Whether he's playing a salty sea dog, trashing hotel rooms,
or giving testimony, Johnny Depp always commits.
Johnny Depp was born John Christopher Depp
II on June 9, 1963, in Owensboro, Kentucky. He was the youngest of four children born to John Depp,
an engineer, and Betty Sue, a waitress. Money was tight for the family,
and they moved to Florida when Johnny was 7 years old. Depp has expressed that
this was one of many moves he went through throughout his youth, telling Rolling Stone,
"When it's time to pack, even to go on vacation, I'm a wreck,
man. It reminds me so much of having to move all the time."
Depp elaborated that, in addition to bouncing around, he also experienced physical violence
in his home. He recalled that the abuse was unpredictable,
but he also expressed empathy for his parents and the influence their own
upbringing had on their behavior. In an interview with Playboy, he recalled that
it took spending time with other families to make him realize his upbringing was unusual.
"Well it was kinda normal for — we didn't
know anything else, ya know. So for us, it was kinda normal."
Despite the complexities of his childhood, Depp still bought his mother a home in Los Angeles.
Depp told Rolling Stone that he began doing drugs throughout his teens,
and often got in trouble at school. However, he also picked up the guitar,
which helped him cope with his difficult homelife and his parents' eventual divorce.
Depp's older brother introduced him to classic rock, and he later became enamored with punk
rock as well. Eventually, Depp joined a band called The Kids, and dropped out of
high school to pursue music. The Kids would open for iconic groups like Iggy Pop and The Ramones,
and Depp even befriended fellow Floridian, Marilyn Manson, before his rise to fame.
While focusing on music,
Johnny Depp met future makeup artist Lori Anne Allison. Five years older than Depp,
Allison was the sister of one of his bandmates.
Depp, Allison, and the rest of the band moved to Los Angeles to make it big. According to
The Slate, the band broke up before a record deal became reality. However, Depp and Allison
married in 1983 when he was 20. They divorced two years later. Depp told Boulevard Magazine,
"It was a strong bond with someone but I can't necessarily say I was in love.
That's something that comes around once, maybe twice,
if you are lucky. And I don't know that I experienced that before I turned 30."
Over the years, Allison has said kind things about her ex-husband. While speaking to the
Miami Herald in 2015, she emphasized that she finds Depp an exceptional actor and guitarist.
She particularly commended his ability to play a pirate.
Depp's acting career
began while he was still married to Lori Anne Allison. According to The Teal Mango,
she introduced the young musician to her friend, Nicolas Cage, who introduced Depp to his agent.
The agent sent Depp to a casting director, who helped land him his first movie role in 1984's
A Nightmare on Elm Street. Depp told Playboy he was completely shocked by the amount of
money he was paid for the gig, and that he'd been applying to all types of jobs just to
make ends meet when he got the role. His appearance in A Nightmare On Elm
Street led to his breakthrough role on Fox's 21 Jump Street a few years later.
Seemingly overnight, Depp went from broke to an '80s teen idol on the cover of magazines.
"You don't expect people to be there, waiting for you,
knowing who you are, ya know? It's just, it's very new to me."
Although grateful for the experience,
he wasn't very happy working on 21 Jump Street. As he explained to Playboy,
"It was a great education, but it was very frustrating. I felt
like I was filling up space between commercials."
He explained further that, at the time, Fox was using the show as the launchpad for what would
soon become a hit network. Depp felt his face was being used as an object for brand awareness,
and he was unenthused about the trajectory of his career if that continued.
After his divorce from
Lori Anne Allison, Johnny Depp went on to date women in the entertainment field. Twin Peaks
star Sherilyn Fenn started dating Depp when she was 19 and he was 21. The couple stayed together
for over two years, and Fenn even called Depp her "first love" in an interview with Big Issue.
Next came Dirty Dancing and Ferris Bueller's Day Off star Jennifer Grey, who began a whirlwind
relationship with the actor shortly after breaking up with her Ferris Bueller co-star,
Matthew Broderick. Though Depp and Grey did get engaged, their romance did not last,
and the young star's highest profile relationships were just around the corner.
Winona Ryder met Johnny Depp in 1990, and he proposed after just five months.
At the time, Depp told People,
"There's been nothing in my 27 years that's comparable to the feeling I have with Winona."
Nevertheless, they broke up three years later.
After Depp and Ryder split, he began an even more intense relationship with supermodel Kate Moss.
Depp told Boulevard Magazine that the pair met in New York in 1994, and fell in love instantly. As
inseparable as the young lovers were, their 1998 breakup took a serious toll on both of them. After
the separation Depp told Hello! Magazine he'd prioritized his career too heavily while they were
together, which made him extremely difficult to live with. In turn, Moss told Vanity Fair that she
missed the affection and trust the pair had built, and mourned the relationship for years thereafter.
Johnny Depp was careful about the
roles he took on after 21 Jump Street. He told Playboy that, at the time,
he decided to wait for the right movie to come along before he signed on to another project.
After coming to this decision, he starred in 1990's Cry-Baby. Shortly after, he began filming
Edward Scizzorhands. It was then that Depp found out he'd been cut from 21 Jump Street.
From then on,
Depp became largely known for morphing into offbeat characters in a wide range of films.
"Good morning starshine! The earth says hello!"
Some of his most iconic appearances were in the Tim Burton movies, Ed Wood,
Alice in Wonderland, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Maturing as an actor,
Depp was naturally attracted to the challenge of these more out-there roles. However, these heavily
disguised parts also appealed to Depp because they allowed him to hide. He told Rolling Stone,
"Covering myself up in makeup, it's easier to look at someone else. It's
important for [...] whatever's left of your sanity, I guess."
In the mid-'90s, Johnny Depp was
living mostly out of hotels, and made some less-than-flattering headlines.
In one of the most publicized incidents, he trashed his New York City hotel room
after apparently fighting with then-girlfriend Kate Moss. A People cover story from 1994
reported that Depp was arrested and charged with criminal mischief. He spent a few hours
in jail and was forced to reimburse the hotel for nearly $10,000 worth of damage.
Depp told Boulevard Magazine the media's portrayal of the event was quite overblown.
A decade later he explained to Playboy he'd had a rough day up to that point. He'd been
harassed by paparazzi and was becoming more and more fed up with his celebrity status.
A few years later, Depp's began his longest high-profile relationship with French model and
actress Vanessa Paradis. According to Parade, the couple never married but did have two children:
Lily-Rose and Jack Depp. Depp told The Sun becoming a father had brought
him a newfound appreciation for life and the role he plays in the world.
"You're, sort of, rooted in the earth, and you understand what's — you understand what's
important. All that stuff around you, the other things, become, like, just insects."
Paradis openly expressed the pride she felt for the couple's trust and communication. Despite the
strength of their relationship, People reports they separated in 2012 after 14 years together.
While Johnny Depp had long
promised himself he'd never choose commercial success over art, he eventually found both when
he landed the part of Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney's billion-dollar movie franchise Pirates
of the Caribbean. The move catapulted his success and led to an Oscar nomination for Depp in 2003.
Despite the success of the films, Depp has said the situation was never perfect.
He noticed a clear difference between working on smaller,
more intimate films compared to the large-scale productions of the Pirates franchise. He told GQ,
"The trouble with working with these big studios is they can get uncomfortable
about certain creative decisions you make. That happened with 'Pirates.'
My view is if the studio isn't worried then I'm not doing my job properly."
The fact that Depp, largely known as a character actor,
could carry big-budget studio features was unusual. Even Pirates of the Caribbean
director Gore Verbinski told Rolling Stone that he was surprised by Depp's
newfound superstardom, and that Depp was now a mainstay for high budget filmmaking.
According to AP News, Johnny Depp met
his second wife, Amber Heard, on the set of the 2011 movie The Rum Diary. In 2015,
the pair married in the Bahamas. The celebrations didn't last long, though. Just one year later,
Heard filed for divorce, and the former couple released a statement saying,
"Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile,
but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain.
There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm."
The actress had accused Depp of abuse and filed a restraining order, but later withdrew
the allegations. In 2018, she published an op-ed in The Washington Post about her alleged abuse,
although she didn't use Depp's name. Depp sued her for defamation, and Heard filed a countersuit.
The trial played out in the media and explored intimate details of the couple's relationship.
On June 1, 2022, the jury sided largely in Depp's favor,
awarding him $15 million, while awarding Heard $2 million. Depp was found guilty
on one of three counts of defamation. In a statement published by Entertainment Weekly,
Depp, who had long defended his innocence, thanked his supporters and said he was
grateful to have his life and career back after such an intense and long standing disruption.