Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles on November 11, 1974 and is the only child of Irmelin (a former legal secretary) and George DiCarpio (an underground comic artist and producer). His mother moved from Germany to the US in the 20′s and met his father while attending college. His mother named him after the painter Leonardo da Vinci after feeling his kick in her womb while standing in front of a painting by da Vinci in a museum in Italy. His parents divorced when he was a year old and was spending his time growing up mostly with his mother, attending Seeds Elementary School, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies and John Marshall High School.
Like most actors, Leonardo DiCaprio started with commercials and small time educational films, got his first break when he was casted in a series based on the movie Parenthood. He appeared on several shows including Roseanne and The New Lassie and Santa Barbara. He met Tobey Maguire on one of the sets and became fast friends vowing to help each other out in landing TV and movie roles. His first film debut was in the movie Critters 3 and soon after he became a recurring case on the hit sitcom Growing Pains.
He landed the role of Toby Wolff in This Boy’s Life alongside Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin and in 1993 he was playing the role of a mentally handicapped brother to Johny Depp in What’s Eating Gilbert. In 1995, his first movie for the year was The Quick and the Dead with actress Sharon Stone and actor Rusell Crowe. Next in line was the movie Total Eclipse a movie about a fictionalized account of a homosexual relationship, the movie died even before production. Also in the same year he worked on a low budget film with Toby Maguire on the film Don’s Plum which premiered in Berlin in 2001.
His stardom was brought about in 2007 when he played the role of Jack Dawson in the blockbuster hit Titanic together with Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater. The movie became the highest grossing film of all time and received a total of 11 Oscars. His success in the movie Titanic made him a favorite of the tabloids, establishing his credibility as a leading man and heartthrob. In 1998, he appeared in Woody Allen’s Celebrity, starred in Catch Me If You Can by Stephen Spielberg. He has made three movies with Martin Scorsese namely: Gangs of New York (alongside Cameron Diaz), The Aviator, and The Departed (alongside Matt Damon).
DiCaprio garnered an Oscar nomination for his role performance in the 2006 movie, Blood Diamond with Djimon Hounsou. He has been working in various films over the years and his upcoming projects includes; Ashecliffe in 2009, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Inception in 2010 and The Chancellor Manuscript in 2011.
Leonardo dated Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen on and off from 2001 and 2005 and has also dated Kristen Zang. Since 2005 he has dated Israeli model Bar Rafaeli, to date he remains close friends with Tobey Maguire and Titanic co-star Kate Winslet.
