Biography

As the blond, blue-eyed icon for millions of teenage girls and more than a few boys everywhere, Leonardo DiCaprio emerged from relative television obscurity to become perhaps the hottest under-30 actor of the 1990s. After leading roles in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and James Cameron's Titanic, the actor became a phenomenon, spawning legions of websites and an entire industry built around his name.

Born in the town that would later make him famous, DiCaprio came into the world on November 11, 1974, in Hollywood, CA. The son of a German immigrant mother and an underground comic book artist father who separated shortly after his birth, DiCaprio was raised by both of his parents, who encouraged his early interest in acting. At the age of two and a half, the fledgling performer had his first brush with notoriety and workplace ethics when he was kicked off the set of Romper Room for what the show's network deemed "uncontrollable behavior." After this rather inauspicious start to his career, DiCaprio began to hone his skills -- and, presumably, his professional behavior -- with summer courses in performance art while he was in elementary school. He also joined the Mud People, an avant-garde theater group, with which he performed in Los Angeles, earning the title of "The Littlest Mud Person."

In high school, DiCaprio acted in his first real play and began doing commercials, educational films, and the occasional stint on the Saturday morning show The New Lassie. In 1990, after securing his first full-time agent at the age of 15, DiCaprio landed a role as a teenage alcoholic on the daytime drama Santa Barbara. He also continued to appear on other TV shows, such as The Outsiders and Parenthood, and made his film debut in the 1991 horror film Critters 3. The actor got the first of many big breaks with a recurring role on the weekly sitcom Growing Pains. His portrayal of a homeless boy won him sufficient notice to get him an audition for Michael Caton-Jones' upcoming screen adaptation of Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life. DiCaprio won the film's title role after beating out 400 other young actors and it proved to be his career breakthrough. The 1993 film, and DiCaprio's performance, won raves and the actor further increased the adulation surrounding him when, later that year, he played Johnny Depp's mentally retarded younger brother in Lasse Hallström's What's Eating Gilbert Grape. DiCaprio won an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, and at the tender age of 19, found himself being hailed as an actor to watch.

Subsequent roles in three 1995 films, Sam Raimi's Western The Quick and the Dead; Total Eclipse, in which he played the bisexual poet Rimbaud; and The Basketball Diaries, in which he starred as a struggling junkie, all put the actor in the limelight, but it wasn't until the following year that he became a bona fide star. This transition was made possible by his portrayal of Romeo in the hugely popular William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet opposite Claire Danes. The success of the film gave DiCaprio international fame, many lucrative opportunities, and a slew of comparisons to actors such as James Dean. After starring with Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, and Robert DeNiro (his father in This Boy's Life) in Marvin's Room (1996), DiCaprio was catapulted into the stratosphere of international fame with his starring role in James Cameron's epic about a big boat and a bigger piece of ice. Starring opposite Kate Winslet in the 1997 smash Titanic, DiCaprio got to be part of film history, as, in addition to being the highest-grossing movie ever, the film garnered 14 Oscar nominations, winning 11, including Best Picture and Best Director. DiCaprio's much discussed exclusion from the nominations did nothing to hurt his popularity, and somewhat ironically, he next chose to parody his own celebrity with an appearance in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998) as a badly behaved movie star.

After displaying his nastier side, he won back the hearts of teens everywhere with his title role in the same year's swashbuckler The Man in the Iron Mask. The film allowed him to explore his good and bad side, as well as the perils of bad wigs, playing twins alongside such older and well-respected personages as Jeremy Irons, Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich, and Gérard Depardieu. Following the commercial success of the film, DiCaprio went in a completely different direction, with a lead role in Danny Boyle's screen adaptation of Alex Garland's novel The Beach. The film met with eager anticipation from practically its first day of shooting, as Leonardo fans everywhere waited with bated breath to see what kind of glittering impression their golden child would next make on the film world. Though the answer was a resounding silence in regards to that film, an undaunted DiCaprio pushed forward with an appearance in the small independent film Don's Plum (2001). Cast alongside future Spider-Man Tobey Maguire, the film followed a rambling group of young adults as they made their way through the city streets in search of a good time. Drawing fairly lukewarm reviews overseas, the obscure film would ultimately be relegated to a curiousity for stateside audiences as DiCaprio and Maguire sued to prevent a U.S. release of the film. Subsequently pushing forward with director Martin Scorsese for the epic Gangs of New York (2002), DiCaprio was cast as the protagonist in the tale of gangland violence in early America. Long marred in rumors of disagreement between director Scorsese and producer Harvey Weinstein regarding the film's running time, the film that was originally to be released in December of 2001 was finally delivered to audiences two-years-later to the month.

As if Scorsese's massive crime epic wasn't quite enough to give audiences their fill of DiCaprio, moviegoers would get yet another healthy dose of the tireless actor over the holidays with the release of Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can (2002). A decidedly lighthearted effort from the director who had recently labored on such high-concept /sci-fi films as A.I. (2001) and Minority Report (2002), Catch Me if You Can told the true-life tale of {$Frank Abagnale, Jr.), a scam artist so effective that he eluded authorities while assuming a number of high-profile false identities and racking-up over $2.5 million in fraudulent checks while jet-setting in twenty-six countries. ~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide

Filmography

Aviator, The (2004) .... Howard Hughes
Good Shepherd, The (2004) .... James Wilson
Alexander the Great (2004) .... Alexander
Catch Me If You Can (2002) .... Frank Abagnale Jr.
Gangs of New York (2002) .... Amsterdam Vallon
Shirtless: Hollywood's Sexiest Men (2002) (TV) (uncredited) (archive footage) .... Himself
Concert for New York City (2001) (TV) .... Himself
Don's Plum (2001) .... Derek
Beach, The (2000) .... Richard
Celebrity (1998) .... Brandon Darrow
Leo Mania (1998) (TV) (archive footage) .... Himself
Man in the Iron Mask, The (1998) .... King Louis XIV/Philippe
Titanic: Breaking New Ground (1998) (TV) .... Himself/Jack Dawson
Beyond Titanic (1998) (TV) (archive footage) .... Himself (at premiere of Titanic (1997))
Directors: James Cameron (1997) (V) .... Himself
... aka AFI the Directors: James Cameron (1997) (V) (USA: DVD title)
Titanic (1997) .... Jack Dawson
David Blaine: Street Magic (1996) (TV) .... Himself
Marvin's Room (1996) .... Hank
Romeo + Juliet (1996) .... Romeo
... aka Romeo and Juliet (1996)
... aka William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996) (USA: complete title)
Total Eclipse (1995/II) (TV) .... Himself
Total Eclipse (1995) .... Arthur Rimbaud
... aka Eclipse totale (1997) (France: DVD title)
... aka Rimbaud Verlaine (1997) (France)
Basketball Diaries, The (1995) .... Jim Carroll
Quick and the Dead, The (1995) .... Fee 'The Kid' Herod
Cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma, Les (1995) .... Un acteur muet à Hollywood
... aka Cent et une nuits, Les (1995) (France: short title)
... aka Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema, A (1995)
... aka Hundred and One Nights, A (1995)
Foot Shooting Party, The (1994)
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) .... Arnie Grape
This Boy's Life (1993) .... Toby
Poison Ivy (1992) (as Leonardo Di Caprio) .... Guy
"Growing Pains" (1985) TV Series .... Luke Brower (1991-1992)
Critters 3 (1991) .... Josh
... aka Critters 3: You Are What They Eat (1991) (USA)
"Parenthood" (1990) TV Series .... Garry Buckman

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