Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor, film producer, and environmentalist. He has often played unconventional roles, particularly in biopics and period films. As of 2019, his films have grossed $7.2 billion worldwide

 

Bio/Wiki
Full Name	Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio
Nickname(s)	• Leo • Lenny D [1] • LDC [2]
Profession(s)	• Actor • Film Producer • Environmentalist
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 183 cm in meters- 1.83 m in feet & inches- 6’
Eye Color	Blue
Hair Color	Dark Brown
Career
Debut	Film (Actor): Critters 3 (1991); as 'Josh' TV (Actor): The New Lassie (1989); as 'Glen' Executive Producer (Film): The Aviator (2004) Producer (Film): The 11th Hour (2007)
Awards, Honours, Achievements	Academy Awards 2016: Best Actor for "The Revenant" British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) 2016: Best Actor for "The Revenant" Chicago Film Critics Association 1993: Best Emerging Actor for "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" 2015: Best Actor for "The Revenant" Golden Globe Awards 2005: Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for "The Aviator" 2014: Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for "The Wolf of Wall Street" 2016: Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for "The Revenant" MTV Movie & TV Awards 1998: Best Male Performance for "Titanic" 2005: Best Male Performance for "The Aviator" 2014: Best WTF Moment for "The Wolf of Wall Street" 2016: Best Male Performance for "The Revenant" People's Choice Awards 2014: Favorite Dramatic Movie Actor for "The Great Gatsby" Note: He has many more awards and accolades to his name.
Personal Life
Date of Birth	November 11, 1974 (Monday)
Age (as of 2020)	46 Years
Birthplace	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Zodiac sign	Scorpio
Signature/Autograph
Nationality	American
Hometown	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
School	• Seeds Elementary School (now UCLA Lab School), Los Angeles, California, • John Marshall High School, Los Angeles, California, • Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, Los Angeles, California
College/University	Did Not Attend [3]
Educational Qualification	Although he eventually earned a GED, it wasn’t until years after he dropped out of high school. [4]
Religion/Belief	DiCaprio was raised as a Catholic in California, but has no religion, although he has expressed an interest in Buddhism and says he is not an atheist. In an interview, he said, “I’m not an atheist, I’m agnostic." [5] [6]
Ethnicity	• Italian-American (from his father's side) [7] • Russian-German (from his mother's side) [8]
Blood Group	B (Rh-negative) [9]
Food Habit	Vegan [10]
Political Inclination	Democratic [11]
Address (Fan Mail)	Leonardo Dicaprio Appian Way Productions 9255 Sunset Blvd. Suite 615 West Hollywood, CA 90069 USA
Hobbies	Riding Bicycle, Scuba Diving, Collecting Action Figures, Playing Video Games, and going to places in the world that are pristine and untouched by man
Controversies	• In 2005, he was severely injured when a model named Aretha Wilson hit him over the head with a broken bottle at a Hollywood party. Wilson, while protesting her innocence, claimed she thought Mr DiCaprio was, in fact, an ex-boyfriend who had been bad-mouthing her. DiCaprio needed 17 stitches for the gashes on his face and ear. Later, Wilson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison in 2010. [12] • In June 2017, he returned Marlon Brando's best actor Oscar statuette to the US government as part of an investigation into the money laundering by a state-owned Malaysian investment fund. He also returned Picasso painting and other artifacts that he had received as his 38th birthday gift in 2012 from business associates at Red Granite Pictures, which also funded his film "Wolf of Wall Street." Reportedly, Red Granite co-founder Riza Aziz may have helped his stepfather, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, embezzle USD 4.5 billion from a political development scheme, reported Los Angeles Times. The misappropriated funds were used to form the production company that funded the Martin Scorsese-directed movie "Wolf of Wall Street." [13] • In September 2019, various climate activists from India urged him to withdraw support for a controversial tree-planting program in India, which could result in catastrophic environmental damage. In an open letter, more than 90 Indian environmental and rights groups, warned DiCaprio and his endorsement of the Cauvery Calling campaign was ill-advised. They said the campaign could lead to the “drying up of streams and rivulets and destruction of wildlife habitats." [14]
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Unmarried
Affairs/Girlfriends	• Bijou Phillips (American actress, model, socialite, and singer)- In the late 90s • Kristen Zang, American Actress • Emma Miller, Actress and Model • Gisele Bündchen, Brazilian Model (2000-2005) • Bar Refaeli, Israeli Model (2005-2011) • Blake Lively, Actress (2011) • Erin Heatherton, Model (2012) • Toni Garrn, German Model (2013-2014) • Kelly Rohrbach, Model (2015) • Camila Morrone, American Model and Actress (April 2018-present) [15]
Family
Wife/Spouse	N/A
Parents	Father- George DiCaprio (an underground comix writer, publisher, and distributor of comic books) Mother- Irmelin Indenbirken (a legal secretary) Step-mother- Peggy Farrar
Siblings	Brother- Adam Farrar (step brother) Sister- None
Favorite Things
Film Director	Martin Scorsese
Actor(s)	Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson
Actress(es)	Meg Ryan, Meryl Streep
Food	Pasta
Beverage	Lemonade
Movies	The Bicycle Thief (1949), Taxi Driver (1976), 8 ½ Women (1999), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), East of Eden (1955)
Color(s)	Green, Black
Sport	Basketball
Style Quotient
Car Collection	• Ford Mustang • Karma - car manufactured by Fisker • Cayenne - SUV manufactured by Porsche • Toyota Prius • Tesla Roadster
Money Factor
Salary (approx.)	$25 million per starring role (as of 2018) [16]
Assets/Properties	• Tudor in hip Los Feliz, CA (bought from musician Moby for $4.9 million) • The Hollywood Hills compound, Oriole Way (purchased in 1994 from pop legend Madonna for $4 million) • The 'Billionaire's Beach' bungalow (worth $10.95 million; purchased in 1998) • An island near Belize (worth $1.75 million; purchased in 2005) • The Battery Park twofer, New York City (two apartments worth $3.67 million and $8 million; purchased in 2008 and March 2014, respectively) • Palm Springs spread, CA (worth $5.2 million; purchased in March 2014) • The Malibu Mini (worth $23 million; purchased in January 2017)
Net Worth (approx.)	$245 million (as of 2019) [17]

 

Some Lesser Known Facts About Leonardo DiCaprio

• Does Leonardo DiCaprio smoke?: Yes 

• Does Leonardo DiCaprio drink alcohol?: Yes 

• Leonardo DiCaprio is a popular American actor, producer, and environmentalist. The actor has won an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards and is counted among the word’s highest-paid actors.

• His father, George, a fourth-generation Italian-American, was a comic book artist who met DiCaprio’s German-born mother, Irmelin while attending college in the early sixties in New York.

• After completing their graduation, Leonardo’s parents moved to Los Angeles where the penniless pair ended up living in a run-down house, off Hollywood Boulevard, dubbed “syringe alley.”

• There is an interesting story behind his name. Reportedly, his pregnant mother was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Uffizi museum in Florence, Italy, when DiCaprio first kicked, and thus, her mother named him after this great Italian polymath.

   

  

  Baby Leonardo DiCaprio and His Mother Irmelin

• When Leonardo was just two, his parents split after eight years of marriage. Although initially, they agreed to live next door to each other so that Leonardo could not feel the absence of his father, his mother, Irmelin, moved to multiple neighborhoods in Los Angeles, such as Echo Park and Los Feliz while doing several jobs; working first as a childminder and later as a legal secretary, she struggled to make ends meet.

   

  

  A Rare Childhood Photo of Leonardo DiCaprio

• Reportedly, Irmelin had also taken her husband to court to force him to pay just $16 a week for little Leo’s upkeep. ^[18]

• During Leo’s school holidays, Irmelin would send him to Germany to stay with Leo’s maternal grandparents in their tiny flats. There, he would go for cycling and mushroom-picking with his grandfather; away from sordid and drug abuse problems of LA. While describing Leo’s stay in Germany, his maternal grandmother, Helene Indenbirken, once said,

  From the age of about eight, Leonardo spent all his vacations with us here in Germany. “He even got his first taste for the sea when his grandfather and I took him on a cruise. We went all over – to the Bahamas and Canada. We also took him skiing in Austria.”

• In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor talked about being “very poor” and said he has experienced life at both ends of the income spectrum. He revealed that he had spent the first nine years of his life in a run-down Hollywood neighborhood, and his own upbringing was poverty-stricken. He said,

  There was a major prostitution ring on my street corner, crime, and violence everywhere. It really was like ‘Taxi Driver’ in a lot of ways.” ^[19]

• In his childhood, Leonardo hated attending public schools and would beg his mother to take him to auditions.

• While it came to his career choice, Leonardo had decided either to become a marine biologist or an actor and eventually becoming the latter.

   

  

  Leonardo DiCaprio in His Teenage

• Reportedly, it was a stage performance at the age of two, where he danced spontaneously and received a cheerful response from the crowd, which had sparked his interest in performing arts, and the fuel to the fire was added by his older step-brother who earned $50,000 for a television commercial, and it furthered Leo’s interest to become an actor.

• When he was a kid (five years old), he was kicked off the set of ‘Romper Room,’ a children’s show aimed at very young children that began in 1953 and lasted until 1994. While describing the situation in an interview, DiCaprio said,

  My mom got me on Romper Room when I was five — it was my favorite show. But they couldn’t control me. I would run up and smack the camera, and I’d jump around and do my little flips and routines. I wish I could get that tape now.”

• By the age of 14, Leonardo had appeared in several commercials for ‘Matchbox cars by Mattel,’ which he considers his first role, and later for ‘Kraft Foods,’ ‘Bubble Yum,’ and ‘Apple Jacks.’

• At the age of 10, an agent had advised him to change his name something more familiar to Americans like Lenny Williams, which he refused.

• At the beginning of his career, even after 100 auditions, he remained jobless for more than a year, which had even led him to decide to quit acting. However, it was his father who encouraged him to never give up.

• By the early 1990s, Leonardo had become a regular face on television and appeared in popular shows like ‘The Outsiders’ (1990) and ‘Santa Barbara’ (1990). The same year, he was cast in ‘Parenthood’ in which he essayed the character of a troubled teenager ‘Garry Buckman.’ In an interview, he said that to essay the character of Garry Buckman, he had analyzed Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in the original film.

• Before making his film debut in the low-budget horror direct-to-video film ‘Critters 3’ (1991), Leo had played an uncredited role in one episode of ‘Roseanne.’ However, he doesn’t like to remember his role in ‘Critters 3,’ which he describes as-

  possibly one of the worst films of all time. I guess it was a good example to look back and make sure it doesn’t happen again.” 

• In 1992, to play a supporting role in the film ‘This Boy’s Life,’ Robert De Niro allegedly hand-picked DiCaprio from hundreds of boys. ^[20]

   

  

  Leonardo DiCaprio in This Boy’s Life (1993)

• In 1995, Leonardo starred alongside David Thewlis in Agnieszka Holland’s erotic drama ‘Total Eclipse;’ replacing River Phoenix, who had died before filming began.

• DiCaprio earned his first wide-spectrum fame in 1996 when he appeared opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann’s film ‘Romeo + Juliet,’ which also earned him a ‘Silver Bear for Best Actor’ at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. 

• To star alongside Kate Winslet in James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ (1997), Leo refused an offer to do the film ‘Boogie Nights’ (1997).

   

  

  Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on the Set of Titanic

• ‘Titanic’ went on to become a cult classic and earned DiCaprio the much-awaited stardom. The film transformed him into a superstar, and his ‘Titanic’ stardom became known as “Leo-Mania” among teenage girls and young women in general.
  

• Reportedly, Leo initially had doubts about playing the role of Jack in ‘Titanic.’ However, it was Cameron who encouraged him; as he strongly believed in his acting skills.

   

  

  Leonardo DiCaprio and James Cameron on the Set of Titanic

• Although ‘Titanic’ won 11 Academy Awards, the most for any film, it failed to give a nomination to DiCaprio; resulting in a protest against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by more than 200 fans. The only award for ‘Titanic’ that Leonardo has earned is MTV Movie & TV Awards (1998).
  

• After ‘Titanic,’ Leonardo DiCaprio became a phenomenon. John Hiscock of The Daily Telegraph compared his popularity to that of the Beatles’ in the 1960s. 

• On the Titanic phenomenon, Leo stated in 2000-

  I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world. I’ll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don’t expect to. It’s not something I’m going to try to achieve either.”

   

• In 1998, he was cast in American Psycho (2000) for a reported salary of $20 million, but he left the project and did a lead role in a low-budget ($50 million) film titled “The Beach.” Although “The Beach” collected three times more than its budget at the box office, it earned mostly negative reviews and also earned Leonardo a nomination for the ‘Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor.’
  

• In 2004, he launched his production company ‘Appian Way Productions,’ which he named after an Italian road; as he is connected to Italy through his father’s descent and is well conversant in Italian.

• Leonardo DiCaprio shares a great bond with Martin Scorsese who is considered one of the influential directors in film history. Many of Leonardo’s greatest performances have been delivered under the guidance of Martin Scorsese. The pair has given many blockbusters including ‘Gangs of New York’ (2002), ‘The Aviator’ (2004), ‘The Departed’ (2006), ‘Shutter Island’ (2010), and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013). On his collaboration with Martin Scorsese, DiCaprio says,

  As a young actor standing beside him during the creative process of making a movie, I discovered that just like a painting, a sculpture, music or theatre, film was just as essential, relevant, as a matter of fact, the most integral art form of our time. I felt I could truly own the term artist by working alongside him.”

  

  Leonardo DiCaprio with Martin Scorsese

• When he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for “The Revenant” in 2016, it was not a surprise to many; as it was long-awaited; because even after getting nominated three times before, for ‘The Aviator’ (2005), ‘Blood Diamond’ (2007), and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013); the award had always slipped from his grab.

• After playing the role of a fur trapper Hugh Glass in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s survival drama ‘The Revenant,’ Leo described it as his most difficult film.
  

• After The Revenant, DiCaprio took a hiatus from acting and for the next three years, he narrated documentaries like ‘The Ivory Game,’ ‘Before the Flood,’ and ‘Ice on Fire’ and produced films.

• After a break of four years, he returned to acting in 2019 with Quentin Tarantino’s comedy-drama ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’

• Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the most identified environmentalists among celebrities and has become an iconic face in the climate change movement. For DiCaprio, environment is more important than spirituality. To promote environmental awareness, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998.

   

  

  Leonardo DiCaprio holding a placard on Climate Change

• While chairing the national Earth Day celebration in 2002, Leonardo interviewed Bill Clinton and discussed plans to deal with global warming.

•  In 2014, DiCaprio was appointed as a United Nations representative on climate change. He also made an opening statement to members of the UN Climate Summit in the same year.

• In 2016, DiCaprio met Pope Francis and discussed with him, the issue of global warming and climate change and also gave him a charity donation. 

• The major part of his acceptance speech at the 88th Academy Awards in 2016 was covered with the issue of climate change and environmentalism. In his speech, he said,

  Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed.”