16 Surprising Facts About Johnny Depp

Depp had a difficult childhood and has said he began experimenting with drugs and alcohol around the age of 12. He described using them as an escape from a turbulent home life, and addiction would remain a struggle for years.

Johnny Depp originally wanted to be a musician, but Nicolas Cage encouraged him to try acting and introduced him to his agent. That led to his first film role in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and later his breakthrough in 21 Jump Street.

Although 21 Jump Street made Johnny Depp famous, he disliked being marketed as a teen idol. He wanted out of the show, and after four seasons he left to pursue more unusual film roles.

Early in his career Depp turned down many conventional leading-man roles in favor of strange, artistic characters, like those in Edward Scissorhands, What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Ed Wood. That choice made him one of the most distinctive actors of his generation.

Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder met in 1989, when she was 17, and became Hollywood's ultimate couple. He was so in love he had 'Winona Forever' tattooed on his arm; after their breakup he changed it to 'Wino Forever'.

Depp was close friends with writer Hunter S. Thompson, author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, whom he played in the film adaptation. After Thompson's death in 2005, Depp reportedly paid around three million dollars to have his ashes fired from a giant cannon, exactly as Thompson had wished.

In 1994 Johnny Depp was arrested for trashing a room at The Mark hotel in New York while he was dating Kate Moss. The charges were dropped after he agreed to pay for the damage.

In 2007 his daughter, Lily-Rose Depp, became seriously ill with an E. coli infection that affected her kidneys and spent a long time in hospital. Depp was so grateful that he later donated money to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and visited sick children there in his Jack Sparrow costume.

For the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, Depp earned tens of millions of dollars per film, making him one of the highest-paid actors in the world at the time.

When Depp played Jack Sparrow in The Curse of the Black Pearl, Disney executives were reportedly alarmed by his performance, with one asking whether the character was drunk or gay. Ironically, Jack Sparrow became the most beloved character of the franchise and earned Depp an Oscar nomination.

Besides acting, Johnny Depp is a talented guitarist and plays in the Hollywood Vampires, a supergroup with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. They have released several albums and toured the world.

Depp reportedly earned more than 650 million dollars during his career, but according to court filings he lost a large part of it through spending and mismanagement. His former managers claimed his monthly expenses were enormous, including a reported 30,000 dollars a month on wine.

In 2022 Johnny Depp faced his ex-wife Amber Heard in a notorious defamation trial in Virginia. Both accused each other of abuse. The trial was followed around the world and ended in a largely favorable verdict for Depp, after he had lost a separate libel case against The Sun in the UK in 2020.

After the allegations, Depp was dropped from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. After the 2022 trial he returned as an actor, director and musician, including the French film Jeanne du Barry (2023), which opened the Cannes Film Festival.

Depp has long preferred life away from Hollywood, spending much of his time in the south of France and the United Kingdom. He has said he feels much happier away from the fame and the film industry machine.

Johnny Depp has an eclectic collection of unusual objects, including rare art, first editions and memorabilia of writers he admires, such as Jack Kerouac. He is also a painter himself and has sold his artworks for millions.