Johnny Depp-Movies

Johnny Depp got a break in a lead role on the FOX TV television series, 21 Jump Street, which premiered in 1987. Johnny Depp accepted this role because he wasn't getting much work in the business and wanted to work with actor Frederic Forrest, who inspired him. Later Depp's long time friend Sal Jenco also joined the cast of the show, as a semi-co-star as the janitor named Blowfish. The show was a success and it made Johnny Depp a popular teen idol during the late 1980s, a status which which he found an irritant one. He also quoted that he felt "forced into the role of product" and that it was "a very uncomfortable situation and I didn't get a handle on it and it wasn't on my terms at all." So Johnny Depp promised himself that after the expiry of the contract on the series, he would only appear in films that he felt were right for him.

Johnny Depp's first major role was in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street, of the year 1994. His role was of the heroine's boyfriend and one of Freddy's victims. In 1986, Johnny Depp appeared in a secondary role as a Vietnamese-speaking private in Oliver Stone's Platoon. Finally in 1990 Depp got relieved from his teen idol image when he played the quirky title role in Edward Scissorhands, a Tim Burton film. The film was a huge success and from here Depp's association with Burton also reached great heights. Johnny Depp's dream came true when he got an opportunity to play a version of his idol and long-time friend writer Hunter S. Thompson, named Raoul Duke in 1998's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The movie was based on the writer's pseudobiographical novel of the same name. Johnny Depp has also also accompanied Thompson as his road manager on one of the author's last book's tours.

In 2006, Johnny Depp contributed a personal foreword to Hunter S.Thompson's book Gonzo. Gonzo is a posthumous visual biography of the writer's legacy published by ammobooks.com. Johnny Depp paid for most of Thompson's memorial events, complete with fireworks and the shooting of Thompson's ashes by a cannon, in Aspen, Colorado, where Thompson lived. Johnny Depp's characters he portrays in films have been described by the press as "iconic loners," and Depp has noted that this period of his career was full of "studio defined failures" and films that were "box office poison,". He said that he believes film studios never "understood" the films he appeared in and did not know how to market them properly. Depp also believes in doing those films that he found personally interesting, and not those he thought would succeed at the box office.

Johnny Depp made a mark as a major star with the success of the 2003 Walt Disney Pictures film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. His lead performance as the suave pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, in the film was highly praised. Initially his role received negative responses by the studio bosses who saw the film, but the character became popular when the movie released in public. Depp was also considered to be one of the main reasons audiences wanted to see the movie. Depp told the press that he modeled the character after Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. For this movie Depp was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2004, he was again nominated for a Best Actor Oscar but this time for playing Scottish author J. M. Barrie in the film Finding Neverland. Johnny Depp next starred as Willy Wonka in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was a major success at the box office, in 2005.

Johnny Depp again appeared as Jack sparrow in the sequel of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which was released on July 7, 2006 and grossed $135.5 million in the first three days of its U.S. release, breaking a box office record in reaching the highest weekend tally ever. The next sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End, was released on May 24, 2007. Depp once mentioned that he has an attachment to his Captain Jack Sparrow character, specifying that Sparrow is "definitely a big part of me", and expressing his desire to portray the character in further sequels. Johnny Depp has even given voice to Sparrow in the video game, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow.

Johnny Depp together with Gore Verbinski is executive producer of the album Rogues Gallery, Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys. Johnny Depp also played the title role of Sweeney Todd in Tim Burton's film adaptation of the musical Sweeney Todd. For this role he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. As a child, Johnny Depp was obsessed with Dark Shadows which is a gothic-themed soap opera that was aired on ABC from 1966 to 1971. Due to this reason he accepted Warner Brothers proposal to make a film version of the this show and in July 2007, a rights deal was signed with Dan Curtis, the show's producer/director.

Johnny Depp and Graham King will be producing the above mentioned movie along with David Kennedy. Depp will also appear in a film version of writer Hunter S. Thompson's book, The Rum Diary in which he will be portraying the main character Paul Kemp. Depp's production company has also got the rights to the story of poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Johnny Depp has also signed a movie named The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, where he will be playing one incarnation of the Heath Ledger character, along with Jude Law and Colin Farrell. All these three actors gave their salaries from the film to Ledger's daughter, Matilda. His upcoming movies are Burton's Alice in Wonderland , where he will portray the Mad Hatter and a fourth sequel of the Pirates series in which Depp would reprise his Captain Jack Sparrow role.