Leonardo DiCaprio Biography
- 1988
Higher Learning
While attending John Marshall High School in L.A., DiCaprio follows his older stepbrother, Adam Farrar, into TV commercials. He signs with an agent and does an ad for Matchbox cars at 14. Though he completes high school with a tutor, he tells the San Francisco Examiner, "life is my college."- 1991
Bum Role
After making his film debut in the campy horror film Critters 3, DiCaprio lands a recurring role as a homeless kid on Growing Pains. "I thought that on my gravestone they were going to write, 'This was the guy from Growing Pains,'" DiCaprio says in 1993. The show's star Alan Thicke requests to expand DiCaprio's role, which proves futile.- 1993
This Boy's Break
DiCaprio beats out hundreds of actors for the role of Robert De Niro's stepson in This Boy's Life. In 1996, he reunites with De Niro, who handpicks him to play a troubled teen in Marvin's Room. "He's always so compelling," costar Meryl Streep tells PEOPLE. "You can't watch anything else when he's acting."
Golden Child
Director Lasse Hallstrüm almost doesn't cast DiCaprio, 19, in What's Eating Gilbert Grape for fear his good looks might take away from the role. DiCaprio's powerful performance as a mentally-challenged teenager, opposite Johnny Depp, earns him both Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.- 1995
Dear Diary
In The Basketball Diaries, based on poet-rocker Jim Carroll's infamous journals, DiCaprio takes on the dark role of a drug addict. "It was the first script I ever read where I really felt I could go in and explore a character," DiCaprio tells Teen People.- 1996
Modern Day Tragedy
DiCaprio stars with Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet makes him the Romeo of girls around the world. His penchant for models and hard-partying ways also make him a tabloid coverboy. "Scandal sells," DiCaprio tells the New York Times. "If you hear of any incident about me – a fight, a change of clothes, a little extra gel in the hair – don't believe it 'til you talk to me."- 1997
Reluctant Romeo
Although named one of PEOPLE's 50 Most Beautiful People, DiCaprio is still surprised by the female attention. "Suddenly all these teenage girls have become hysterical," he says. "What they do is shocking, climbing over walls and stuff." He makes the list again the following year, saying, "You want to be remembered for your work rather than being sort of the hunk of the month. There's always a new pretty face."
King of the World
Breaking out of teen roles and into superstardom, DiCaprio stars in Titanic with Kate Winslet. The film cost an estimated $200 million and goes on to earn more than $1.8 billion worldwide. He was initially reluctant to take on the blockbuster and the hoopla surrounding it. "Stardom may have captured his imagination for the moment," director James Cameron tells PEOPLE. "But I don't think it's where he started out, and I don't think it will be where he winds up."- 1998
And the No-Show Is...
Titanic captures 14 Academy Award nominations, but DiCaprio isn't recognized. Fans are outraged by the omission, sending hundreds of emails and calling the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to demand a recount. DiCaprio watches on TV as Titanic wins 11 Oscars, including Best Picture. According to PEOPLE, his mother Irmelin tells reporters of his absence: "Why should he go? He wasn't nominated."
Leo Takes a Break
Fame takes its toll on DiCaprio and after parodying himself in Woody Allen's Celebrity, he takes a self-imposed, two-year acting hiatus. "I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to," DiCaprio tells Time. "It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either." He resurfaces in 2000 with a starring role in The Beach. Although he reportedly receives a $20 million paycheck, the film grosses less than $40 million.
Global Warning
An avid environmentalist, particularly concerned with global warming, DiCaprio chairs Earth Day 2000. He goes on to win a number of awards for environmental leadership and is often seen tooling around Hollywood in his hybrid Toyota Prius.
Rockin' Gisele's World!
DiCaprio frolics on the shores of Malibu with supermodel-of-the moment Gisele Bündchen. The two remain coy about their relationship, and eventually endure a rocky, five-plus-year, on-again, off-again relationship. The pair calls it quits (for good) in November 2005.- 2002
Hiatus – Take 2
In a triumphant screen return, a grown-up DiCaprio stars in director Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York with Cameron Diaz and Catch Me If You Can with Tom Hanks and an up-and-coming Amy Adams. "I've been extremely careful about the work that I get involved in nowadays," he tells PEOPLE.- 2004
Flying High
DiCaprio reunites with Scorsese in The Aviator, playing the handsome, wealthy, brilliant and mentally ill Howard Hughes. "He was one of the most iconic men the country has ever seen," DiCaprio tells PEOPLE. His work, in which he stars alongside Cate Blanchett and Kate Beckinsale, earns him an Oscar nod for Best Actor.- 2006
No Longer Departed
The Departed stars DiCaprio in the hard-hitting role of an undercover cop. "I've gotten to this great place where I'm able to steer the course of my career," he tells PEOPLE. "This is my opportunity to try to emulate the heroes that I had as a young actor – Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, people like that. That's why I'm in hardcore work mode now." The work pays off when he's nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Diamonds and Gold
DiCaprio stars in Blood Diamond, for which he receives Golden Globe, SAG and Oscar nominations for Best Actor. Although he goes on to date model Bar Refaeli for five years, he says there's only one woman he'd buy diamonds for?his mom.- 2007
DiCaprio's 'Green' Crusade
Although DiCaprio loses the Best Actor Oscar, he makes history at the ceremony when he announces the show has gone "green." That night, former Vice President Al Gore's global warming film An Inconvenient Truth wins Best Documentary. In May, his eco commitment lands him on Time's 100 Most Influential list. Director Martin Scorsese says, "The 'kid' has grown up to be a man I'm proud to know and whom I feel lucky to count as a collaborator."- 2008
Reuniting with Winslet
DiCaprio reunites with Titanic costar Kate Winslet for the film adaptation of Richard Yates' novel, Revolutionary Road. In the film, set in the 1950s about a young couple desperate to escape their suburban lives, DiCaprio and Winslet shine. "We have a level of understanding which I really don't have with another actor that I've ever worked with at all," Winslet tells EW of DiCaprio.- 2010
Box Office Boost
DiCaprio reteams with Scorsese for the fourth time in Shutter Island, which tops the box office two weeks in a row. "It was a very intense filmmaking experience," DiCaprio says, "and it was one of the more challenging roles I've ever taken on to date." In July, the actor is back on top with Christopher Nolan's dreamy thriller, Inception, which reigns over the competition for three weeks and scores an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.- 2011
A Lively Romance
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