Short Bio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born to George and Irmelin DiCaprio on November 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California. He grew up in Los Feliz, California, which Leonardo describes as "the ghettos of California". He is an only child, though he has a step brother named Adam. His parents divorced when he was a year old. Leonardo gets his Italian background from his father George, who produces underground comic books and comic arts out of his garage. George now helps Leo sift through many scripts and discarding all of the mainstream roles that most actors take to gain quick fame. Leo preffers the darker, more challenging roles. He gets German background from his mother, Irmelin who was a legal secretary until she began managing her son's career. Leo was educated at the Centre for Enriched Studies and John Marshall's High, both located in L.A. He did not like school, and often cheated. He was more interested in entertaining his classmates than doing work. His behavior often got him in trouble. He was kicked off the set of Romper Room at age 5 for his uncontrolable behavior. But his troubles with school didn't stifle his aspiration to be an actor. He appeared in over 30 commercials, the first being Matchbox Cars, and at 14, he was finally signed. His was discouraged, however, when his agent told him his name was too long and ethnic sounding and suggested he change his name to Lenny Williams. Obviously, Leo refused. His mother named him Leonardo after he swiftly kicked inside the womb while she was looking at a Da Vinci painting in La Louvre in Paris. He did many educational films such as "How To Deal With Parents Who Take Drugs", and "Mickey's Safety Club", and appeared in many TV shows like Lassie and The Outsiders. His first movie was Critters 3, which he would like to forget about, and at 16, he got the part of Luke, the homeless boy that Mike finds on the hit t.v. show, Growing Pains. Leo then got his big break starring opposite Robert De Niro in the 1993 movie, "This Boy's Life". He was then in other movies such as Poison Ivy (1992), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (which earned him an Oscar nomination but lost to Tommy Lee Jones for the Fugitive in 1993), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Basketball Diares (1995), Total Eclipse (1995), William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996), Marvin's Room (1996), Titanic (1997) and the soon to be Man In The Iron Mask (March 13, 1998). Leo is looking for different roles that portrayed over the years shows his great capability of playing many different kinds of roles and shows his acting ability. He knows how to bring emotion and reality to his roles, and has touched the hearts of millions of people all over the world, especially young teenage girls.
