'''Johnny Depp''' (born '''John Christopher Depp II''' on June 9, 1963) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, known for his affinity for strange character roles. After making his film debut in 1984's ''
A Nightmare on Elm Street'', Depp came to fame on the television series ''
21 Jump Street'', before establishing a career in Hollywood films, including well-received starring roles in the 1990s films ''
Edward Scissorhands'', ''
Ed Wood'', ''
Donnie Brasco'' and ''
Sleepy Hollow''. In 2003, Depp's Oscar-nominated performance in ''
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl'' re-established him as a leading man, leading to roles in the successful films ''
Finding Neverland'', ''
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', and his latest, ''
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest''.
Biography
Early life
Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky to John Christopher Depp Sr. and Betty Sue Wells.
He has one brother, Danny, and two sisters, Christie (who now is Depp's personal manager) and Debbie. The Depp family has Cherokee, Irish and German ancestry; Johnny has said he doesn't know the origin of his surname, but he repeatedly jokes that the name translates to "idiot" in German http://www.johnnydeppfan.com/interviews/ias.htm. Depp's maternal great-grandmother, Minnie, was a full-blooded Cherokee,
and his father also has distant Cherokee heritage. The family were constantly on the move during Depp's childhood, and he and his siblings lived in more than twenty different locations, finally settling in Miramar, Florida in 1970. Depp has admitted to engaging in self-mutilation as a child, due to the stress of dealing with family problems and his own insecurity. He has seven or eight scars from practicing self-harm. In 1997 interview, he explained his self-injury by saying that "my body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist."
Depp has stated that he "did every kind of drug there was by fourteen, swiped a few six-packs, broke into a few classrooms, just to see what was on the other side of that locked door."
Depp's parents divorced in 1978, and he dropped out of school a year later to become a rock musician. Depp's mother bought him a guitar at the age of twelve, and he began playing in garage bands. He played with a band named, "The Kids," who had modest local success and set out for Los Angeles, California in pursuit of
