Leonardo DiCaprio

AKA Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio
Born: 11-Nov-1974
Birthplace: Hollywood, CA
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Titanic
Leonardo DiCaprio's parents divorced soon after he was born, but both remained involved in their son's life. His father was a well-known figure in the Los Angeles hippie scene and a distributor of underground comic books, who frequently brought home guests like Robert Crumb and Charles Bukowski. Family friends included Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary. DiCaprio entered show business at about the same time he entered kindergarten, appearing on Romper Room. He was soon booted from the set for rowdiness.

Growing up in L.A., DiCaprio was auditioning for one part or another through most of his childhood. He made dozens of TV commercials, and in one of his first "movie" roles, he narced on his on-screen parents in an educational film titled How to Deal With a Parent Who Takes Drugs. When NBC turned the Steve Martin movie Parenthood into a sitcom, 15-year-old DiCaprio played the a brooding teenager, the Joaquin Phoenix role in the movie. Parenthood was quickly canceled, and DiCaprio joined the long-running Growing Pains in its last season, as a homeless waif taken in by the TV family. At his audition for Parenthood, DiCaprio met another unknown teenaged actor, Tobey Maguire, and the two hit it off. The friendship eventually evolved into what DiCaprio has called his "Pussy Posse", a small circle of buddies (including magician David Blaine, rapper Q-Tip, actor Lukas Haas, and Gummo director Harmony Korine) who hung out together chasing skirt and drinking beer.

DiCaprio's first film was Critters 3: You Are What They Eat. He started collecting positive reviews with This Boy's Life, with Robert De Niro as his viciously abusive stepfather. DiCaprio was nominated for an Academy Award for playing Johnny Depp's retarded kid brother in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. DiCaprio was offered the role of Robin in Batman Forever, but wisely declined. Instead he played a cocky gunslinger in The Quick and the Dead, and became a Tiger Beat teen heartthrob with Jim Carroll's The Basketball Diaries in 1995. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, with Claire Danes, capitalized on DiCaprio's sex symbol status.

He turned down the Mark Wahlberg role in Boogie Nights, choosing instead to act in Titanic, opposite Kate Winslet. It became the biggest box-office success in film history. In the Hollywood fame factory, DiCaprio became simply "Leo." His posters sold millions, his every hiccup made news, and this wasn't just an American phenomenon, it was world-wide. In Afghanistan, DiCaprio's haircut from Titanic became popular among rebellious boys, and was outlawed by the Taliban.

Over the next year, DiCaprio made headlines by getting into a fist fight with two men accompanying actress Elizabeth Berkley, after she reportedly rebuffed his advances. The inevitable lawsuit was eventually thrown out of court. He also sued Playgirl after the magazine published nude photos of him. The case was settled almost immediately, with Playgirl paying DiCaprio an undisclosed amount.

In 1995, DiCaprio and several members of his Pussy Posse, including Maguire, Kevin Connolly, and Amber Benson, worked in what they later called an "acting exercise" for a would-be director named R. D. Robb. With cameras rolling in a Los Angeles diner, with a minimal script and maximal improvising, the actors interacted -- which largely amounted to crude jokes, hitting on women, and talking about sex. DiCaprio, or rather, DiCaprio's character, was particularly rude. After the success of Titanic, Robb edited the footage into a low-budget film called Don's Plum (named for the restaurant where it took place). DiCaprio and Maguire sued, alleging that their reputations would be hurt if an actors' workshop were released and reviewed as if it were an actual film. In the settlement, Robb agreed that the "film" would never be screened or released in the U.S. or Canada, but it quickly became a best-selling video everywhere else, released by Lars von Trier's Zentropa Studios.

Also in 1995, young DiCaprio starred in Total Eclipse, as the tortured gay poet Arthur Rimbaud, seducing fellow poet Paul Verlaine (played by David Thewlis). The film sank when it was first released, but videos sold briskly in after the success of Titanic, mostly because one scene exposes DiCaprio's full-frontal 21-year-old manhood. Post-Titanic, DiCaprio has played twins in Alexandre Dumas père's The Man in the Iron Mask, and turned in a self-referential cameo in Woody Allen's Celebrity. His subsequent choices have included three films for Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York with Daniel Day-Lewis, The Aviator as Howard Hughes, and The Departed with Jack Nicholson.

DiCaprio's political cause is protecting the environment. In 2000, he interviewed President Bill Clinton on environmental issues for ABC News, but genuine journalists at ABC and elsewhere were not amused at having such a choice assignment go to a movie star. The network's news chief David Westin subsequently apologized, promising that in the future, "all roles of journalist must be played by journalists".

Father: George DiCaprio (comic book dealer)
Mother: Irmalin (Idenbirkin) DiCaprio (legal secretary, div. 1975)
Mother: Peggy Anne (Saunders) Farrar (stepmother, cohabited with George DiCaprio since 1975)
Brother: Adam Farrar (stepbrother, ne'er-do-well)
Girlfriend: Cecilia Garcia (classmate, dated in high school)
Girlfriend: Juliette Lewis (actress, dated in 1993)
Girlfriend: Kristen Zang (model, dated 1996-97)
Girlfriend: Vanessa Hayden (model, dated in 1998)
Girlfriend: Kidada Jones (model, daughter of Quincy Jones, reportedly together in 1998)
Girlfriend: Demi Moore (rumored together in 1998, and again in 2002)
Girlfriend: Gisele Bundchen (supermodel, together early 2000s)
Girlfriend: Bar Refaeli (Israeli model, ex)
Girlfriend: Blake Lively (actress, dated 2011-)
Slept with: Bobbie Brown, Emma Bunton, Karen Butler (disputed), Naomi Campbell,
Slept with: Mariah Carey, Helena Christensen, Linnea Dietrichson, Carmen Electra,
Slept with: Sara Foster, Bridget Hall, Natasha Henstridge,
Slept with: Eva Herzigova (causing her divorce), Paris Hilton, Kendra Jade,
Slept with: Juliette Lewis, Kate Moss, Carla Paneka, Bijou Phillips, Alicia Silverstone,
Slept with: Alyssa Sourovoya, Amber Valletta, ...

    High School: John Marshall High School, Los Angeles, CA (dropped out)

    John Kerry for President
    MoveOn.org
    Endorsement of TAG Heuer
    Endorsement of Visa in Japan (1998)
    German Ancestry maternal
    Italian Ancestry paternal
    Risk Factors: Smoking

    TELEVISION
    Growing Pains Luke Brower (1991-92)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    J. Edgar (3-Nov-2011)
    Inception (13-Jul-2010) · Cobb
    Hubble 3D (Mar-2010) · Narrator
    Shutter Island (13-Feb-2010) · Teddy Daniels
    Revolutionary Road (15-Dec-2008)
    Body of Lies (5-Oct-2008)
    The 11th Hour (19-May-2007) · Narrator
    Blood Diamond (8-Dec-2006)
    The Departed (4-Oct-2006)
    The Aviator (17-Dec-2004)
    Catch Me If You Can (16-Dec-2002) · Frank Abagnale, Jr.
    Gangs of New York (9-Dec-2002) · Amsterdam Vallon
    Don's Plum (10-Feb-2001)
    The Beach (2-Feb-2000) · Richard
    Celebrity (7-Sep-1998)
    The Man in the Iron Mask (13-Mar-1998) · King Louis
    Titanic (1-Nov-1997)
    Marvin's Room (18-Dec-1996) · Hank
    Romeo + Juliet (1-Nov-1996) · Romeo
    David Blaine: Street Magic (1996) · Himself
    Total Eclipse (3-Nov-1995)
    The Basketball Diaries (21-Apr-1995) · Jim Carroll
    The Quick and the Dead (10-Feb-1995)
    What's Eating Gilbert Grape (17-Dec-1993)
    This Boy's Life (9-Apr-1993)
    Poison Ivy (8-May-1992) · Guy
    Critters 3 (Oct-1991) · Josh