32]

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,[33] for which
he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion
Picture Musical or Comedy. The traditional ceremony for
the 65th Golden Globe Awards did not take place due to the
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Depp thanked
the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and praised Tim
Burton for his "unwavering trust and support."[34]

As a child, Depp was obsessed with Dark Shadows, a gothic-
themed soap opera that aired on ABC from 1966 to 1971. As
a result, he accepted Warner Bros. proposal to make a film
version of the show. In July 2007, a rights deal was
struck with the estate of Dan Curtis, the show's
producer/director. Depp and Graham King will produce the
movie with David Kennedy, who ran Dan Curtis Productions
inc. until Curtis died in 2006. Depp will also appear in a
film version of writer Hunter S. Thompson's book, The Rum
Diary,[24] portraying the main character Paul Kemp. Depp
signed on to play one incarnation of the 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.[35] He portrayed the Mad Hatter in
Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and will play Tonto in a
future Lone Ranger film.[36] Disney Studios also announced
that a fourth installment of the Pirates series is in
development, in which Depp would reprise his Captain Jack
Sparrow role.[36]

Collaboration with Tim Burton
Depp has collaborated with director and close friend Tim
Burton in seven films, beginning with his breakout role in
Edward Scissorhands (1990), opposite Winona Ryder and
Vincent Price. His next role with Burton was in the 1994
film, Ed Wood. Depp later said that "within 10 minutes of
hearing about the project, I was committed."[37] At the
time, the actor was depressed about films and filmmaking.
By accepting this part it gave him a "chance to stretch
out and have some fun", and working with
Landau, "rejuvenated my love for acting".[37]

Producer Scott Rudin once said, "Basically Johnny Depp is
playing Tim Burton in all his movies,"[38] although Burton
personally disapproved of the comment. Depp, however
agrees with Rudin's statement. According to Depp, Edward
Scissorhands represented Burton's inability to communicate
as a teenager. Ed Wood reflected Burton's relationship
with Vincent Price (very similar with Edward D. Wood, Jr.
and Béla Lugosi).


Depp's Hollywood Walk of Fame star received on November
19, 1999.Depp's next venture with Burton was the role of
Ichabod Crane in the dark Sleepy Hollow (1999), opposite
Christina Ricci. Sleepy Hollow showcased Ichabod's
feelings that reflects Burton's battle with the Hollywood
studio system.[39] For his performance, Depp took
inspiration from Angela Lansbury, Roddy McDowall and Basil
Rathbone.[38] Depp stated, "I always thought of Ichabod as
a very delicate, fragile person who was maybe a little too
in touch with his feminine side, like a frightened little
girl."[40]

Depp did not work with Burton again until the 2005 release
of two films, the first of which was Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory. Depp modeled the character's hair on
Anna Wintour.[41] The film was a box office success and
received positive critical reaction,[42][43] although Gene
Wilder, who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film, initially
opposed this version.[44] Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory was released in July, followed by Corpse Bride,
for which Depp voiced the character Victor Van Dort, in
September.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
followed, bringing Depp his second major award win, the
Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy as well
as his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best
Actor. Burton first gave him an original cast recording of
the 1979 stage musical in 2000. Although not a fan of the
genre, Depp grew to like the tale's musical treatment,
commenting "How many chances do you get at a musical about
a serial killer?"[45] He cited Peter Lorre in Mad Love
(1935) as his main influence for the role, and practiced
the songs his character would perform while filming
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.[46] Although he
had performed in musical groups, Depp was initially unsure
that he would be able to sustain Stephen Sondheim's lyrics.
[45] Depp recorded demos of himself in West Hollywood,
working with Bruce Witkin to shape his vocals without a
qualified voice coach.[45] In the DVD Reviews section,
EW's Chris Nashawaty gave the film an A-minus,
stating, "Depp's soaring voice makes you wonder what other
tricks he's been hiding... Watching Depp's barber wield
his razors... it's hard not to be reminded of Edward
Scissorhands frantically shaping hedges into animal
topiaries 18 years ago... and all of the twisted beauty we
would've missed out on had [Burton and Depp] never
met."[47]

He has referred to working with Burton as "coming home",
and he wrote the introduction to Burton on Burton, a book
of interviews with the director, in which he called
Burton "...a brother, a friend,...and [a] brave soul".[48]
The next Depp-Burton collaboration was Alice in Wonderland
(2010). Depp played the Mad Hatter alongside long time
collaborator Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway and Alan
Rickman.

Other interests
Music

Depp backstage at the Ahmanson Theatre on December 31,
2006As a guitar player, Depp has recorded a solo album,
played slide guitar on the Oasis song "Fade In-Out" (from
Be Here Now, 1997), as well as on "Fade Away (Warchild
Version)" (b-side of the "Don't Go Away" single). He also
played acoustic guitar in the movie Chocolat and on the
soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He is a friend
of The Pogues' Shane MacGowan, and performed on MacGowan's
first solo album. As well, he was a member of P, a group
featuring Butthole Surfers singer Gibby Haynes and Red Hot
Chili Peppers bassist Flea. He has appeared in Tom Petty &
The Heartbreakers' music video "Into the Great Wide Open".




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