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Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974) is a three-time
Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor well known
for his roles in blockbuster movies such as William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
(1996), Titanic (1997), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), The
Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), and Blood Diamond (2006), and was, as a young
man, famed for his global celebrity influence dubbed as "Leomania" in the late
1990s following his role as heartthrob protagonist Jack Dawson in Titanic.
More recently, he has worked regularly with director Martin
Scorsese which has led some to compare their partnership to that of Scorsese and
actor Robert De Niro.
The move from 'star' to 'superstar' came when DiCaprio played Jack Dawson in
Titanic (1997). The highest grossing movie ever (in nominal terms - adjusted for
inflation it is the sixth highest in the United States, while remaining the highest
grossing movie worldwide), it received eleven Academy Awards.
Over the course of the next few years he would become a household
name worldwide, synonymous with labels such as 'teenage heart-throb' and sex
symbol. With a status that spawned fantasy crushes and hysteria worldwide, E!
Online described him as the most gorgeous celebrity on the planet, while his
co-star Kate Winslet said she agreed with others in deeming him the "most beautiful
man on Earth."[citation needed] People Magazine placed him in their annual Most
Beautiful People issue on numerous occasions.
At the peak of his celebrity in 1998, DiCaprio fronted scores of
magazine covers ranging from Vanity Fair to Rolling Stone, and was once the most
searched for personality in the early years of the Internet.
DiCaprio agreed to play the spoof role of his real life 'teen idol'
persona during this period, in Woody Allen's satirical parody, Celebrity.
Perhaps overrun or overhyped by fame from what became known as 'Leo-Mania' the
world over - from the shores of Thailand all the way to Afghanistan (where the
Taliban government there banned 'DiCaprio style' haircuts amongst the youth) and
Australia (where in Tullamarine, Victoria, a restaurant called "DiCaprio's" was
established in 1998[citation needed]), what came apropos with fame were tales in
the tabloids of excesses and indulgence. In the Japanese media, he was referred to
as Leo-sama, with the "sama" suffix in its context given to mean either someone who
has done great things and is revered and respected or is a member of royalty. Time
magazine summed up the fame superhighway and its trappings in an interview with the
actor in 2000, reporting: DiCaprio still thinks of himself as an edgy indie actor,
not the Tiger Beat cover boy. "I have no connection with me during that whole
Titanic Phenomenon and what my face became around the world," DiCaprio commented,
adding, "I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to.
It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either."
Nonetheless, the headlines and controversy failed to let up, peaking when he
starred in a project by Danny Boyle based on Alex Garland's backpacker culture
classic, The Beach that year. Because of clashes with the Thai authorities over the
use of the island of Ko Phi Phi in 1999, the film garnered more bad press than
expected. It was reported that permission granted to the film company to physically
alter the environment inside Phi Phi Islands National Park was illegal. In the end,
the film also did not score as well as expected at the box office, losing
mainstream commercial appeal due to its content.
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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