Leonardo DiCaprio

His acting career began in 1989 when he was cast in the role of Garry Buckman on the TV version of the film Parenthood, where he met his best friend Tobey Maguire. In that same year, DiCaprio appeared on the soap opera Santa Barbara in the role of Mason Capwell (in flashbacks as a teenager). From 1991 to 1992 he had the role of Luke Brower, a homeless boy, on Growing Pains.

However, DiCaprio is most famous for his roles in motion pictures. His debut role was as Josh in Critters 3 (1991), a film with a limited theatrical release, which was released on video soon after.

Two years later, his breakthrough came with the role of Toby in This Boy's Life (1993) co-starring with Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin, which led the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics to name him runner-up for best Supporting Actor. In the same year he also portrayed a mentally handicapped boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). The role earned him an Academy Award nomination at the age of 19.

In 1995, he starred in Total Eclipse, a fictionalized account of the passionate and violent homosexual relationship between the two 19th century French poets, Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) and Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio). River Phoenix was originally cast as the lead in the film, but after his 1993 death, DiCaprio was cast.

The black-and-White movie Don's Plum, a low-budget drama featuring the Actor and some of his friends (including Tobey Maguire) was filmed between 1995 and 1996. Its release was later blocked in the United States and Canada by DiCaprio and Maguire, who argued they never intended to make it a theatrical feature. Nevertheless, it later premiered on February 9, 2001 in Berlin.

In 1995 he starred as Jim Carroll, a heroin addict in The Basketball Diaries.

In 1996, DiCaprio also played the male lead in Romeo + Juliet, a slick and updated modern-day version of William Shakespeare's play, directed by Australian director Baz Luhrmann.

Following Romeo + Juliet, in 1996 DiCaprio starred in Marvin's Room along side Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton.

[edit] Superstardom & 'Leo-Mania'

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,[2] 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. Also, fans of the original novel claimed it did not do justice to Garland's work[citation needed].

[edit] Critically acclaimed acting
Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Cameron Diaz at Cannes, 2002
Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Cameron Diaz at Cannes, 2002

In 2002, DiCaprio began a concerted shift away from his stereotypical image and moved to engage himself with critically acclaimed directors by starring in two epic movies; Catch Me If You Can (directed by Steven Spielberg), and Gangs of New York (directed by Martin Scorsese). Both films were very well received by critics. Forging a collaboration with Scorsese, the two paired again for a biopic of American businessman Howard Hughes in The Aviator, a film that scored DiCaprio a second Academy Award nomination, for best Actor.

DiCaprio continued his run with Scorsese (some claim him to be Scorsese's 'new De Niro') in the 2006 film The Departed as a smart undercover gangster in Boston. His next film was Blood Diamond, released on December 15, 2006. While the film itself received mixed reviews, DiCaprio was praised for the authenticity of his Zimbabwean Afrikaner accent. He is also reported to have purchased the rights to Blink, Malcolm Gladwell's book on the power and validity of first impressions, in order to produce a film based on it.

He was asked to star in Robert De Niro's history-of-the-CIA film The Good Shepherd, but dropped out and was replaced by Matt Damon, his The Departed co-star.

Cruise-Wagner Productions, Tom Cruise's film production company, is said to be developing a screenplay based on Erik Larson's New York Times bestseller, The Devil in the White City, about H. H. Holmes, a serial killer at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Meanwhile, DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is also developing a film about Holmes and the world's Fair, in which DiCaprio will star.

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.

After working in two Warner Brothers films, DiCaprio will again star in a WB production for a film about the collapse of Enron, based on the book Conspiracy of Fools. The film's script is currently under negotiations.[3]

He is also reportedly attached to a number of other upcoming projects, including The Chancellor Manuscript, Stephen Gaghan's Blink, a biopic of LSD-spokesperson Professor Timothy Leary, and Martin Scorsese's The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, all of which are in the developmental stages.

On March 22, 2007, DiCaprio signed on to reteam with his Titanic co-star Kate Winslet on an adaptation of Richard Yates's critically-lauded 1961 novel of Revolutionary Road. The film of the same name will be helmed by Winslet's husband, Sam Mendes, and penned by Justin Haythe.[4] In addition to an already impressive career, DiCaprio is currently ranked the 5th best Working Actor Today by the Screen Directory.[5]