Johnny Depp in Black and White

Description: 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 fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one named The Kids. However, it was when he married Lori Anne Allison (Lori A. Depp) that he took up the job of being a ballpoint-pen salesman to support himself and his wife. A visit to Los Angeles, California, with his wife, however, happened to be a blessing in disguise, when he met up with actor Nicolas Cage, who advised him to turn to acting, which culminated in Depp's film debut in the low-budget horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), where he played a teenager who falls prey to dream-stalking demon Freddy Krueger. Three years later, Depp achieved fame as police cop Tom Hanson in the series "21 Jump Street" (1987) (1987-90), and in 1990, he was firmly established as a leading Hollywood actor with the Tim Burton movie Edward Scissorhands (1990), where he played 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 more 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), with Christina Ricci and Casper Van Dien. He filmed a fifth Tim Burton film, 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), based on the classic children's novel by Roald Dahl.