Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio

• Born            : 11 November, 1974
• Height         : 5ft 11.5 inch (182 cm)
• Horoscope  : Scorpio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. DiCaprio, an only child, was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, to mother Irmelin (née Indenbirken), a legal secretary, and father George DiCaprio, an underground comics artist and producer and distributor of comic books. DiCaprio's father is of half Italian (from the Naples area) and half German (from Bavaria) descent. DiCaprio's maternal grandfather, Wilhelm Indenbirken, was German. His maternal grandmother, Helene Indenbirken (1915–2008), a German citizen, was born as Yelena Smirnova in Russia. In an interview in Russia, Di Caprio referred to himself as "half Russian" and said that two of his late grandparents were Russians.

DiCaprio's parents met while attending college and subsequently moved to Los Angeles. He was named Leonardo because his pregnant mother was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in a museum in Italy when DiCaprio first kicked. His parents divorced when he was a year old, and he lived mostly with his mother. The two lived in several Los Angeles neighborhoods, such as Echo Park, and at 1874 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Feliz district (which was later converted into a local public library), while his mother worked several jobs to support them. He attended Seeds Elementary School and John Marshall High School a few blocks away, after attending the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies for four years. However, he dropped out of high school following his third year, eventually earning his general equivalency diploma (GED). DiCaprio spent part of his childhood in Germany with his maternal grandparents, Wilhelm and Helene. He speaks German fluently.

DiCaprio's career began with his appearance in several commercials and educational films. After being removed from the set of children's television series Romper Room for being disruptive at the age of five, he followed his older stepbrother Adam Farrar into television commercials, landing an ad for Matchbox cars at 14. In 1990, he got his break on television when he was cast in the short-lived series based on the movie Parenthood. After Parenthood, DiCaprio had bit parts on several shows, including The New Lassie and Roseanne, as well as a brief stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara, playing the young Mason Capwell. His involvement in Parenthood and the daily soap earned him a nomination for the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor each.His first major film release was opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy's Life (1993). DiCaprio was praised for his supporting role in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), which earned him a Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. He gained public recognition with leading roles in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and Romeo + Juliet (1996), before achieving international fame with James Cameron's epic romance Titanic (1997), which became the highest grossing movie to that point. Since the 2000s, DiCaprio has received critical acclaim for his work in a wide range of film genres. Some of his notable films include Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), Blood Diamond (2006), The Departed (2006), Revolutionary Road (2008), Shutter Island (2010), Inception (2010), and Django Unchained (2012). His portrayal of Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004) and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) won him the Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor in a Drama and Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, respectively. In addition to acting, DiCaprio owns a production company named Appian Way Productions. He is also a committed environmentalist

A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism. He owns an electric Tesla Roadster, a Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid, and a Toyota Prius. He has also installed solar panels on his house. In an interview with Ukula about his film the 11th Hour, DiCaprio cited global warming as "the number-one environmental challenge". At the 2007 Oscar ceremony, DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore appeared to announce that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, thus affirming their commitment to the environment, and on July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth. In 2010, his environmental work earned DiCaprio a nomination for the VH1 Do Something Award. The awards show, produced by VH1, is dedicated to honoring people who do good and is powered by Do Something, a New York-based organization that aims to empower and inspire young people. On September 16th, 2014, DiCaprio, has been appointed as a United Nations representative on climate change. In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, the site of his childhood home. It was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and opened in early 1999. During the filming of Blood Diamond, DiCaprio worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and was said to be extremely touched by his interactions with the children. In 2010, he donated $1 million to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.

During the 2004 presidential election, DiCaprio campaigned and donated to John Kerry's presidential bid. The FEC showed DiCaprio gave $2,300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the 2008 election, the maximum contribution an individual can give in that election cycle, and $5,000 to Obama's 2012 campaign. In November 2010, DiCaprio donated $1 million to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's tiger summit. DiCaprio's persistence in reaching the event after encountering two plane delays caused then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a "muzhik" or "real man". In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to free Tony, a tiger who has spent the last decade at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Louisiana. DiCaprio is an activist for gay rights; in April 2013, he donated $61,000 to GLAAD, an organization which promotes the image of LGBT people in the media.


Films List

• Critters 3 1991
• Poison Ivy 1992
• This Boy's Life 1993
• What's Eating Gilbert Grape 1993
• One Hundred and One Nights 1995
• The Quick and the Dead 1995
• The Basketball Diaries 1995
• Total Eclipse 1995
• Romeo + Juliet 1996
• Marvin's Room 1996
• Titanic 1997
• The Man in the Iron Mask 1998
• Celebrity 1998
• The Beach 2000
• Don's Plum 2001
• Catch Me If You Can 2002
• Gangs of New York 2002
• The Aviator 2004 Howard Hughes Executive producer
• The Assassination of Richard Nixon 2004 — Executive producer only
• The Departed 2006
• Blood Diamond 2006
• The 11th Hour 2007 Narrator Producer
• Gardener of Eden 2007 — Producer only
• Body of Lies 2008
• Revolutionary Road 2008
• Orphan 2009 — Producer only
• Shutter Island 2010
• Hubble 3D 2010
• Inception 2010
• Red Riding Hood 2011 — Producer only
• The Ides of March 2011 — Executive producer only
• J. Edgar 2011
• Django Unchained 2012
• The Great Gatsby 2013
• Runner Runner 2013 — Producer only
• Out of the Furnace 2013 — Producer only
• The Wolf of Wall Street 2013
• The Revenant 2015