Sunday, August 29, 2010

Biography: Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born an only child to a German mother and a half Italian half German father. Leonardo was named after the famous painter Leonardo Da Vinci because his pregnant mother was looking at a Leonardo Da Vinci painting when he first kicked. Leonardo was born in Los Angeles, California, on November 11, 1974. Leonardo's parents would soon divorce and he would live mostly with his mother. Leonardo graduated from John Marshall High school after attending Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies for four years.

DiCaprio begun his acting career by starring in commercials and educational movies. It was in 1990 that he made his first appearance on the television show based on the movie Parenthood. After Parenthood Leonardo would go on to work on other shows such as The New Lassie and Roseanne.

Leonardo's first film was Critters 3, a comedic sci-fi horror film that was released in 1991 and went straight to video. While DiCaprio's first film was not a success, he had a breakthrough with the movie This Boy's Life when he was hand picked by Robert De Niro out of 400 young actors competing for the role. DiCaprio would go on to play in 5 other films between 1991-1995, including What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and The Basketball Diaries.

It was in 1997 that Leonardo DiCaprio would star in the highest grossing film of all time, Titanic. Raking in a massive $1.843 billion in box-office receipts worldwide, Titanic propelled DiCaprio into a new level of stardom, being nominated for some of the most prestigious awards including a second Golden Globe nomination. Leonardo has been famously quoted as saying "I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world [...] I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to. It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either."

Following Titanic Leonardo had two great successes in 2002. The first of which was Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who made millions in the 1960's writing counterfeit checks. The second success was Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, in which he played the protagonist Amsterdam Vallon, the young leader of the Irish faction.

In 2006 he worked yet again with Martin Scorsese on the film The Departed, where he played a cop working undercover in an Irish mob in Boston. Leonardo's performance in The Departed earned him a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor. in addition, DiCaprio earned his third Academy Award nomination for Blood Diamond.

In 2010 Leonardo DiCaprio released his third collaboration with Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island, based on a 2003 novel of the same name. The film opened at number one in the box-office and was DiCaprio's and Scorsese's most successful collaboration to date. In the same year DiCaprio starred in Christopher Nolan's Inception. A movie based on lucid dreaming and dream incubation, where he plays a thief who enters the mind of his target through dreams. The film was released to critical acclaim, grossing over $21 million its opening day.

Currently Leonardo has a lot of work lined up for him. Including Clint Eastwood's Hoover, based on J. Edgar Hoover, and he is cast in the title role of Oliver Stone's film Travis McGee. With all these movies on his plate he is still an active environmentalist, and has cited global warming as "the number one environmental challenge.

49 comments:

  1. love your blog!! http://weprez.blogspot.com
    http://copypastaarchive.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. very fucking true mate http://anti1337.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Leo rules

    http://spaceflightnewss.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL I didn't know he was half german.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looks kinda wikipediaish, but regardless, nice work there. Check out mine.
    mountainbikeall.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. He's german?

    Check out my blog /b/rother

    http://inflames1993.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Woah, check out mine too

    http://coolnewz4u.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nice articles you got...

    http://bojanglesk8-life.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice info!

    http://comeatmebro.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Loved DiCaprio in Inception. Loved the movie even more xD Planning to see Shutter Island as well =p

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey dude nice blog
    Hit me back!
    http://coolvideosandstuff.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  12. I expect Leonardo to keep making great movies.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great biography dude, very inspiring!

    http://adpluscommunications.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  14. daaaamn you must be bored quite offten :D

    ReplyDelete
  15. That's a huge text, couldn't get past it!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Watched Shutter Island recently and he's damn good in it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. very good
    http://wutwut64.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  18. i've liked him in almost everything he's been in except for T2: Judgment Day and Donnie Darko

    http://katiegreene13vice.blogspot.com

    i'm following you, come follow me and check my blog out

    ReplyDelete
  19. keep up the good stuff man
    ps. titanic made me cry :(
    elbruce1.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  20. Awesome detailed blog, I will check and ready everyday!
    http://akab-is-lazy.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  21. wow impressive write up!

    http://palebluedot3.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  22. amazing! half german!
    http://clarkeycook.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  23. in both Shutter Island and The Departed he makes an excellent appearance!

    h-toothrot.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  24. big fan of leonardo dicaprio myself. you sure do make it hard to find your blog though

    ReplyDelete
  25. caaaaaaant wait to see our favorite half german in hoover
    cant never wait for new eastwood movies

    review will me @ my blog
    greetings

    ReplyDelete
  26. leonardo is my favourite actor ever! <3 titanic!!

    ReplyDelete
  27. found it via digg - Get the comment?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Leo was great in inception. Didn't even know it was him at first.

    ReplyDelete
  29. This wasn't funny at all D:
    I was hoping for funny.

    ReplyDelete
  30. love your blog. i will visit regularly! please check out my blogs http://www.anidubs.com & http://www.madcomp.info :]

    ReplyDelete
  31. one of my favorite actors. well written, sir!

    http://smittyrandall.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  32. Great actor and well written article

    ReplyDelete
  33. Interesting blog, keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  34. great actor, but i think inception is really overrated.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Leo is the man... he's one of the few actors who have aged gracefully

    ReplyDelete