Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio (birthname: Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio) has created one of the most stable yet interesting major movie star careers, but it may surprise many to learn that DiCaprio has worked as a producer or executive producer on nearly as many movies as an actor, many of these in collaboration with filmmaker Martin Scorsese, with whom he has been increasingly identified in a way that recalls John Wayne’s longtime collaboration with director John Ford.

At the same time, DiCaprio has amassed a lineup of collaborations (as both actor and producer) with many top directors, including Lasse Hallstrom, Sam Raimi, Agnieszka Holland, Baz Luhrmann, James Cameron, Randall Wallace, Woody Allen, Danny Boyle, Steven Spielberg, Edward Zwick, Ridley Scott, Sam Mendes, Christopher Nolan, Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Adam McKay, George Clooney, Catherine Hardwicke, Scott Cooper, and Eli Roth.

Also often overlooked is how often DiCaprio has portrayed historical and living figures, including four authors (Tobias Wolff, Jim Carroll, Arthur Rimbaud, Jordan Belfort), political figures (King Louis XIV, J. Edgar Hoover), and notorious personalities (Howard Hughes, Frank Abagnale, Jr., Jordan Belfort).

Leonardo DiCaprio came from extremely humble beginnings, yet spent only a few years as a teen actor (from 1989 to 1992) gathering modest credits in television before he landed small supporting roles in features, starting with writer-director Katt Shea’s erotic thriller, Poison Ivy (1992), starring Drew Barrymore.

DiCaprio’s breakthrough happened in 1993, first with his performance opposite Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin in the film version of This Boy’s Life (1993), the memoir of fiction writer Tobias Wolff, whom DiCaprio portrayed; it was also the first DiCaprio-De Niro pairing, which extended across three decades, including Marvin’s Room (1996), the short film The Audition (2015) and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of Flower Moon (2023), which co-starred both of Scorsese’s favorite stars. Leonardo DiCaprio’s second breakthrough performance was even bigger—an Oscar-nominated supporting turn opposite Johnny Depp in the Lasse Hallström-directed What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), with Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, and John C. Reilly.

Riding the wave of rave reviews and awards attention, DiCaprio earned his first starring role under Scott Kalvert’s direction in The Basketball Diaries (1995), with Bruno Kirby, Lorraine Bracco, and Mark Wahlberg, and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. DiCaprio was then cast in a supporting role by director Sam Raimi in the Western, The Quick and the Dead (1995), starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, and Russell Crowe.

Leonardo DiCaprio further burnished his reputation by starring as passionate poet Arthur Rimbaud opposite David Thewlis, Romaine Bohringer, and Dominique Blanc in Total Eclipse (1995), with author Christopher Hampton adapting his play to the screen and Agnieszka Holland directing. DiCaprio was part of the ensemble of writer-director R.D. Robb’s little-seen indie film, Don’s Plum (with Tobey Maguire and Kevin Connolly), which was shot in 1995-1996 but not screened until the 2001 Berlin Festival premiere.

DiCaprio then starred as Romeo in William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann and co-starring Claire Danis (as Juliet), Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, and Paul Sorvino, and proving to be the first box-office hit ($147.6 million gross) for DiCaprio as a star. DiCaprio co-starred with Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, and Robert De Niro in the Jerry Zaks-directed drama, Marvin’s Room (1996), with playwright/author John Guare adapting Scott McPherson’s play.

Leonardo DiCaprio earned superstar and heartthrob status with James Cameron’s mega-hit for Paramount and 20^th Century Fox, Titanic (1997), co-starring Kate Winslet and Billy Zane, gaining a record-tying eleven Oscars (including Best Picture and Director), and grossing an eventual $2.25 billion, making it the second-highest-grossing movie of all time (after Cameron’s 2009 Avatar).

DiCaprio extended his box-office streak as King Louis XIV in writer-director Randall Wallace’s Alexandre Dumas adaptation, The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), with Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu, and Gabriel Byrne, and grossing a strong $183 million worldwide. DiCaprio returned to a contemporary setting as part of the ensemble of Woody Allen’s poorly received comedy-drama, Celebrity (1998), with Hank Azaria, Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis, Melanie Griffith, Famke Janssen, Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth, Winona Ryder, and Charlize Theron.

Leonardo DiCaprio once again proved his box-office status as the star of the Danny Boyle-directed adventure drama based on Alex Garland’s novel, The Beach (2000), with Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, and Robert Carlyle, earning $144 million globally. DiCaprio, co-star Tom Hanks, and director-producer Steven Spielberg collaborated on their only joint movie credit for the hit drama-comedy, Catch Me If You Can (2002), earning supporting actor Christopher Walken an Oscar nomination and grossing a knockout $352 million globally.

DiCaprio next made a crucially important career move as lead under Martin Scorsese’s direction in the ambitious if troubled crime epic, Gangs of New York (2002), based on Herbert Asbury’s classic history text, and co-starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, and Brendan Gleeson, named for ten Oscar nominations and earning $194 million worldwide.

Leonardo DiCaprio then began the most important phase of his career as Martin Scorsese’s star-of-choice (and producer partner) in a fascinating string of movies, continuing with DiCaprio’s vibrant portrayal of Howard Hughes in Scorsese’s $214-million-grossing epic, The Aviator (2004), co-starring Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, Kate Beckinsale, Reilly, Alec Baldwin, and Alan Alda; DiCaprio won the Best Actor Golden Globe but lost out on the Oscar (one of eleven Oscar nominations).

DiCaprio’s third-in-a-row with Scorsese was the Boston-based crime drama, The Departed (2006), in which DiCaprio co-starred with Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, and Vera Farmiga, leading to a four-Oscar win (including Scorsese’s only Oscar) and a potent $292 million gross.

DiCaprio co-starred with Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou in the Edward Zwick-directed Africa-based drama for Warner Bros., Blood Diamond (2006), grossing $171 million worldwide and earning DiCaprio a Best Actor Oscar nomination. DiCaprio then worked with director-producer Ridley Scott and co-star Russell Crowe on the standard spy thriller, Body of Lies (2008), with Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani, and Oscar Isaac, but failing to earn a profit with a tepid $118 million return.

Leonardo DiCaprio co-starred once again with Kate Winslet in one of his best and most intimate performances in the fine (and five-decade-in-the-making!) adaptation of Richard Yates’ modern literary classic, Revolutionary Road (2008), co-starring Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, David Harbour, and Kathy Bates, and earning nearly $80 million for Paramount Pictures.

DiCaprio’s fourth feature with director-producer Martin Scorsese was a middling adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s thriller, Shutter Island (2010), with Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, and Max von Sydow, premiering at the Berlin film festival and grossing $299 million globally on a $80 million budget.

Leonardo DiCaprio continued to star in high-profile, prestige productions with one of the best-grossing ($839 million) movies in his filmography, Christopher Nolan’s engrossing sci-fi drama, Inception (2010), co-starring Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Berenger, and garnering eight Oscar nominations including two for Nolan (picture, original screenplay) and winning four technical awards.

DiCaprio turned to effectively portraying another historical figure in Clint Eastwood’s biopic, J. Edgar (2011), earning the star a Golden Globe nomination, with co-stars Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Josh Lucas, and Judi Dench. DiCaprio stayed in period—but in much wilder, more outlandish fashion—as a flamboyant slaveowner in Quentin Tarantino’s antebellum revenge potboiler, Django Unchained (2012), co-starring opposite lead Jamie Foxx, Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson, and grossing a phenomenal $426 million for Weinstein Company/Columbia Pictures.

DiCaprio was the latest actor to tackle the tricky role of The Great Gatsby (2013), in his second production under Baz Luhrmann, opposite Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, and Indian movie legend Amitabh Bachchan, and which grossed a fair $354 million on $190 million budget.

Three years after Shutter Island, DiCaprio reunited with Scorsese (as both star and producer) for one of his most extreme performances—and his third in which he portrays the author of the movie’s original non-fiction source—as Jordan Belfort in the black comedy, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), which won DiCaprio an MTV award for Best WTF Moment, and which co-starred Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, and Jean Dujardin; the $407-million-grossing movie (one of the most successful of Scorsese-DiCaprio projects) claimed the Guinness Book of World Records mark for biggest number of swear words in a film.

Leonardo DiCaprio turned to the Western form in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Best Director-winning action thriller, The Revenant (2015), in which DiCaprio portrayed another historical figure—mountain man Hugh Glass—and finally earning him the Best Actor Oscar (as well as a Golden Globe, and awards from SAG, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice), alongside actors Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, and Will Poulter, and grossing a knockout number of $533 million.

DiCaprio’s second movie with Quentin Tarantino was his first portraying a movie star (albeit, unlike DiCaprio, fading) in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), affably co-starring alongside Brad Pitt, with Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Al Pacino, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, and Bruce Dern, winning two of ten Oscar nominations, and earning a terrific $378 million gross.

In an unusual assignment, DiCaprio took on a non-starring role in an ensemble, under Adam McKay’s vigorous direction, in the climate crisis-metaphor satire written and produced by McKay, Don’t Look Up (2021), co-starring Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, and Ariana Grande, and becoming one of the select Netflix releases to receive a theatrical run before a record-breaking streaming engagement.

Leonardo DiCaprio rejoined his favorite filmmaker—Martin Scorsese—as both star and executive producer and one of his favorite actors—Robert De Niro—for the long-awaited historical drama, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), based (by co-writers Eric Roth and Scorsese) on David Grann’s acclaimed book, and co-starring Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser, and released by Apple Original Films and Paramount Pictures.

Leonardo DiCaprio has devoted considerable attention to documentary features, often with pointed environmental messages, including The 11^th Hour (2007) (as narrator, writer, and producer); Hubble (2010) (as narrator); Virunga (2014) (as producer); Cowspiracy (2015) (as exec producer); Before the Flood (2016) (as producer and appearing as himself); Ice on Fire (2019) (as narrator); the Formula 1 film made with Fisher Stevens, And We Go Green (2019) (as producer); The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 (2021) (as producer); and Eli Roth’s documentary, Fin (2021).

Since 2004, DiCaprio has carved out a separate career as a producer of narrative feature films in which he didn’t act (under his banner Appian Way Productions), starting with writer-director Niels Muller’s The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004), starring Sean Penn, Don Cheadle, and Naomi Watts; the Kevin Connolly-directed debut, Gardener of Eden (2007), with Lukas Haas; the Jaume Collet-Serra-directed horror movie, Orphan (2009), with Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard; another horror movie, Red Riding Hood (2011), directed by Catherine Hardwicke; George Clooney’s political drama, The Ides of March (2011), co-starring filmmaker Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Paul Giamatti; the thriller Runner Runner (2013), co-starring Justin Timberlake, Gemma Arterton, and Ben Affleck; director-writer Scott Cooper’s drama, Out of the Furnace (2013), with Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Shepard; Ben Affleck’s sober Dennis Lehane adaptation, Live by Night (2016); a rare misfire, the Otto Bathurst-directed Robin Hood (2018), with Taron Edgerton and Jamie Foxx; and Clint Eastwood’s Atlanta bombing drama, Richard Jewell (2019), with Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, and Kathy Bates.