Johnny Depp is perhaps one of the few most versatile actors of this day and age in Hollywood, who has recuperated his image greatly since his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in the acclaimed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), with a supporting cast of Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightly and Geoffrey Rush.

Though highly successful now, Depp's early life, strangely, was as a rebel, and he took to vandalism and narcotics. He dropped out of school when he was 15 and he henceforth fronted a series of music garage bands, including The Kids. However, it was when he married Lori Anne Allison that he took up the job of being a ballpoint pen salesman to support himself and his wife. A visit to L.A. with his wife, however, happened to be a blessing in disguise, when he met up with actor, Nicholas Cage, who advised him to turn to acting, which culminated in Depp's film debut in the low budget horror flick, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), where he plays a teenager who falls prey to dream stalker Freddy Krueger. Three years later, Depp achieved fame as police cop, Tom Hanson, in the series of 21 Jump Street (1987-90), and in 1990, he was firmly established as a leading Hollywood actor with the Tim Burton movie, Edward Scissorhands (1990), where he plays a sad-faced, tragic hero who has scissors for hands.

From then on, Depp was selective of his choice of roles in movies, and he often than not played dark, sinister characters on screen. He played an undercover FBI agent in Donnie Brasco (1997), in which he co-starred with Al Pacino; a druggie in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998); and in two more Tim Burton ventures, Ed Wood (1994) and Sleepy Hollow (1999), and is currently filming for a fourth time for a Tim Burton film, The Corpse Bride (2005), as well as being committed for another Tim Burton production, where he plays Willy Wonka in the upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

During his career, Depp has unfortunately got himself under bad public scrutiny. He was accused of selling drugs at his own club, The Viper Room, in regard to the legendary celebrity, River Phoenix, who died outside the club due to drug overdose in 1993. The following year, Depp was arrested for smashing and trashing a New York suite. And in 1999, he was arrested in London for being in a fight with paparazzis outside a restaurant.

Although he gained popularity since the success of Edward Scissorhands, Depp wasn't hugely famous for many years until his portrayal of the suave, charming Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. With the film's enormous success, it has opened several doors for Johnny Depp's career. He appeared as the villain in the Stephen King based movie, Secret Window (2004); as the kind-hearted novelist James Barrie in the factually-based Finding Neverland (2004), where he co-starred with Kate Winslet, and most recently as Rochester in the British film, The Libertine (2004).