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Johnny Depp (born John Christopher Depp II on June 9, 1963, in
Owensboro, Kentucky) is an Academy Award-nominated and SAG Awards-winning American
actor known for his performances in the films Nightmare on Elm Street (1984),
Edward Scissorhands (1990), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Ed Wood (1994),
Sleepy Hollow (1999), Chocolat (2000), Finding Neverland (2004), Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory (2005) and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.
Johnny 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 left his teen idol image in 1990, after playing the quirky
title role in the Tim Burton film, Edward Scissorhands. The film's success began a
long association with Burton, as Depp starred in several of his films, including Ed
Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and
Corpse Bride (2005). 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. In 2006, Depp contributed a touching and personal foreword to
GONZO by Hunter S. Thompson, a posthumous visual biography of the writer's legacy
published by ammobooks.com.
Depp's film characters have been described by the press as "iconic loners," and
Depp has noted that this period of his career was full of "studio defined failures"
and films that were "box office poison," stating that he believes film studios
never "understood" the films he appeared in and did not know how to market them
properly. 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.
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, where
he was highly praised for his lead performance as the suave pirate Captain Jack
Sparrow. The performance was initially received negatively by the studio bosses who
saw the film, but the character became popular with the movie-going public; 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." 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.
Depp, who has noted that he was "surprised" and "touched" at the positive reception
given to the film, was nominated for an Academy Award for the role. In 2004, he was
again nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, 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.
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. The next sequel to
Pirates of the Caribbean will be released May 25, 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.Depp voiced Sparrow in the video game, Pirates of the Caribbean:
The Legend of Jack Sparrow.
Depp and Gore Verbinski are executive producers of the album "Rogues Gallery,
Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys".
It has been confirmed that he will portray Paul Kemp, the main character in a film
version of writer Hunter S. Thompson's book, The Rum Diary. Johnny Depp will next
play the title role of Sweeney Todd in Tim Burton's film adaptation of the musical
Sweeney Todd. Depp's production company has picked up the rights to the story of
poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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