John Christopher Depp II was born on June 9, 1963, in Owensboro, Kentucky, the youngest of four children. His family moved frequently across Florida, and he was fourteen when his parents divorced. He discovered guitar at twelve, dropped out of high school at sixteen to pursue music with his mother's reluctant support, and played in South Florida bands through the early 1980s before moving to Los Angeles — where Nicolas Cage suggested he try acting.
His TV series 21 Jump Street (1987–1990) made him famous but with which he was deeply uncomfortable, finding the clean-cut commercial product insufficiently compatible with his artistic sensibility. Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990) established his cinematic identity: the gentle, isolated outsider whose difference is simultaneously his gift and his vulnerability. His performances through the 1990s — Benny & Joon, Ed Wood, Don Juan DeMarco, Dead Man, Donnie Brasco, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas — demonstrated a range and commitment to character that made him one of the most respected actors of his generation.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) transformed him from respected eccentric into global movie star — his characterization of Captain Jack Sparrow as a possibly drunk, possibly brilliant, definitely incomprehensible pirate was an act of creative improvisation that Disney executives initially resisted and audiences embraced with extraordinary warmth. The franchise produced five films grossing over $4.5 billion worldwide. Sweeney Todd (2007) earned him a Golden Globe.
Depp's INFP quality is most visible in his consistent gravitation toward characters who exist at the edges of conventional social reality — whose inner world is richer and stranger than the world can accommodate. His preparation process involves deep biographical and psychological research combined with physical and vocal idiosyncrasies that externalize the character's inner state. He is also a painter, a guitarist who has performed with Tom Petty and Alice Cooper, and a reader of voracious range — the INFP's characteristic dispersal of creative energy across multiple domains sharing a common orientation toward authentic experience.
