Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born on November 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. He is the only child of Irmelin Indenbirken, a legal secretary from Germany, and George DiCaprio, an American underground comix artist and distributor. The couple met while attending college and moved to Los Angeles after graduating. George's paternal grandparents, Salvatore Di Caprio and Rosina Cassella, were Italian, while his mother, Olga Anne Jacobs, was of German descent. Irmelin's father, Wilhelm Indenbirken, was German, while her mother, Helene Indenbirken, was a Russian immigrant living in Germany. Some sources have falsely claimed that Helene was born in Odesa, Ukraine, but there is no evidence that DiCaprio has any relatives of Ukrainian birth or heritage.

DiCaprio got his name because his pregnant mother first felt him kick while she was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Uffizi museum. When he was a year old, his parents divorced after his father fell in love with another woman and moved out. To raise DiCaprio together, his parents moved into twin cottages with a shared garden in Echo Park, Los Angeles. DiCaprio's father lived with his girlfriend and her son, Adam Farrar, with whom DiCaprio developed a close bond. DiCaprio and his mother later moved to other neighborhoods, such as Los Feliz. He has described his parents as "bohemian in every sense of the word" and as "the people I trust the most in the world". DiCaprio has mentioned growing up poor in a neighborhood plagued with prostitution, crime and violence. He was raised Catholic. DiCaprio attended the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies for four years and later Seeds Elementary School. He enrolled at John Marshall High School, but disliked public school and wanted to audition for acting jobs instead. He decided to drop out of high school, and later earned a general equivalency diploma (GED).

As a child, DiCaprio wanted to become either an actor or a marine biologist. He chose to pursue acting because he enjoyed imitating people and impersonating characters, and liked seeing people's reactions to his impressions. According to DiCaprio, his interest in performing began at the age of two, when he went onstage at a performance festival and danced spontaneously to a positive response from the crowd. He was also motivated to learn acting when his stepbrother's appearance in a television commercial earned him $50,000. DiCaprio has said in interviews that his first television appearance was in the children's series Romper Room, and that he was dismissed from the show for being disruptive. The show's host has denied that any children were removed from the show in this way. At age 11, DiCaprio almost quit acting to pursue breakdancing, after winning second place in a breakdancing competition in his mother's native Germany. Starting at age 14, he appeared in several commercials for Matchbox cars, which he calls his first role. DiCaprio also appeared in commercials for Kraft Singles, Bubble Yum, and Apple Jacks. In 1989, he played the role of Glen in two episodes of the television show The New Lassie.

At the beginning of his career, DiCaprio had difficulty finding an agent. When he finally found one, the agent suggested that he change his name to Lenny Williams to appeal to American audiences, which he refused to do. DiCaprio remained jobless for a year and a half, even despite 100 auditions. Following this frustrating lack of success, DiCaprio was about to give up acting but his father convinced him to persevere, and he continued to audition. After a talent agent (who knew a friend of his mother's) recommended him to casting directors, DiCaprio secured roles in about 20 commercials.

By the early 1990s, DiCaprio began acting regularly on television, beginning with a role in the pilot of The Outsiders (1990) and one episode of the soap opera Santa Barbara (1990), in which he played an alcoholic teenager. Following this, DiCaprio was cast in Parenthood, a series based on the 1989 comedy film. To prepare for the role of Garry Buckman, a troubled teen, he analyzed Joaquin Phoenix's performance in the original film. His work that year earned him two nominations at the 12th Youth in Film Awards—Best Young Actor in a Daytime Series for Santa Barbara and Best Young Actor Starring in a New Television Series for Parenthood. Around this time, he was a contestant on the children's game show Fun House; on the show he performed several stunts, including catching the fish inside a small pool using only his teeth.

1991–1996: Early work and breakthrough

DiCaprio made his film debut in 1991 as the stepson of an unscrupulous landlord in the low-budget horror sequel Critters 3—a part he later described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair". DiCaprio has stated that he prefers not to remember Critters 3, viewing it as "possibly one of the worst films of all time" and the kind of role he wanted to avoid in the future. Later in 1991, he became a recurring cast member on the sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the show's central family. Co-star Joanna Kerns recalls DiCaprio being "especially intelligent and disarming for his age" but she noted that he was also mischievous and jocular on set, and often made fun of his co-stars. DiCaprio was cast by the producers to appeal to young female audience, but his arrival did not improve the show's ratings and he left before the end of its run. He was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Television Series. DiCaprio also had an uncredited role in 1991 in one episode of Roseanne.

In 1992, DiCaprio had a brief role in the first installment of the Poison Ivy film series, and was handpicked by Robert De Niro from a shortlist of 400 young actors to co-star with him in This Boy's Life. Adapted from the memoir by Tobias Wolff, the film focuses on the relationship between a rebellious teenager, Toby (DiCaprio), and his mother (Ellen Barkin) and abusive stepfather (De Niro). Director Michael Caton-Jones said that DiCaprio did not know how to behave on set; accordingly, Caton-Jones used a strict mentoring style, after which DiCaprio's behavior began to improve. Bilge Ebiri of Rolling Stone found that the powerful bond between Barkin and DiCaprio elevated the film, praising DiCaprio's portrayal of his character's complex growth from a rebellious teen to an independent young man. This Boy's Life was the first film that gained him recognition. DiCaprio's first talk show appearance was in 1992 on the Looseleaf Report, hosted by Victoria Looseleaf, who later wrote a 1998 (unauthorized) biography on him.

DiCaprio played the developmentally disabled brother of Johnny Depp's character in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), a comedy-drama about a dysfunctional Iowa family. Caton-Jones recommended DiCaprio to director Lasse Hallström who was initially skeptical, as he considered DiCaprio too good-looking for the part. Hallström cast DiCaprio after he emerged as "the most observant" auditionee. To ensure authenticity in his portrayal, DiCaprio studied similarly impaired children and their mannerisms, and Hallström allowed him to create the character using his own researched attributes. The film became a critical success. At age 19, DiCaprio earned a National Board of Review Award, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making him the seventh-youngest Oscar nominee in the category. "The film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio," wrote The New York Times critic Janet Maslin, "who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end." Caryn James, also writing for The New York Times, said of his performances in This Boy's Life and What's Eating Gilbert Grape: "He made the raw, emotional neediness of those boys completely natural and powerful."

DiCaprio's first role of 1995 was in Sam Raimi's Western The Quick and the Dead. When Sony Pictures became dubious over DiCaprio's casting, co-star Sharon Stone paid his salary herself. The film was released to dismal box office performance and mixed reviews from critics. DiCaprio next starred as a teenage Jim Carroll, a drug-addicted high school basketball player and budding writer, in the biopic The Basketball Diaries. He starred in the erotic drama Total Eclipse (1995), driven by the desire to showcase an exceptional performance, which would focus on his acting talent rather than his much-discussed physical appeal. Directed by Agnieszka Holland, it is a fictionalized account of the same-sex relationship between Arthur Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis). DiCaprio was cast when River Phoenix died before filming began. Although the film failed commercially, it has been included in the catalog of the Warner Archive Collection, which releases classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library on home video. A review in the San Francisco Chronicle called DiCaprio "his generation's great acting promise" but criticized the mismatch between Thewlis's "cultivated" British accent and DiCaprio's "Southern California twang".

DiCaprio next starred opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), an abridged modernization of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. DiCaprio was initially unsure about another Romeo and Juliet adaptation, but at his father's suggestion, he agreed to examine Luhrmann's work more closely. DiCaprio and Luhrmann then spent a two-week workshop exchanging ideas, which led to the collaboration. Romeo + Juliet established DiCaprio as a leading Hollywood actor; according to film scholar Murray Pomerance, DiCaprio's newfound popularity helped the film become profitable only days after its release. Reviewing DiCaprio's early works, David Thomson of The Guardian called DiCaprio "a revelation" in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, "very moving" in This Boy's Life, "suitably desperate" in The Basketball Diaries and "a vital spark" in Romeo + Juliet. The latter earned DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. He then portrayed a young man who has been committed to a mental asylum in Marvin's Room (1996), a family drama about two estranged sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy. He played Hank, the troubled son of Streep's character. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly praised "the deeply gifted DiCaprio" for holding his own against veteran actresses Keaton and Streep, describing the three as "full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent".

DiCaprio's personal life is the subject of widespread media attention, though he rarely grants interviews and is reluctant to discuss his private life. Since his 40s, DiCaprio has been the focus of various reports detailing his involvement with women aged 25 or younger, and has faced criticism for the age disparity of those relationships. In 1999, DiCaprio met Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, whom he dated until 2005. He was romantically involved with Israeli model Bar Refaeli from 2005 to 2011. He later dated German fashion model Toni Garrn from 2013 to 2014 and later in 2017. DiCaprio was briefly romantically linked with Barbadian singer Rihanna, with the pair attending Coachella together in 2016. DiCaprio successfully sued French tabloid Oops after it made claims that DiCaprio had gotten Rihanna pregnant. DiCaprio was in a relationship with American model and actress Camila Morrone from 2017 until 2022. He has been dating Italian model Vittoria Ceretti since August 2023.

DiCaprio owns houses in Los Angeles and apartments in New York City. In 2009, he bought an island, Blackadore Caye, off mainland Belize—on which he is set to open an environmentally friendly resort—and in 2014, he purchased the original Dinah Shore residence designed by architect Donald Wexler in Palm Springs, California. In 2010, he stated he was agnostic.

In 2005, DiCaprio's face was severely injured when model Aretha Wilson hit him over the head with a broken bottle at a Hollywood party. As a result, he required seventeen stitches to his face and neck. Wilson pleaded no contest to the assault and was sentenced in 2010 to two years in prison. In 2017, when The Wolf of Wall Street producer Red Granite Pictures was involved in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, DiCaprio turned over the gifts he received from business associates at the production company, including from fugitive businessman Jho Low, to the US government. These included a Best Actor Oscar trophy won by Marlon Brando, a $3.2 million Pablo Picasso painting, and a $9 million Jean-Michel Basquiat collage.

In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at a library in Los Feliz. In May 2009, DiCaprio joined Kate Winslet, director James Cameron and Canadian singer Celine Dion, in a campaign to raise money to financially support the fees of the nursing home where Millvina Dean, a survivor of the RMS Titanic, was residing. DiCaprio and Winslet donated $20,000 to support Dean. In 2010, he donated $1 million to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake. In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to release Tony, a tiger that had spent the last decade at a truck stop in Grosse Tête, Louisiana. DiCaprio donated $61,000 to the gay rights group GLAAD in 2013.

In 2016, DiCaprio donated $65,000 to the annual fundraising gala for the Children of Armenia Fund, where he was a special guest of his friend and honorary chair, Tony Shafrazi. Supporting Hurricane Harvey (2017) relief efforts, DiCaprio provided $1 million through his foundation. In 2020, DiCaprio's foundation donated $3 million to Australia bushfire relief efforts. Amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the media announced DiCaprio donated $10 million to support Ukraine, although the news agency Associated Press suggested this amount was inaccurate.

Activism

An active celebrity in the climate change movement, DiCaprio believes global warming is the world's "number-one environmental challenge". Eager to learn about ecology from an early age, he would watch documentaries on rainforest depletion and the loss of species and habitats. In 1998, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. It supports organizations and campaigns committed to ensuring a viable future for planet Earth, and produced the short web documentaries Water Planet and Global Warning. The foundation has also funded debt-for-nature swaps. By 2018, the foundation had funded more than 200 projects, providing $100 million in support. He has been an active supporter of numerous environmental organizations and sat on the board of the World Wildlife Fund and International Fund for Animal Welfare.

DiCaprio has owned environment-friendly electric-hybrid vehicles. His use of private jets and large yachts have been criticized as hypocritical due to their large carbon footprints. DiCaprio chaired the national Earth Day celebration in 2000 where he interviewed Bill Clinton and they discussed plans to deal with global warming and the environment. He presented at the 2007 American leg of Live Earth. 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 2013, he organized a benefit fine art auction, "11th Hour", which raised nearly $38.8 million for his foundation. In September 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated DiCaprio as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a focus on climate change. Later that month, he made an opening statement to members of the UN Climate Summit; his speech reached an estimated one billion people worldwide. In 2015, he announced his intention to divest from fossil fuels. He again spoke at the UN in April 2016 prior to the signing of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

At a 2016 meeting with Pope Francis, DiCaprio donated to charity and discussed environmental issues with him. A few days later, possibly influenced by this meeting, the Pope said he would act in a charity film. DiCaprio traveled to Indonesia in early 2016 where he criticized the government's palm oil industry's slash-and-burn forest clearing methods. In July 2016, his foundation donated $15.6 million to help protect wildlife and the rights of Native Americans, along with mitigating climate change. That October, DiCaprio joined Mark Ruffalo in support of the Standing Rock tribe's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In April 2017, DiCaprio protested against President Donald Trump's inaction on climate change by attending the People's Climate March. In July, a charity auction and celebrity concert arranged by DiCaprio's foundation had raised over $30 million in one night. The DiCaprio foundation donated $100 million in December 2018 to fight climate change. In May 2021, DiCaprio pledged $43 million to enact conservation operations across the Galápagos Islands.