Johnny Depp Turns 50!

Yes folks, Hollywood heartthrob, Johnny Depp turned the big 50 on 9 June and as far as most western women are concerned is still as gorgeous and desirable as ever.

Right now he is filming The Lone Ranger and yesterday (18 June) got briefly trampled by a horse in the process, but picked himself up and dusted himself off and seemed to be fine.

Depp split from long-time love Vanessa Paradis, a French singer and actress, two years ago. They have two children.

He was born in Kentucky, but was raised in Florida. Although incredibly successful now, Johnny Depp started off life as a rebel, tainted with vandalism and narcotics. He dropped out of school at 15 to front a string of garage rock bands, including one named The Kids which once opened for Iggy Pop. By 1983 he was married to Lori Anne Allison (Lori A. Depp) and working as a ballpoint-pen salesman to pay the rent.

During a visit to Los Angeles, his wife introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage, who advised him to become an actor. He took that advice and made his film debut in A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, but it wasn't until three years later when he played the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the TV series ‘21 Jump Street' that he shot to stardom.

Roles in several teen movies followed. A big turning point came in 1990, when he worked with director Tim Burton taking on the lead role in Edward Scissorhands. It was the first in what became a series of great collaborations with the director and as The Internet Movie Database ( IMDb) puts it: "following the film's success, Depp carved a niche for himself as a serious, somewhat dark, idiosyncratic performer, consistently selecting roles that surprised critics and audiences alike."

His most famous movies include Donnie Brasco (1997); Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), the hugely successful family blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Neverland (2004), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010).

Back in time, Johnny Depp also had his share of bad press including being "accused of selling drugs at his own club, The Viper Room, outside which River Phoenix died of a drug overdose in 1993. A year later, Johnny Depp was arrested for trashing a New York suite and, in 1999 he was arrested in London for being in a fight with paparazzi outside a restaurant.