Author(s): F.X. Feeney

Film / Television

Poet, pirate, libertine - how do we even describe the alienated beauty of Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow, Donnie Brasco, Don Juan DeMarco, Captain Jack Sparrow and Sweeney Todd, apart from the prodigious gift of Johnny Depp? How do we even name these great characters in one sentence, except under the heading of his contrary, heat-seeking curiosity, and imagination? If he didn't exist, you would need at least six other actors to achieve what he has thus far in his career. Few actors this side of Cary Grant are so angelically androgynous and masculine in the same breath. From teen heart-throb to an accomplished actor who has worked with art house directors such as Emir Kusturica, Terry Gilliam, Roman Polanski, Jim Jarmusch, and John Waters, Depp has built himself wildly successful and unconventional career. The "Movie Icon" series: people talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren't actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, TASCHEN shows you. "Movie Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous personalities in the history of cinema.