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Leonardo Wilhelm Dicaprio was born to George and Irmalin DiCaprio onNovember 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California. He grew up in Los Feliz,California, which Leo describes as “the ghettos of California”. He is an onlychild, though he has a step brother named Adam. His parents divorced eachother within a year after he was born. Leonardo gets his Italian backgroundfrom his father George, who produces underground comic books and comicarts out of his garage. George now helps Leo sift through the many scripts anddiscarding all of the mainstream roles that most actors take to gain quickfame. Leo preffers the darker more challenging roles. He gets his Germanbackground from his Mother Irmalin who was a legal secretary untill she beganmanaging her son’s rising career. Leo was educated at the Centre fo EnrichedStudies and John Marshall High, both located in Los Angeles. He did not likeschool, and often cheated. He was more interested in entertaining hisclassmates than doing work. His raucous behavior often got him in trouble. Hewas kicked off the set of Romper Room at age 5 for is uncontrolable behavior.But his troubles with school didn’t stifle his aspiration to be an actor. Heappeared in over 30 commercials, the first being Matchbox Cars, and at 14years old he was finally signed. He was dicouraged, however, when his agenttold him his name was too long and ethnic sounding (his Mother named himLeonardo after he swiftly kicked inside the womb while she was looking at a DaVinci painting in La Louvre in Paris) and suggested he change his name toLenny Williams. Leonardo refused. 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. He landed hisfirst screen role in 1991 on Critters III (though he’d like to forget that). At 16,Leo landed the role as a homeless boy named Luke on the last two seasons ofGrowing Pains. Finally, Leo got his big break in the “coming of age movie ThisBoy’s Life as Tobias Wolf, opposite Robert DeNiro.Now, at 23, LeonardoDiCaprio has earned his fame. Has completed over 11 motion pictures,including What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (for which he recieved an Oscarnomination for Best-Supporting Actor) The Basketball Diaries, The Quick andthe Dead, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Marvin’s Room and thiswinters blockbuster Titanic. Titanic has Allready grossed over $6 millionworldwide, and has boosted Leo’s popularity to the top. Looking at all thedifferent roles Leo has portrayed over the years shows his great capability ofplaying many different kinds of roles and his natural acting skills. He knowshow to bring emotion and reality to his roles, and has touched the hearts ofmillions of people all over the world.
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