Depp was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, the son of Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, Sr., a civil engineer. He has one brother, Danny, and two sisters, Christie (now his personal manager) and Debbie. Depp has German, Cherokee (mostly from a great-grandmother), and Irish ancestry. The book Johnny Depp: A Kind of Illusion (ISBN 1-905287-04-6) states that the Depp Read more...

Depp's mother bought her son a guitar when he was 12, and Depp began playing in various garage bands. His first band was in honor of his girlfriend Meredith. A year after his parents' divorce, Depp dropped out of high school to become a rock musician. As he once explained on Inside the Actors Studio, he attempted to go back to school two weeks later, but the principal told him to follow his dream Read more...

In 1994, Depp was arrested and questioned by police for allegedly causing serious damage to a New York City hotel suite. He was arrested again in 1999 for brawling with paparazzi outside a restaurant while dining in London with his girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis. Since 1998, Depp has had a relationship with Vanessa Paradis, a French actress and singer whom he met while filming The Ninth Gate. The couple Read more...