Leonardo Dicaprio - Biography

Last Editor: teresa22176				Leonardo Dicaprio Biography -   Name : Leonardo Dicaprio Birth name : Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio Date of birth : November 11, 1974 Place of birth : Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Profession : Actor Height : 6'

Leonardo Dicaprio Trivia -

While filming The Beach (2000/I) off the coast of Thailand, Leonardo and others were swept off a camera boat by strong winds and waves. No one was injured. [16 April 1999] His first publicity spot was about MILK. Leonardo sues Playgirl magazine over plans to publish pictures --including full frontal nudity -- of himself. [March 1998] He ranked #75 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] He was chosen by People Magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World." [1997] He was considering starring in a movie about actor James Dean but turned down the role because he felt he wasn't experienced enough to do the film. [1996] Screen tested for the part of Robin in Batman Forever (1995). When five years old, he was in an educational TV program, called "Romper Room" (1953) and was nearly kicked off for uncontrollable behavior. Chosen by People Magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World." [1998] He attended John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, California. He has a stepbrother, Adam Farrar. He and his family funded a state-of-the-art computer center at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, which was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A Manhattan appeals court decided to go ahead with a $45 million lawsuit against DiCaprio by actor and screenwriter Roger Wilson for allegedly encouraging his friends in a street fight with Wilson over advances DiCaprio's friends made toward Wilson's girlfriend, Elizabeth Berkley. [2000] At age 10, his agent advised him to change his name to a more American- friendly Lenny Williams. Needless to say, he did not follow that advice. Was initially set to star as Alan Jensen in Harvard Man (2001), but the film's low budget could not afford to pay his salary, so he dropped out and Adrian Grenier took the lead. Was set to star in American Psycho (2000) but had to drop it due to scheduling conflicts. Christian Bale took the part instead. In January 1999, his lawyers filed an application to allow DiCaprio to copyright his own name. Attended Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies before attending Marshall High Attended Seeds Elementary School at UCLA where he took summer courses in performance art Leonardo ranked #42 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #74 in 2002 and #60 in 2001. He ranked #6 in Star TV's "Top 10 Box Office Stars of the 1990s" (2003). Childhood friends with Tobey Maguire and the late Christopher Pettiet. When his camera went missing, he offered a substantial reward of many thousands of pounds for its return. [November 2003] He was once attached to star in American Psycho (2000) and was reputedly offered over $20 million for the role. He openly supported John Kerry in the 2004 election. He went around 11 states and gave 20 speeches about the environment and how the Bush Administration has damaged it. Was offered the role of the porn star Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights (1997) at around the same time as he was offered his role in Titanic (1997). The Dirk Diggler role eventually went to Mark Wahlberg. He mentioned in an interview with Katie Couric that while filming The Aviator (2004), it brought back his own obsessive-compulsive disorder that he had as a child. (December 23, 2004). He is an environmental conservationist and often advocates and supports natural causes. Considered for the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man (2002). He filed police charges after being attacked with a bottle by an animal-rights activist while leaving a nightclub in June 2005. Although the wound was very close to his jugular vein, it was not expected to delay production on his latest movie. Won the role of Rimbaud in Total Eclipse (1995) after the death of actor River Phoenix in 1993. Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson are his favorite actors. He can speak a little German. Boyfriend of Gisele Bündchen [2002-2005] Was considered for the role of Anakin Skywalker for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). But much to the relief of hardcore Star Wars fans, the role went to Hayden Christensen instead. He and Jason Robards received Oscar-nominations for portraying Howard Hughes. Robards played Hughes in Melvin and Howard (1980) and Leonardo played him in The Aviator (2004) Was originally cast in The Good Shepherd (2006). He and Gisele Bündchen were chosen by People Magazine as the "Most Beatiful Couple in the World", in 2004. Very good friends with actress Kate Winslet and Vincent Gallo. He once said that playing Arnie in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) was "the most fun I've ever had". Appeared in the television series "Parenthood" (1990), in the role originally played by Joaquin Phoenix. In the original film, Phoenix's grandfather is played by Jason Robards, who, like DiCaprio, has played Howard Hughes. He purchased a 104-acre island off the coast of Belize in 2005 and plans to develop a resort with renewable energy sources. Purchase price for the island, Blackadore Caye, was estimated to be $1.75 million. Good friends with Lukas Haas, Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Connolly. In 2006 in "The Independent", he named his ten favorite movies as: Ladri di biciclette (1948), Taxi Driver (1976), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), 8½ (1963), The Third Man (1949), Yojimbo (1961), Sunset Blvd. (1950), The Shining (1980) and East of Eden (1955). Was cast in the lead role in Baz Luhrmann's doomed Alexander The Great-project. In his childhood, he and his mother lived in poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles which he describes as "Ghettos of Hollywood". Early in his career he appeared as a contestant on a game show called "Fun House" where stunts were performed - his involved trying to catch fish in a small pool with only his teeth. Attended the same high school as Bo Barrett, Heidi Fleiss, Anne-Marie Johnson, and Julie Newmar. His favorite food is pasta. His favorite drink is lemonade. Refers to his German grandmother as "Oma".   Turned down Michael Pitt's role in The Dreamers (2003) because he felt he was too old to play a twenty-year-old student.   He was trained by renowned Hollywood Gun Coach Thell Reed, who has also trained such actors as: Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Edward Norton, Russell Crowe, Ben Foster and Girard Swan. Has once said his favorite female performance is Gena Rowlands' Mabel Longhetti in A Woman Under the Influence (1974). Has said his two favorite performances are Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976) and James Dean's Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955). Martin Scorsese is his favorite director. Named #36 on Empire Magazine's 100 Sexiest Movie Stars. (2007). His German grandmother died at the age of 93 in August 2008. Has a Dutch song about him called "Ik ben verliefd op Leonardo DiCaprio/I'm in love with Leonardo DiCaprio" by Flemish girl band K3 (Kathleen Aerts, Karen Damen and Kristel Verbeke). His father, George DiCaprio, is of German and Italian descent and is an underground writer, editor and distributor of comic books. His mother, Irmelin DiCaprio, is German and a former legal secretary. In 1994, he became the seventh youngest actor ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor at the age of 19 years. He was nominated for his performance in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). When he was a child, his favorite films were Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Watership Down (1978) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). He was thanked by Blink 182 in the liner notes of their album "Enema of the State". Leonardo ranked #8 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the '90s.

Leonardo Dicaprio Detailed Biography -

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974 in Hollywood, California) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor well known for roles in blockbuster movies like Titanic (1997) and The Aviator (2004), and was famed for his far reaching global celebrity influence dubbed as 'Leo-Mania' in the late 1990s. DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of George DiCaprio, a half Italian-half German distributor of comic books, and Irmelin Indenbirken, a former legal secretary who was born in Germany. His name allegedly came about because his pregnant mother was standing in front of a Leonardo da Vinci painting at a museum in Italy when he kicked, which made her decide to name him after the famous artist. His parents divorced when he was a year old. He grew up in Echo Park. At age five, he appeared on his favorite television series, Romper Room, and was almost fired for misbehaving. He attended John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. He was rejected by an agent early in his career for having a name that sounded too foreign, suggesting that it should be changed to Lenny Williams, but DiCaprio refused. His acting career began in 1990 when he was cast in the role of Garry Buckman on the TV version of the hit film Parenthood, where he met his best friend Tobey Maguire while working on an episode. 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 (and respected) for his roles in motion pictures. His debut role was as Josh in Critters 3 (1991), a film that was released straight to video. Two years later, his break-through 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 convincingly portrayed a mentally handicapped boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). The role earned him an Academy Award nomination. 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 10, 2001 in Berlin. In 1996, DiCaprio also played the male lead in Romeo + Juliet, a slick and updated modern-day version of Shakespeare's play, directed by Australian director Baz Luhrmann. The move from 'star' to 'superstar' came when DiCaprio played Jack Dawson in Titanic (1997). The highest grossing movie ever, it tied with Ben-Hur (1959) for receiving the most Academy Awards. Though DiCaprio himself was not nominated for an Oscar, over the course of the next few years he would become a household name worldwide, synonymous first with labels like 'teen heartthrob' or sex symbol with his dewy cheeked and saccharined faced looks. 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". At the peak of his celebrity in 1998, DiCaprio fronted scores of magazine covers ranging anything from Vanity Fair to Rolling Stone, and was once the most searched for personality in the early years of the Internet. Indeed, thousands of fans would fill message boards and chat rooms, discussing his romances with scores of celebrity models like Gisele Bundchen, while sharing such minutiae as Leo's shoe size or his favorite comic book characters. Ironically, 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 government there banned 'DiCaprio style' haircuts amongst the youth), what came apropos with fame were tales in the tabloids of excesses and indulgence. Indeed, in 1999, there was not a week without DiCaprio making some form of scandalous headline or another across the globe. Time magazine summed up the fame superhighway and its rappings 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.", also commenting "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. The project was hyped as a result of it simply being DiCaprio's first movie since Titanic, but due to controversial clashes with the Thai authorities over the use of the pristine island pairing 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 both mainstream commercial appeal due to its content and also the purists and fans of the original novel, who claimed it did not do justice to Garland's work. Nonetheless, according to an article by Stephen Thanabalan for Lonely Planet Travelogues, the film's ensuing influence did commercialize and place a confirmation stamp on the phenomenally increasing popularity of backpacking, and served to market it to a mainstream audience who were the next generation of young people eager to trot the globe by means of this adventurous, cheap and (by now) exciting rite of passage.