page_title: Leonardo DiCaprio
section_title: 1991–1996: Career beginnings
hierarchical_section_title: Leonardo DiCaprio / Career / 1991–1996: Career beginnings
caption_attribution_description: English: MIFF Career Achievement Tribute: Lasse Hallström, followed by THE HYPNOTIST at Olympia Theater at Gusman Center for the Performing Arts on March 3, 2013
context_page_description: Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor, producer, and environmentalist. He has often played unconventional parts, particularly in biopics and period films. As of 2019, his films have grossed US$7.2 billion worldwide, and he has placed eight times in annual rankings of the highest-paid actors in the world.
  Born in Los Angeles, DiCaprio began his career by appearing in television commercials in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, he played recurring roles in various television series, such as the sitcom Parenthood. He had his first major film role in This Boy's Life, and received acclaim for his supporting role as a developmentally disabled boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. He achieved international stardom in the epic romance Titanic, which became the highest-grossing film to that point. After a few commercially unsuccessful films, DiCaprio starred in two successful features in 2002: the biographical crime drama Catch Me If You Can and the historical drama Gangs of New York, which marked his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese.
context_section_description: In 1991, DiCaprio played an un-credited role in one episode of Roseanne. He made his film debut later that year as the stepson of an evil landlord in the low-budget horror direct-to-video film Critters 3, a role he described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair." DiCaprio prefers not to remember his role in Critters 3, which he describes as "possibly one of the worst films of all time. I guess it was a good example to look back and make sure it doesn't happen again." Later that year, he became a recurring cast member on the sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the Seaver family. Costar Joanna Kerns recalls DiCaprio being "especially intelligent and disarming for his age" but also mischievous on set. The teenage DiCaprio was cast by the producers to appeal to the teenage female audiences, but when the show's ratings did not improve, DiCaprio left it. He was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Television Series.
  In 1992, DiCaprio played a supporting role in the first installment of the Poison Ivy film series, and was handpicked by Robert De Niro out of 400 young actors to play the lead role in Michael Caton-Jones's This Boy's Life. He played opposite De Niro, who was acting as his stepfather, and Ellen Barkin as his mother. Caton-Jones has said DiCaprio did not know how to behave on set; he applied a strict mentoring style that he said resulted in improvements in DiCaprio's behavior. Bilge Ebiri of Rolling Stone found it "an evocative, touching little movie, defined by the powerful bond between Barkin and DiCaprio", praising his complex growth from "a wide-eyed son to a rebellious greaser to an independent, sensitive young man".
  In 1993, DiCaprio co-starred as the intellectually disabled brother of Johnny Depp's character in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, a comic-tragic odyssey of a dysfunctional Iowa family. Director Lasse Hallström admitted he was initially looking for a less good-looking actor, but cast DiCaprio when he contacted Caton-Jones and he had emerged as "the most observant actor" among all who auditioned. The film became a critical success, earning DiCaprio a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. "The film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio", wrote The New York Times critic Janet Maslin, "who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end." Caryn James, also writing for The New York Times, said of his performances in This Boy's Life and What's Eating Gilbert Grape: "He made the raw, emotional neediness of those boys completely natural and powerful."
  DiCaprio's first effort of 1995 was in Sam Raimi's western film The Quick and the Dead. Sony Pictures was dubious over DiCaprio's casting, and as a result, costar Sharon Stone paid his salary herself. The film was released to a dismal box office performance, barely grossing $18.5 million in the US, and received mixed reviews from critics. DiCaprio's next film in 1995 was The Basketball Diaries, a biopic, in which he played a teenage Jim Carroll as a drug-addicted high school basketball player and writer. DiCaprio next starred alongside David Thewlis in Agnieszka Holland's erotic drama Total Eclipse, a fictionalized account of the homosexual relationship between Arthur Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (Thewlis). He replaced River Phoenix, who died before filming began. The film grossed only about $340,000 against its €6-million budget, but has been included in the catalogue of Warner Archive Collection.
  In 1996, DiCaprio starred opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet, an abridged modernization of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name, which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. The project grossed $147 million worldwide, and earned DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. La
caption: Lasse Hallström directed DiCaprio in his first Academy Award-nominated role in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
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