Leonardo DiCaprio: From Growing Pains to Django Unchained

[yomammalike]

Hi everyone,

At this moment, Im watching a custom-made DVD I myself made of the hit Disney Channel original Game Show Teen Win, Lose or Draw featuring a VERY young Leonardo DiCaprio.

DiCaprio has come a VERY long way from his big break at age 16 on Growing Pains: before that, at age 15, in 1990, he was on a short-lived sitcom adaptation of the hit 1989 Ronny Howard film Parenthood starring Steve Martin.

If anyone had told me as a child that DiCaprio would achieve the fame he has now, I NEVER would have believed it.

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born on November 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California, USA, the son of Italian-born comic book artist George and German-born housewife Irmalin, who raised young Leonardo after she and George split up when Leonardo was a young infant.

By his own admission, DiCaprio was raised by his mother in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles, where he witnessed 1st hand how violent the world could be, including with drugs and Alcohol.

In 1988, young DiCaprio, then aged 13, decided to pursue a career in Showbiz, first appearing for 2 years in Commercials before being cast in a 1990 adaptation of the movie Parenthood; though the show lasted just 3 months on NBC, soon after the series was canceled, DiCaprio was cast as Luke Brower, a homeless young teenager taken in by the Seaver family, at the start of the Fall 1991 TV season of the hit ABC Television Network sitcom Growing Pains; despite the fact that 13 million viewers per week were tuning in to the series that season (per DiCaprios A&E Biography episode), his stint on Growing Pains was short-lived, as ABC canceled Growing Pains in early 1992 after 7 years and 166 half-hour episodes due to the network firing everybody after having enough of the religious Shenanigans of Kirk Cameron.

Soon after the cancellation, DiCaprio made his big-screen debut opposite Robert De Niro in the biopic This Boys Life, based on the true story of Toby Wolff, who grew up being severely abused by his stepfather (De Niro).

Other notable films during this period included The Quick and the Dead, Titanic (Directed by James Cameron), and Catch Me If You Can (based on the true story of Frank William Abagnale, Jr., who during the 1970s was one of the worlds greatest real-life Imposters, from impersonating a Doctor to impersonating a Pilot; he eventually pled guilty to criminal charges in connection with his Impersonations and served 5 years in prison for them).

Perhaps his best work was as Howard Hughes in the hit 2004 biopic The Aviator, directed by Martin Scorcese; DiCaprio did such a good job portraying Howard Hughes, giving a realistic portrayal of his decent into OCD (Hughes died of Kidney Failure on April 5, 1976 en route from Acapulco, Mexico to his native Houston, Texas, USA where he was born on December 24, 1905).

The most recent film DiCaprio appeared in was last Decembers hit movie Django Unchained, released theatrically on Christmas Day, 2012.

Upcoming movies for DiCaprio include an upcoming big-screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby, based on the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

[AKA]

Nice username this time around, Danny. I'm sure your English professor mother would approve.

[Zoneboy]