Leonardo DiCaprio

By
Susan Giles
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Leonardo DiCaprio

Early Life

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born on November 11^th, 1974, to Irmelin, a German legal secretary, and George DiCaprio, a comic book artist and distributor. He was an only child and was still very young when his parents got divorced.

DiCaprio was mainly raised by his mother but still managed to remain close to his father. As a child, he always loved to imitate people, characters and act out skits of his own, which caught his parents' attention. They were the ones who pushed him to pursue acting and explore his talents.

Early Career

At the start of his career, DiCaprio wasn't able to land an agent for several years, until the early 90s when he did his first television roles. He appeared as a guest on Roseanne and The New Lassie, and appeared on the show Parenthood, where he met co-actor Tobey Maguire, whom he remains good friends with to this very day.

In 1991, DiCaprio was cast as a semi-regular on the show Growing Pains, and made his first movie appearance in the low-budget horror movie Critters 3. Two years later, he was able to debut himself as a serious actor.

Acting Career

In 1993, DiCaprio impressed the critics when he starred alongside the great Robert De Niro in The Boy's Life. The movie told the story of a boy's relationship with his abusive father, and was an adaptation of Tobias Wolff's memoir. In the same year, he co-starred with Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert's Grape? And won an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a mentally disabled child in the movie.

In 1995, he starred in The Basketball Diaries, and later in the same year starred in The Quick and Dead, alongside major co-stars like Sharon Stone and Russel Crowe. Then, he starred in Romeo and Juliet in 1996, the modern representation of Shakespeare's story. In 1997, DiCaprio starred with Kate Winslet in the 11 Academy Awards winner film, Titanic.

This movie was a huge success, and became a turning point in DiCaprio's career, reaching the billion-dollar mark in international sales. In 1997 and 1998, he featured in People's magazine list of "50 Most Beautiful People."

After the Titanic, unfortunately, DiCaprio starred in two movies that did not perform well on the charts, The Man in the Iron Mask, in 1998, and The Beach, in 2000. However, he was able to bounce back when he starred in Catch Me if You Can and Gangs of New York in 2002. Both of these movies showcased his undeniably wide range of abilities as an actor.

In 2004, DiCaprio's portrayal of America's famous businessman, Howard Hughes, in The Aviator won him an Academy Awards nomination. Two years later, he starred in Blood Diamond, which he won an Academy Award for, and The Departed, alongside Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson.

https://revyou.com/uploads/thumbnail-960/1607326641501195536.webp Leonardo DiCaprio

DiCaprio once again co-starred with Kate Winslet in 2008 in the movie Revolutionary Road. The movie was set in the 1950s and revolved around a suburban couple who faced several problems. In 2010, He was cast in Christopher Nolan's Inception, which was set in the future and explored the idea of a technology that allowed you to invade other people's dreams.

Then, he was also cast in Shutter Island, a Scorsese thriller. In 2011, DiCaprio portrayed the role of the man who ran the FBI for about five decades, J. Edgar Hoover, in the movie J. Edgar. He prepared heavily for the role, immersing himself in research and visiting many of Hoover's most frequently visited places in Washington D.C.

In 2012, DiCaprio co-starred with Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Kerry Washington in the movie Django Unchained. He then starred in the movie adaptation of Fitzgerald's classic, The Great Gatsby, as Jay Gatsby. DiCaprio then starred alongside Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, and Matthew McConaughey in Jordan Belfort's memoir based movie, The Wolf of Wallstreet, earning him a Golden Globe for Best Actor and Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Picture.

However, the creators were sued when Andrew Greene, a former Belfort associate, claimed that his character was "portrayed as a criminal, drug user, degenerate, depraved, and/or devoid of any morality or ethics."

DiCaprio played the role of Hugh Glass in the Oscar and Golden Globe Award winning movie, The Revenant in 2015, which won him his first Oscar. In 2018, he portrayed a fictional character named Rick Dalton in Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, although it did feature many characters that were based on real people. When the movie premiered in the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019, the feature apparently yielded a seven minute standing ovation.

Environmentalist

Over the course of several events, DiCaprio showcased his awareness, concern, and passion towards the environment and its issues. Since his movie, The Revenant, mainly revolved around man's relationship to nature, DiCaprio's Golden Globe and Oscar speeches reflected his care for the cause. However, this passion was eminent for quite a while.

When he hosted an Earthday celebration in 2000, this was made clear. He even interviewed Bill Clinton, former U.S. president in a television segment about global warming. He also wrote, narrated, and produced an environmental documentary called The 11th Hour, which was released in 2007. Later he got involved in producing another environmental documentary, Before the Flood, that discussed climate change.

In addition to serving the boards of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, he is one of the founders of the NGO foundation that spreads awareness and supports plenty of environmental issues, The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

In 2018, DiCaprio became the executive producer of the docuseries The Frontiersman. It revolved around America's most recognized pioneers.

Personal Life

From the years 2000 to 2005, Dicaprio was in an on and off relationship with supermodel Gisele Bündchen. Afterwards, he dated model Bar Rafaeli for a few years and got involved with Blake Lively in 2011. Since then, he has dated several models.