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Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio, 2000
Born	Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio November 11, 1974 (1974-11-11) (age 33) Los Angeles, California
Years active	1988 — present
Official website
Awards won Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama 2004 The Aviator Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Screen Couple 1998 The Man in the Iron Mask Irish Film and Television Awards Best International Actor 2006 The Departed Other awards NBR Award for Best Supporting Actor 1993 What's Eating Gilbert Grape Silver Bear for Best Actor 1996 Romeo & Juliet NBR Award for Best Cast 2006 The Departed

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974)^[1] is a three-time Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American film actor. He gained worldwide fame for his role as Jack Dawson in Titanic and has starred in many other successful films including Romeo + Juliet, Catch Me If You Can, and Blood Diamond. He has appeared in Martin Scorsese's recent films Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed, causing people to compare this relationship to that from which actor Robert De Niro benefited early in his career.^[2] DiCaprio has also been nominated two times for BAFTA,one time for SAG and is a Silver Bear Award winner.

Early life

DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Irmelin (née Indenbirken), a former legal secretary, and George DiCaprio, an underground comic artist and producer/distributor of comic books.^[3] His mother moved from Oer-Erkenschwick, Germany, to the U.S. during her childhood, while his father is a fourth-generation American of half Italian and half German descent.^[4][5][1] DiCaprio's parents met while attending college together and subsequently moved to Los Angeles.^[1] He was named after artist Leonardo da Vinci, as his pregnant mother was standing in front of a da Vinci painting at a museum in Italy when DiCaprio first kicked.^[6]

His parents divorced when he was one. He lived mostly with his mother, although his father was around intermittently. During his childhood, he attended Seeds Elementary School. He was interested in baseball cards, comic books and frequently visited museums, with his father. DiCaprio and his mother lived in several neighborhoods, such as Echo Park.

During his teen years, he lived at 1874 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Feliz district of Los Angeles, California (which was later converted into a local public library) and his mother worked several jobs to support them.^[1] He graduated from John Marshall High School a few blocks away, after attending the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies for four years.

After his divorce, his father married Peggy Ann Farrar, who had a son called Adam Farrar, another actor/producer who became Leo's stepbrother and who inspired DiCaprio to become an actor.^[1] DiCaprio began looking for an agent at the age of twelve, but was initially turned down several times; one agent suggested that he anglicize his name to “Lenny Williams”, which DiCaprio rejected.^[1]

Career

Early career

DiCaprio's career began with his appearing in several commercials and educational films. He got his break on television in 1990 when he was cast in the short-lived series based on the movie Parenthood. On set, he met another struggling child actor, Tobey Maguire. The two quickly became friends and made a pact to help each other find roles in TV and movies. After Parenthood, DiCaprio had bit parts on several shows, including The New Lassie and Roseanne, as well as a brief stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara, playing the young Mason Capwell.

His debut film role was Critters 3, a B-grade horror movie, which later went straight to video. Soon after, in 1991, he became a recurring cast member on the hit ABC sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the Seavers.

His breakthrough came in 1992, when he beat out hundreds of other boys for the role of Toby Wolff in This Boy's Life, co-starring Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin. His performance, as the troubled, abused teenager was critically acclaimed and Hollywood soon took notice. Later in 1993, he co-starred as the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. His performance earned him both an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor.

1995 was an eventful year for DiCaprio. That year he starred in four movies; the first one, The Quick and the Dead, he played Gene Hackman's alleged son, Fee, starring alongside Sharon Stone and a soon-to-be-famous Russell Crowe.

After The Quick and The Dead, he starred in Total Eclipse, a fictionalized account of the homosexual relationship between Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) and Arthur Rimbaud. River Phoenix was originally cast as Rimbaud, but died before production.

The black-and-white movie Don's Plum, a low budget drama featuring the actor and his friends (including Tobey Maguire) was filmed between 1995 and 1996. Its release was blocked by DiCaprio and Maguire, who argued that they never intended to make it a theatrical release. Nevertheless, it premiered in Berlin in 2001.

Also in 1995, he starred as Jim Caroll in The Basketball Diaries his life story of drugs and prostitution. Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, again featured DiCaprio as the male lead. Later that year he starred in Marvin's Room, reuiniting with Robert De Niro and appearing alongside Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton.

Superstardom and "Leo-Mania"

The move from "star" to "superstar" came when DiCaprio played Jack Dawson in the 1997 blockbuster Titanic, along side Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, which soon became the highest grossing film of all time and received 11 Oscars. Over the course of the next few years he would become a household name worldwide, synonymous with labels such as "teenage heart-throb", "most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen" and "sex symbol". People 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.^{citation needed} In 1998, he made a cameo appearance in Woody Allen's satire Celebrity. That year he also starred in the dual roles of King Louis XIV and his secret twin brother Philippe in The Man in the Iron Mask. His popularity at the time was dubbed "Leo-mania", comparing his sudden fame and fan frenzy to that of the Beatles in the 1960s, known as Beatlemania.

What came apropos with fame were tales in the tabloids of excesses and indulgence. Time summed up the fame superhighway and its trappings in an interview with the actor in 2000, reporting ^[7]:

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 cult 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, and was also critically panned.

Critically acclaimed acting

In 2002, DiCaprio starred in Gangs of New York (directed by Martin Scorsese) and Catch Me If You Can (directed by Steven Spielberg). Both films were very well received by critics. Forging a collaboration with Scorsese, the two paired again for a biopic of American aviation pioneer Howard Hughes in The Aviator, a film that scored DiCaprio a second Academy Award nomination, for Best Actor.

DiCaprio at the Gangs of New York screening at the Cannes Film Festival with Martin Scorsese and Cameron Diaz

DiCaprio continued his run with Scorsese (some claim him to be Scorsese's "new De Niro") in the 2006 film The Departed as Billy Costigan, a smart undercover cop in Boston. His next film was Blood Diamond, released in December 2006. The film itself generally favorable reviews and DiCaprio was praised for the authenticity of his South African Afrikaner accent, known as a difficult accent of English to emulate.

In 2006, the Golden Globes and Broadcast Film Critics Association nominated DiCaprio twice in the same category: Best Actor for Blood Diamond and The Departed, which is an extremely rare honor for actors. Also in the same year, he received two nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, a lead actor nomination for Blood Diamond and a supporting actor nomination for The Departed. He earned an Oscar nomination for lead actor in Blood Diamond and a BAFTA nod for lead actor for The Departed.

DiCaprio has two films coming out in the second half of 2008: Body of Lies, directed by Ridley Scott and co-starring Russell Crowe, Vince Colosimo, and Golshifteh Farahani; and Revolutionary Road, an adaptation of Richard Yates' critically-lauded 1961 novel. The latter reunites DiCaprio with his Titanic costars Kate Winslet and Kathy Bates. It is scheduled for release in December 2008.

In 2008, he teamed with Scorsese again to film Ashecliffe, based on the novel, Shutter Island. His next collaboration with Scorsese will be The Wolf of Wall Street.

DiCaprio currently is ranked the 9th Best Working Actor Today by The Screen Directory.^[8] In May 2007, he was listed among Time’s 100 Most Influential People in The World.

In June 2008, it was announced that DiCaprio will portray Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's, in a biopic.

Environmental Activism and Charity

A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for opting to fly on commercial flights instead of chartering private jets, which use more fuel. He has also mentioned that he drives a hybrid car and that his house has solar panels.^[9] His actions have inspired other celebrities, such as Orlando Bloom and Penelope Cruz. In an article in Ukula about his new film 11th Hour (which he co-wrote, co-produced and narrated), DiCaprio cites global warming as "the number one environmental challenge."^[10] DiCaprio and former vice-president Al Gore announced at the 2007 Oscar ceremony that the Oscars had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, thus affirming their commitment to the environment. On July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth. During the 2004 Presidential election, DiCaprio campaigned and donated to John Kerry's presidential bid.

In 1998, he and his mother donated $35,000 for a state-of-the-art “Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center” at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library (1874 Hillhurst Avenue) which happens to be the site of his childhood home. It was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and opened in early 1999. There are commemorative placards and curious fans are welcomed at the library.^[11][12]

During the filming of Blood Diamond, DiCaprio worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and was said to be extremely touched by his interactions with the children.^[13]

In January, 2008, extradition processes began against Aretha Wilson, 37, who escaped to Toronto, Ontario, Canada after seriously injuring Leonardo DiCaprio with a broken beer bottle at a June 20, 2005 Hollywood Hills party. She also has pending aggravated assault cases.^[14]

He was recently invited to The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh, Scotland, to talk about his foundation which is to raise awareness of our environment. It is not yet known if he has accepted the offer, due to his busy schedule in Hollywood.

Personal life

He dated Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen on-and-off from 2001-2005, and has also dated Kristen Zang, Vanessa Hayden and Sara Foster. He has been dating Israeli model Bar Rafaeli since 2005 on and off again. ^[15] He is best friends with Titanic co-star Kate Winslet.^[16]

On August 5, 2008, DiCaprio's maternal grandmother, Helene Indenbirken (née Smirnow, b. July 7, 1915), died in Oer-Erkenschwick, aged 93. His grandmother was an important pillar in his life. He had visited her in the last days of her life. He called her "Oma" and took her to movie premieres with him. ^[17]

DiCaprio owns a home in Los Angeles and an apartment in New York. He bought an island in Belize where he is planning to create an eco-friendly resort,^[18] as well as an apartment in Riverhouse, an eco-friendly building overlooking the Hudson River in Manhattan.

Filmography

Films

Awards and nominations

Academy Award

• Nominated: Best Supporting Actor, What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1994)
• Nominated: Best Actor, The Aviator (2005)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Blood Diamond (2007)

BAFTA Award

• Nominated: Best Actor, The Aviator (2005)
• Nominated: Best Actor, The Departed (2007)

Golden Globe Award

• Nominated: Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1994)
• Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Titanic (1998)
• Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Catch Me If You Can (2003)
• Won: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, The Aviator (2005)
• Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, The Departed (2007)
• Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Blood Diamond (2007)

Screen Actors Guild Award

• Nominated Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, The Aviator (2005)
• Nominated Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Blood Diamond (2007)
• Nominated Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, The Departed (2007)

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Leonardo DiCaprio

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Leonardo DiCaprio

• Leonardo DiCaprio Official Website
• Leonardo DiCaprio Official Eco-site
• Leonardo DiCaprio at MySpace
• Official DiCaprio Environmental Eleventh Hour film site
• The Completely Unofficial Leonardo DiCaprio Homepage
• Leonardo DiCaprio at the Internet Movie Database
• Leonardo DiCaprio at People.com
• Leonardo DiCaprio at TV.com