Age: 63
male
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor, producer and musician. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards. He made his debut in the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), before rising to prominence as a teen idol on the television series 21 Jump Street (1987–1990). In the 1990s, he acted mostly in independent films, often playing eccentric characters. These included What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Benny and Joon (1993), Dead Man (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). He also began collaborating with director Tim Burton, starring in Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ed Wood (1994), and Sleepy Hollow (1999). In the 2000s, he became one of the most commercially successful film stars by playing Captain Jack Sparrow in the swashbuckler film series Pirates of the Caribbean (2003–present). He received critical praise for Finding Neverland (2004), and continued his commercially successful collaboration with Tim Burton with the films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and Alice in Wonderland (2010). In 2012, he was one of the world's biggest film stars, and was listed by the Guinness World Records as the world's highest-paid actor, with earnings of US$75 million. During the 2010s, Depp began producing films through his company, Infinitum Nihil, and formed the rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry.
In April 1990, Universal Studios bought the rights to develop Iron Man for the big screen, with Stuart Gordon to direct a low-budget film based on the property. By February 1996, 20th Century Fox had acquired the rights from Universal. In January 1997, Nicolas Cage expressed interest in portraying the character, while in September 1998, Tom Cruise expressed interest in producing as well as starring in an Iron Man film. Jeff Vintar and Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee co-wrote a story for Fox, which Vintar adapted into a screenplay. It included a new science-fiction origin for the character, and featured MODOK as the villain. Tom Rothman, President of Production at Fox, credited the screenplay with finally making him understand the character. In May 1999, Jeffrey Caine was hired to rewrite Vintar and Lee's script. That October, Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film. Fox sold the rights to New Line Cinema the following December, reasoning that although the Vintar/Lee script was strong, the studio had too many Marvel superheroes in development, and "we can't make them all.
