Johnny Depp

A brief Overview

Depp in 2011

He was born John Christopher Depp in Owensboro, Kentucky, on June 9, 1963 but was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school at age 15 with plans of becoming a rock musician. Depp managed to get into acting following a visit to Los Angeles, California, with his former wife, Lori Anne, who introduced him to a young actor named Nicolas Cage. He made his film debut, shortly there after, in“A Nightmare on Elm Street” in 1984. A full 3 years later in 1987 he shot to stardom when he replaced Jeff Yagher in the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the popular TV series “21 Jump Street”.  It is generally believed that he did not particularly care for the Jump Street role but he honored his commitments with good cheer, an action seldom taken in the Hollywood environment by promising young actors.  

Following his commitments with the TV Series, his big screen appearances during the 1990’s was well received by the public, starting with a lead role in the movie titled “Edward Scissorhands” and finishing the decade up with “Sleepy Hollow” in 1999, brilliantly portraying Ichabod Crane.

Depp has played many characters in his career, including but certainly not limited to under cover cops, misunderstood misfits, and roles of pure fantasy. Perhaps his best known role to date is that of the charmingly funny, conniving and roguish Capt. Jack Sparrow in the family blockbuster movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” released in 2003;  a character that only the likes of Depp could pull off.

Prior to its release, many journalists expected Pirates of the Caribbean to be a big flop; after all it was based on a theme park ride, plus Depp was still considered to have only a “cult following” without widespread appeal.  Walt Disney Pictures considered it a big risk for them especially because it was the first PG-13 rated film by the Disney Studio.

Happily, for everyone, the movie did quite well; there have been a total of 3 sequels so far, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, released in 2006 and 2007 respectively; the third sequel, On Stranger Tides, was released in 2011.

Of the four films released to date, the first three have earned more than 2.68 Billion U S Dollars, and yes, Disney has definite planes for a 5^th and 6^th film in the coming years, and Depp has expressed a willingness to participate.

Johnny Depp fans will be pleased to know that the new Disney Lone Ranger film that was recently canceled has been revived with Depp expected to portray the character of Tonto.  You may recall that its production was canceled just a few months ago because Disney Productions considered the former budget of 250 Million Dollars to be excessive.  The budget for the revived film now stands at 215 Million and is not expected to be released before December of 2012.

Sources …                                                               http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000136/bio                                        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Depp                    http://www.enotes.com/topic/Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_(film_series)  http://www.movieline.com/2011/10/johnny-depp-lone-ranger-project-reportedly-back-on.php http://tgsfree4allinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/lone-ranger.html