‘Idiot,” Johnny Depp likes to joke, is the German translation of his surname. The swooned-over film actor, who picked up his first Golden Globe for his all-singing portrayal of Sweeney Todd, has, over a 24-year career, gained a reputation for playing the outsiders, rejects and oddballs – the idiots. Big-bucks, twinkly-eyed romantic leads have never held any allure.Instead, Depp has transmogrified into pallid Edward Scissorhands, kohl-eyed pirate Captain Jack Sparrow and Cry-Baby Walker, the delinquent of John Waters’ 1990 Cry-Baby. He has cross-dressed in Before Night Falls and Ed Wood, shaving his legs for the latter.”I always thought it’d be interesting to see them all in the same room together,” Depp says of his characters.Tim Burton, who’s directed Depp six times, describes him as a risk-taker. “He could’ve gone and made millions as this great-looking lead guy. But no.” Depp turned down leads in Speed and Interview With A Vampire, but he’s not in penury: he picked up $20-million for each his Pirates Of The Caribbean films, and smaller movies reputedly start at $8-million.With the straggly beard, skull rings, nerd specs, fedora, leather jackets or Rat Pack suits, Depp doesn’t have the clean-cut appeal of a Pitt or a Cruise. His is “a delicate beauty that’s startling, perhaps more so for being intermittent … with a tilt of the head, impossibly handsome,” according to Franz Lidz in the New York Times.

2008-February-24 – The 80th Annual Academy Awards – Arrivals. If you take the photos, credits goes to johnnydepponline.net 2008-February-24 – The 80th Annual Academy Awards – Show. If you take the photos, credits goes to johnnydepponline.net

IT is ironic that it was Johnny Depp’s flair for the eccentric that thrust him out of Hollywood’s fringe and into blockbuster brilliance.By his own admission, John Christopher Depp II is on a roll.After years of left-field film choices, the man better known as Johnny Depp is on a commercial and critical high, thanks, in no small part, to a dreadlocked pirate called Captain Jack Sparrow.With more than a nod to Rolling Stone Keith Richards and displaying a hitherto little known talent for comedy, Depp’s performance as Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy has turned the 44-year-old from cult figure to huge star

Johnny Depp, 44, might’ve been a demon in his latest movie Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street but in real life, he is a doting father to daughter Lily-Rose Melody, 8 ½, and son Jack, 5 ½. He talked to Life & Style about fatherhood and relationship with his partner of 10 years, Vanessa Paradis, 35.Q: You’re such a famous actor

A pirate buddy movie? That’s the rumor these days. And while I don’t think there are many folks out there complaining that Disney, Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski are contemplating a fourth movie in the series, there are folks wondering whether setting an entirely new course is the right idea. I, however, am not one of them. Nothing excites me more that they’re shaking up the series. Is it that I don’t like Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley or their characters Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan? No. Hell no. In fact, I love them. But there are some real reasons this series could benefit from the trimming of some of its most important characters.It’s all about Jack.Let’s face it. No one dresses as Will Turner for Halloween. No one does Elizabeth Swan impressions at parties. Every time there’s a PotC movie, everyone talks about the same person — Johnny Depp. And they talk about the same character — Jack Sparrow. And if you watch all three films together, one thing becomes very clear: the series opens with Jack Sparrow and it ends with him right back where he started. He’s the real hero. He’s the thrust of the series. So you start first and foremost with him.