John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor.Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, to John Christopher Depp Sr., a city engineer, and Betty Sue (Wells), a waitress. He has one brother, Danny, and two sisters, Christie (who was formerly Johnny's personal manager) and Debbie. Depp has German, Cherokee (from a great-grandmother), and Irish ancestry. The book Johnny Depp: A Kind of Illusion (ISBN 1-905287-04-6) states that the Depp family originated with a French Huguenot Pierre Deppe or Dieppe who settled in Virginia around 1700. Depp has said he doesn't know the origin of his surname, but jokes that the name translates to "idiot" in German (it is actually a minor insult meaning fool or moron). The family moved frequently during Depp's childhood, and he and his siblings lived in more than twenty different locations, settling in Miramar, Florida, in 1970, when he was 7. In 1978, when Johnny was 15, his parents were divorced. Depp engaged in self-harm as a child, due to the stress of dealing with family problems and his own insecurity. He has seven or eight scars from practicing self-harm. In a 1993 interview, he explained his self-injury by saying, "My body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist". Depp married Lori Anne Allison, his makeup artist and sister of his band's drummer, on December 24, 1983. During Depp's marriage his wife worked as a makeup artist while he worked a variety of odd jobs, including a telemarketer for ink pens. Later, his wife introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage, who advised Depp to pursue an acting career. In 1985, Depp and Allison divorced.
After his first marriage with Lori Anne Allison ended, Depp dated and was engaged to Sherilyn Fenn (whom he met on the set of the 1985 short film Dummies). He has also dated Winona Ryder, Jennifer Grey, and Kate Moss. Since 1998, Depp has been involved with Vanessa Paradis, a French actress and singer whom he met while filming The Ninth Gate. The couple have two children. Daughter Lily-Rose Melody Depp was born May 27, 1999. In 2007, she recovered from a very serious illness, an E. coli bacteria infection that began to cause her kidneys to shut down and resulted in an extended hospital stay.However, earlier sources reported that she had blood poisoning due to stepping on a rusty tack.Son John "Jack" Christopher Depp III was born April 9, 2002. Johnny is not currently married, and notes that having children has given him "real foundation, a real strong place to stand in life, in work, in everything." "You can't plan the kind of deep love that results in children. Fatherhood was not a conscious decision. It was part of the wonderful ride I was on. It was destiny; kismet. All the math finally worked." The family divides its time between Los Angeles and a villa in France.
Depp also owns a 45-acre island in the Bahamas, where he spends some of his time. He said on the Late Show with David Letterman that Marlon Brando advised him on how to evaluate and successfully purchase the island. Depp co-starred with Brando in the film Don Juan DeMarco, one of Brando's last films.
One of Depp's closest friends is director Tim Burton, with whom he has worked six times to date. He has referred to working with Burton as "coming home," and he wrote the introduction to Burton on Burton, a book of interviews with the director:
"What more can I say about him? He is a brother, a friend, my godson's father. He is a unique and brave soul, someone that I would go to the ends of the earth for, and I know, full and well, he would do the same for me."
In 2003, Depp was quoted as criticizing the United States in Germany's Stern magazine, commenting that "America is dumb, is something like a dumb puppy that has big teeth — that can bite and hurt you, aggressive." Although he later asserted that the magazine misquoted him and the quotation was taken out of context, Stern stood by its story, as did CNN.com in its coverage of the interview. CNN added his remark that he would like his children "to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out." The July 17, 2006 edition of Newsweek reprinted the "dumb puppy" quotation, verbatim, within the context of a Letter to the Magazine. Depp has also disagreed with subsequent media reports that he says to paint him as a "European wannabe" who enjoys the "simpler" life and anonymity that living in France provides.
Depp has been arrested several times, with his first arrest in Vancouver B.C. for a late-night altercation in a hotel lobby. He was accused of allowing the sale of illegal drugs in his club The Viper Room after actor River Phoenix died of a speedball overdose in front of the club in 1993, despite the fact that the owners were not held responsible for the death. In 1994, Depp was arrested and questioned by police for allegedly causing serious damage to a New York City hotel suite. He was arrested again in 1999 for fighting with paparazzi outside a restaurant while dining in London with his girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis. Depp dislikes fans taking pictures of his family and has threatened paparazzi who have attempted to photograph his children.
In May 2006, Autograph Collector Magazine published its list of 10 Best & 10 Worst Hollywood Singers, with Depp topping the list of Best Singers.
Depp, a musician, is a keen guitar player. He is a fan of The Rolling Stones and the gypsy musical group Taraf de Haidouks with whom he is friends. Another friend is singer, songwriter, and guitarist John Frusciante, whom Depp encouraged to record his first solo album after leaving the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He produced a mini-documentary called Stuff about Frusciante's life. He is friends with Marilyn Manson. Known to be a fan of the band Deadsy, Depp can be seen wearing a wristband with the band's logo in a segment on the Fear and Loathing DVD. He played slide guitar on the Oasis song "Fade In-Out" (from Be Here Now, 1997), as well on "Fade Away (Warchild Version)" (b-side of the "Don't Go Away" single). He played acoustic guitar in the movie Chocolat and on the soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in Mexico (he wrote "Sands' Theme", although the track is credited to "Tonto's Giant Nuts"). He performed on his long time friend Shane MacGowan's (Of The Pogues) first solo album and was a member of P, a group featuring Butthole Surfers singer Gibby Haynes and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. Additionally, he has appeared in the music videos of several artists, most notably Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Into the Great Wide Open".
Along with Sean Penn, John Malkovich and Mick Hucknall, Depp co-owns the Parisian restaurant-bar Man Ray.
He has thirteen tattoos, including an American Indian in profile and a ribbon reading "Wino Forever" (originally "Winona Forever", but altered after his breakup with Winona Ryder) on his right bicep, "Lily-Rose" (the name of his first-born child) over his heart, "Betty Sue" (his mother's name) on his left bicep, and a sparrow flying over water with the word "Jack" (his son's name; the sparrow is flying towards him rather than away from him as it is in Pirates of the Caribbean) on his right forearm.
Fans have noted that the actor Skeet Ulrich bears a resemblance to Depp. At the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards, Chris Rock jokingly introduced Depp as "the rich man's Skeet Ulrich."
