Born in Kentucky and raised in Florida,Depp had the kind of upbringing that would readily lend itself to his future portrayals of brooding lost boys. After his parents divorced when he was 16, he dropped out of school a year later in the hopes of making his way in the world as a musician. Depp fronted a series of garage bands; the most successful of these, The Kids, was once the opening act for Iggy Pop. During slack times in the music business, Depp sold pens by phone. He got introduced to acting after a visit to L.A. with his former wife, who introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage, who encouraged Depp to give it a try.
The young actor made his film debut in 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (years after attaining stardom, Depp sentimentally played a cameo in the last of the Elm Street series), and his climb to fame was accelerated in 1987, when he replaced Jeff Yagher in the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the Canadian-filmed TV series 21 Jump Street. Biding his time in “teen heartthrob” roles, Depp was first given a chance to exhibit his exhausting versatility in the title role of Tim Burton’s fantasy Edward Scissorhands (1990). Following the success of Edward Scissorhands, the actor made a conscious and successful effort never to repeat himself in his subsequent characterizations. He continued to gain critical acclaim and increasing popularity for his work, most notably in Benny & Joon (1993), in which he played a troubled young man who fancies himself the reincarnation of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), which cast him as its title character, a young man dissatisfied with the confines of his small-town life.