information
about Johnny Depp
mini
biography
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Full
name: John Christopher Depp II
Date of birth: 9 June 1963, in Owensboro, Kentucky
USA
Parents: Betty Sue Palmer and John Depp
Siblings: older sisters Christi and Debbie, and
older brother Danny
Marital status: Johnny was married at age 20 to make-up
artist Lori Allison but they divorced a couple of years
later. He has had several long-term relationships, most
notably with actress Winona Ryder and with model Kate
Moss. He now lives with his long-term partner Vanessa
Paradis, the French singer and actress. They met while
Johnny was filming The Ninth Gate in France in
1998. They are not married.
Children: Johnny has two children with his partner
Vanessa Paradis: Lily-Rose Melody Depp (born 27 May 1999)
and Jack John Christopher Depp III (born 9 April 2002).
Homes: Johnny has homes in Los Angeles, USA and in
the south of France. When he's not filming he lives in
France with Vanessa and their children. You can see pictures
of his homes here.
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Ethnicity:
Johnny has Cherokee ancestry, inherited from both sides
of his family but mostly from his mother’s. His
great-grandmother, Minnie, was a full-blooded Cherokee.
He also has European ancestry. In the 2002 tv interview
‘Le
Musee Imaginaire de Johnny Depp’, Johnny says
this:
Interviewer:
Indian origins?
Johnny Depp: Yeah, I'm a sort of - -
Interviewer: Cherokee?
Johnny Depp: Yeah, I'm a mixture of all sorts
of things.
Interviewer: German, Irish?
Johnny Depp: Yeah. Poo-poo platter, yeah. Combination
of weird things. Indian, Irish, German and god knows
what. Just a mutt, really.
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Tattoos:
Johnny's well known for decorating his body with tattoos of
significance to him. These are the ones we know about:
 |
1 |
'Wino
Forever' |
right
bicep |
| 2 |
Native
American head |
right
bicep |
| 3 |
'The
Brave' symbol |
right
inside forearm |
| 4 |
inverted
triangle |
left
bicep |
| 5 |
heart
with 'Betty Sue' |
left
bicep |
| 6 |
Three
small rectangles |
right
index finger |
| 7 |
the
number '3' |
left
hand, between thumb & index finger |
| 8 |
skull
& crossbones with lettering 'death is certain' |
outside
lower right leg |
| 9 |
small
unknown symbol |
inside
right ankle |
| 10 |
'Lily-Rose'
|
over
heart |
| 11 |
'Jack'
and bird in flight |
right
forearm |
..and
of course there may be others! You can see photos of most
of them here.
And there are more pics of Johnny displaying his tattoos at
Jonathan Shaw's Fun
City Tattoo site and also at the Vanishing
Tattoo site.
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Music
has
been Johnny's passion since his mother bought him his
first guitar when he was about 13 years old. He played
in several bands in Florida, where his family lived,
and finally formed the band The Kids who provided
support for acts such as Iggy Pop. The Kids
moved to Los Angeles hoping to find fame and fortune
- instead of which fame found Johnny in the form of
A Nightmare on Elm Street and a career in acting.
Johnny has lots of friends in the music business including
Iggy Pop, Chuck E Weiss, Keith Richards, and the Taraf
de Haidouks, and he's been involved in several music
videos and albums. You can
read more here.
The
band P
consists of actors Johnny Depp and Sal Jenco and musicians
Bill Carter and Gibby Haynes. They've been known to
play the odd gig at The
Viper Room, the club that Johnny co-owns at 8852
W. Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. Their
only album to date, also titled P, was released
in November 1995 under the Capitol label.
Johnny
also contributed to Vanessa Paradis' album Bliss,
released in November 2000. He co-wrote the songs St
Germain and Bliss with Vanessa, and photographed
the album's cover portrait of her.
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In
the works
What's he up to?: Johnny completed filming of Secret
Window in autumn 2003. In Paris during November '03,
he filmed a short cameo role in Yvan Attal's second directorial
venture, Ils se Marierent et Eurent Beaucoup d'Enfants
('They Got Married and Had Lots of Children').
He's
currently filming The Libertine in England from mid-February
'04. This is likely to be followed by Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, directed by Tim Burton, slated to
be filmed in England from summer 2004. He might also star
in The Rum Diary, but that project seems to be on
hold for the moment. Filming of the sequels to Pirates
of the Caribbean isn't due to start until late 2004 or
early 2005.
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Secret
Window
[click
here for more details] [Columbia Pictures - Sony]
This thriller is based on the Stephen King story 'Secret
Window, Secret Garden', from his collection of
short stories Four Past Midnight. You can read
the full short story courtesy of puggy.symonds.net.
The film was shot on location in Quebec, Canada from
July-October 2003, with some brief location work in
New York. It's directed by David
Koepp who's also written the screenplay. You can
read a review of the first
draft screenplay (major spoilers),
and read more about the actual filming on our page of
SW
Filming News.
Johnny plays Mort Rainey, a best-selling author
who's recently gone through a painful divorce and is
hiding out in a remote lakeside house. One day an odd
stranger, John Shooter, appears at his door
and accuses Mort of stealing his short story. Others
in the cast are John Turturro, who plays the threatening
stranger; Maria Bello is Johnny's ex-wife; Timothy Hutton
is the ex-wife's boyfriend; and Ving Rhames is a private
investigator hired by Mort Rainey to deal with the psychotic
stranger.
Secret
Window is released on 12 March '04 in the US, and
on 30 April '04 in the UK. |
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J
M Barrie's Neverland [Miramax]
This biopic about J M Barrie was filmed from June to
August 2002 in England and is directed by Marc
Forster. Several weeks' location filming was done
inside the
Richmond Theatre, Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey,
England as well as in other locations in the area.
Johnny plays James Matthew Barrie, the Scottish
writer and author of Peter Pan. The film focuses
on the period in Barrie's life when he met Sylvia
Llewelyn Davies (played by Kate Winslet) and her
four sons and Barrie was inspired to write Peter
Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. The movie
will include scenes of Peter Pan's opening
night at the Duke of York's theatre in London on December
27 1904.
Dustin Hoffman plays Barrie's American producer Charles
Frohman; Julie Christie is Sylvia's mother Emma
du Maurier, and Radha Mitchell is Mary Ansell,
Barrie's wife in their unhappy marriage.
The film's screenplay is based on Allan
Knee's play The Man Who Was Peter Pan.
Several companies were commissioned to provide sumptuous
costumes for the film, including a Bangalore-based mother
& daughter team, and Native
Arts Trading (click on their link to see the dazzling
Native American costumes used in the film).
You can read an
early review of the film (spoilers)
at AICN which also has some
photos (scroll down to see them), and Latino Review
has an early (March 2003) design of the
film's poster.
JM
Barrie's Neverland is currently listed for an October
2004 release in the US.
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Ils
se Marierent et Eurent Beaucoup d'Enfants (English
translation: 'They got married and had lots of children')
[Renn Productions]
This is the second feature film by French director Yvan
Attal, and was shot in Paris in autumn/winter 2003.
Charlotte Gainsbourg (wife of the film's director) will
star in the movie alongside French actors Alain Chabat,
Emmanuel Seigner, Alain Cohen, Claude Berri and Anouk
Aimee. The movie details the story of a group of eclectic
couples entangled in a web of romantic intrigue.
Johnny has a cameo part in the movie. He filmed his
scenes in November 2003 on the streets of Paris. The
fact that Johnny is in a French film doesn't necessarily
mean he will act in French: a good part of the action
in Yvan Attal's first film, Ma Femme est Une Actrice
('My Wife Is an Actress'), took place in London and
was acted in English.
Ils
se Marierent et Eurent Beaucoup d'Enfants is
scheduled for release in 2004. |
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The Libertine [click
here for more details]
The actor John Malkovich has struggled for seven years
to bring Stephen Jeffreys' play The
Libertine to the big screen. It tells the true
story of John
Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), the
Restoration poet who was a confidant of King Charles
II. Rochester was also a whoremonger, drunkard and destructive
charmer in Restoration England’s bawdy and morally
corrupt society. Johnny will take the role of Rochester,
with John Malkovich as King Charles II and
Samantha Morton as Rochester's mistress Elizabeth
Barry.
There
hadn't been any news on this project since Malkovich
touted it at Cannes in May '03, but a little item in
'Variety' (8 January '04) reported that filming was
expected to begin in various locations around London,
England in mid-February 2004. Unverified press snippets
in January suggested that location filming had already
begun, at the Oceanea nightclub (!) in Kingston-upon-Thames,
Surrey and also at Hylands
House near Chelmsford, Essex, but it's possible
that these stories were just media hype.
Johnny
was in London in early February for cast rehearsals.
Principal photography is scheduled to begin in late
February at Ealing Studios, with location filming at
various stately homes in the West Country and elsewhere
in England.
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Upcoming
& rumoured projects
There's a slate of projects rumoured to be on Johnny's future
filming schedule. Only a handful of them might finally get
made. They include:
Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory
This remake of Roald Dahl's famous children's novel has been
announced as a project for Tim
Burton, with filming commencing in London in summer 2004.
Several actors have been mooted for the lead role of Willy
Wonka, including Christopher Walken and Michael Keaton.
In July '03 Variety announced that, after the success of Pirates
of the Caribbean, Johnny was now being considered as
the front runner for the role. In August '03 Variety had a
small quote from producer Richard Zanuck: "Though
we're still getting the script right and haven't made a deal
with Johnny, Tim is excited about him and things look good
for a June [2004] start. We've already secured five stages
in Pinewood." During OUATIM interviews in September
'03, Johnny said that he loved Roald Dahl's book and that
he's very interested in the part: "I'm keeping all
my digits crossed."
The
Rum Diary
This adaptation of Hunter S Thompson's semi-autobiographical
novel has been circulating as a production rumour for a couple
of years now. The story chronicles Paul Kemp's time
spent as a rookie journalist in Puerto Rico in the 1950s.
Benicio
del Toro was due to direct. Personal circumstances have
caused Benicio to step aside from the director's chair, although
he still hopes to play one of the major roles in the movie.
Josh Hartnett is the only confirmed cast member, although
Johnny and Nick Nolte have both been mentioned in press snippets
about the film, which also suggested that filming would begin
in early 2004 . According to Liz
Smith's column (November 2003), Johnny will move in again
with Hunter S Thompson to observe the writer in his lair for
a few weeks before filming. She also reported Costa Rica as
the filming location, rather than Puerto Rico where the novel's
story is based. (With so little solid news about this film
project, we're not sure if that's a reporting error.) If this
project goes ahead, it now looks like filming might begin
in autumn 2004 or later.
Pirates
of the Caribbean 2 and 3
Following the phenomenal success of Pirates of the Caribbean:
The Curse of The Black Pearl, Disney are planning two
sequels to be filmed back-to-back. According to reports, all
of the principal cast members and director Gore Verbinski
have indicated that they'll be interested in signing up if
the scripts are good enough. Disney are hoping to secure the
services again of Pirates' scriptwriters Ted Elliott
and Terry Rossio. Filming is unlikely to begin before late
2004 or early 2005.
The
Man Who Killed Don Quixote
This is Terry
Gilliam's take on the famous story of Don Quixote
by Cervantes. Gilliam's screenplay is about a modern-day advertising
executive, Toby Grosini (Johnny), who is transported
back in time and meets Don Quixote, who believes that Toby
is his squire Sancho Panza. Gilliam began filming this in
Spain in September 2000 with Johnny, Jean Rochefort and Vanessa
Paradis, but it was beset by problems including the ill-health
of Rochefort. Filming was abandoned. The documentary Lost
in La Mancha followed the cast and crew during the
shooting, from initial planning through to the winding-up
of the production. Terry Gilliam has been working to get the
funding together to restart this project, and Johnny has said
that he still wants to do it.
Trois
Petite Filles ('Three Little Girls')
The French magazine 'Studio' reported in November 2003 that
Johnny and Vanessa Paradis would have small roles in this
French film directed by Jean-Loup Hubert. The movie was shot
in Corsica, Marseilles and Paris in winter '03, and tells
the story of three Parisian girls who escape to Corsica in
the hope of meeting their idols, Johnny Depp & Vanessa
Paradis.
Paris
Je t'aime
This film is reported to be a tribute to Paris, France with
different directors filming their favourite districts of the
city. In 2002 the Johnny
Depp-Vanessa Paradis site reported that Johnny would direct
the section about the 3rd district of Paris, using the French
actors Jean Rochefort and Annie Girardot. Johnny's segment
was due to be filmed in January/February 2003. The film has
a projected release of Spring 2004. We haven't heard any recent
news about this project.
Ozzy
Osbourne biopic
This biopic about lifetime rocker and former
Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy
Osbourne was first mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter
in October 2002. Ozzy's wife Sharon caused a stir by saying
that she wanted Johnny Depp to play the role. Johnny was asked
about the project on the R:I:S:E tv programme during
Pirates publicity interviews for the UK, and he said
that it sounded interesting. The story hit the web at the
Teen
Hollywood site in August '03. You can read more about
this project at the excellent
Z Review site.
Bad
Business
Robbie Coltrane, Johnny's From Hell co-star, has
written a script called Bad Business and he's now
looking for funding so that he can direct it. In early November
2003 there was an interview with Coltrane in the UK's 'Daily
Telegraph' newspaper: Bad
Business is about "America, oil and the exploitation
of the Third World.... Johnny has already said that he'll
play the baddie - we worked together in From Hell
- and I want to get a couple of Scottish actors involved as
well. The film asks, what will happen when the oil reserves
in the Third World run out? In my film, America tries to sell
the Third World GM crops, but the seeds don't grow and everything
falls apart. The film will make the audience question greed
and corporate business ethics.'''
Nailed
Right In
This was a rumoured project that never made it into production.
Unfortunately it's still listed on Johnny's filmography at
IMDb,
even though Johnny never made this film.
Marlowe
This is another project that's been circulating for a couple
of years. The story is about the Elizabethan playwright Christopher
Marlowe. The British production company Natural Nylon
is expected to produce it, with Jude Law playing one of the
principal roles. We haven't heard any news to suggest that
Johnny is attached to this project.
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Contacting
Johnny Depp
Johnny does not have an official address for fan mail. It's
very unlikely that you'll be able to get a letter through
to him, but if you're determined to try here is some information.
1. His Agent's address
You can try writing to Johnny's agent’s address but
it's extremely unlikely that your mail will be passed on to
him.
c/o Tracey
Jacobs
United Talent Agency
9560 Wilshire Blvd. #516
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
USA
From
what we’ve read elsewhere, you may receive
an auto-penned signed photograph in return from his agent’s
address, although this might take a couple of months. Some
people seem to have had success in getting an auto-penned
signature this way, but others heard nothing back.
2. The
production office of his current movie
If you can discover the production office address for the
company that's producing his current film, you can try writing
to Johnny there. This is a better option for trying to get
your letter through to him, although even this is unlikely.
Read
up on fan mail
There are 2 great sites where you can read up on sending fan
mail to celebrities:
- the StarArchive.com
website. Here you can read fans’ success reports on
using different mailing addresses.
- Gorgeous
Geeky Guys advice on sending fan mail.
Please
don't email the Zone asking for Johnny's personal contact
details (we don't know them), or send us personal emails written
to Johnny thinking they'll get through to him (because they
won't). We just delete them. Sorry. We don't know Johnny and
we don't have any contact with him. We're just a fan site!
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