The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (112 page)

As a child, Depp moved with his family to Florida. He played a lot of music as a kid, and was part of a band. He made his debut in
A Nightmare on Elm Street
(84, Wes Craven), and then appeared in the trashy
Private Resort
(85, George Bowers). He was a soldier in
Platoon
(86, Oliver Stone), and then 1987–90 he was an undercover cop in the TV series
21 Jump Street
.

He was a biker stud in
Cry-Baby
(90, John Waters), but it was as
Edward Scissorhands
(90, Burton) that he revealed himself and his sense of outcast pathos. He had a cameo in
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
(91, Rachel Talalay). In
Benny & Joon
(93, Jeremiah S. Chechik) he once more sought the offbeat. He also excelled in the scenes where he aspired to be Buster Keaton. In
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
(93, Lasse Hallström), he was the strong center in a troubled family, aiding the more showy performance of Leonardo DiCaprio.

Since then, as well as
Ed Wood
, he has made
Arizona Dream
(93, Emir Kusturica),
Nick of Time
(95, John Badham); with Brando in
Don Juan DeMarco
(95, Jeremy Levin); and
Dead Man
(96, Jim Jarmusch)—there’s not a conventional choice in the list. And who could put together a rarer quintet than
Donnie Brasco
(97, Mike Newell),
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
(98, Terry Gilliam),
The Astronaut’s Wife
(99, Rand Ravich),
The Ninth Gate
(99, Roman Polanski), and
Sleepy Hollow
(99, Tim Burton)?

It was around this time that he discovered that a film he had directed,
The Brave
(97)—with Brando in it—could hardly get released. But as an actor he admits no barriers:
The Man Who Cried
(00, Sally Potter);
Before Night Falls
(00, Julian Schnabel);
Chocolat
(00, Hallström);
Blow
(01, Ted Demme); the London copper in
From Hell
(01, Albert and Allen Hughes);
Nailed Right In
(03, Griffin Dunne); claiming the entire legend of piracy for gay pride in
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
(03, Gore Verbinski);
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
(03, Robert Rodriguez); J
. M. Barrie’s Neverland
(04, Marc Forster);
Secret Window
(04, David Koepp).

Beloved and acclaimed though he may be, as time passes not a great deal seems to accumulate: he played Rochester in
The Libertine
(05, Laurence Dunmore), but seemed content with fore-play; he worked with Tim Burton again on
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
(05), but the result was unsatisfying; and then there were two more
Pirates of the Caribbean—Dead Man’s Chest
and
World’s End
(both by Gore Verbinki, who has more patience than many of us can muster). And then a signal failure in a great role: as
Sweeney Todd
(07, Burton, who really wasn’t up to the depth of the Sondheim material). As for Depp, he sang and he acted but he never laid a glove on George Hearn or Len Cariou, Sweeney’s creators on stage.

Depp narrated the documentary
Gonzo
(08, Alex Gibney) as if to confess his affection for Hunter Thompson. An actor could do better. And far better than his Dillinger in
Public Enemies
(09, Michael Mann), a terrible disappointment. He chipped in to help
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
(09, Gilliam) and he has another Hunter Thompson piece
—The Rum Diary
(10, Bruce Robinson).

Bruce Dern
, b. Winnetka, Illinois, 1936
Sometimes a movie ad reveals the secret being of a star. In the American promotion of
Coming Home
(78, Hal Ashby), a rapturous embrace between Jane Fonda and Jon Voight was being watched by a wistful, suspicious Bruce Dern, his eyes lime pits of paranoia and resentment. Fonda and Voight were not only the upholders of enlightenment in that soft-centered liberal movie … in Dern’s eyes, they were established stars. Fonda had one Oscar already, and Voight would win the best actor Oscar for
Coming Home
.

Dern was then one of the most striking actors on the screen, but a professional haunted by failures, and a man whose own unease flowed into his querulous screen persona. No one was as plausible and frightening as the slightly unbalanced man who believes he has been wronged.

He is not glamorous, or made for triumph. His voice has a high, midwestern twang, inclined to sneer or whine. His face is narrow, nearly gaunt; his curly hair goes wild with his thoughts. And the looming eyes monopolize our feelings toward him. He can be fearsome, loathsome, or pitiful, but he is neither calm nor commanding.

It may grind the more on Dern that he is from the Illinois aristocracy. One grandfather was Roosevelt’s secretary of war, the other was chairman of a leading Chicago department store. Bruce was educated at New Trier High School, but he dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania and joined the Actors’ Studio.

Elia Kazan gave Dern his movie debut, in
Wild River
(60), as one of the country hoodlums who beat up Montgomery Clift. He had his hands chopped off in
Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte
(64, Robert Aldrich); he was the sailor poker-pulped in
Marnie
(64, Alfred Hitchcock). Dern’s friendship with Jack Nicholson drew him into the Roger Corman circle and ensured him work for the next few years as a desperado or druggy: Loser in
The Wild Angels
(66, Corman);
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
(66, Corman);
The Trip
(67, Corman); killed by John Wayne in
The War Wagon
(67, Burt Kennedy);
Will Penny
(67, Tom Gries);
Waterhole 3
(67, William Graham);
Psych-Out
(68, Richard Rush);
Castle Keep
(68, Sydney Pollack);
Hang ’Em High
(68, Ted Post);
Support Your Local Sheriff
(69, Kennedy); stoned on exhaustion in
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
(69, Pollack);
Bloody Mama
(70, Corman);
The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant
(70, Anthony M. Lanza); brilliant as the demented basketball coach in
Drive, He Said
(70, Jack Nicholson); and, notoriously, as the dirty, rotten longhair who kills John Wayne in
The Cowboys
(71, Mark Rydell).

Dern felt trapped and depressed by parts in which he was a gross heavy who never lived to see The End or get a girl. As a result, he tried to find better or more respectable parts and is very touching and forlorn as the lonely spaceman in
Silent Running
(71, Douglas Trumbull); his best performance yet as the brother high on dreams of Hawaii in
The King of Marvin Gardens
(72, Bob Rafelson); a nervy sidekick in
The Laughing Policeman
(73, Stuart Rosenberg); palpably dangerous as Tom Buchanan in
The Great Gatsby
(74, Jack Clayton); funny in
Smile
(74, Michael Ritchie)—comedy could be his best vein;
Posse
(75, Kirk Douglas);
Family Plot
(75, Hitchcock); a dog’s best friend in
Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood
(75, Michael Winner);
The Twist
(76, Claude Chabrol); the Vietnam veteran terrorist riding the blimp in
Black Sunday
(77, John Frankenheimer); and
The Driver
(78, Walter Hill).

But then the plot took hold—the plot that Dern’s eyes had always believed—the plot to shaft him. His career began to decline, and the line has not stopped:
Middle Age Crazy
(80, John Trent);
Tattoo
(81, Bob Brooks)—which tries to make a sexual creature of Dern;
Harry Tracy, Desperado
(82, William A. Graham);
That Championship Season
(82, Jason Miller); running, running, running in
On the Edge
(85, Rob Nilsson);
Toughlove
(85, Glenn Jordan) for TV:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
(87, Stan Latham) for TV;
The Big Town
(87, Ben Bolt);
Roses Are for the Rich
(87, Michael Miller);
World Gone Wild
(88, Lee H. Katzin);
1969
(88, Ernest Thompson);
The ’burbs
(89, Joe Dante);
Trenchcoat in Paradise
(89, Martha Coolidge) for TV;
The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson
(90, Larry Peerce);
After Dark, My Sweet
(90, James Foley);
Diggstown
(93, Ritchie); on TV in
It’s Nothing Personal
(93, Bradford May).

He is the father of Laura Dern (b. 1966).

By now, Dern has become an oldtimer, a veteran and a sly know-all—and he’s just as watchable:
Dead Man’s Revenge
(94, Alan J. Levi); as the husband in
Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight
(94, Yves Simoneau);
Mrs. Munck
(95, Diane Ladd—the mother of Laura Dern);
Wild Bill
(95, Hill);
A Mother’s Prayer
(95, Larry Elikann);
Down Periscope
(96, David S. Ward); very good as the chief in
Mulholland Falls
(96, Lee Tamahori);
Last Man Standing
(96, Hill);
Comfort, Texas
(97, Ritchie);
Perfect Prey
(98, Howard McCain);
Hard Time: The Premonition
(99, David S. Carr);
The Haunting
(99, Jan De Bont);
If … Dog … Rabbit
(99, Matthew Modine);
All the Pretty Horses
(00, Billy Bob Thornton);
Madison
(00, William Bindley);
The Glass House
(01, Daniel Sackheim);
Milwaukee, Minnesota
(02, Allan Mindel);
Masked and Anonymous
(03, Larry Charles);
Monster
(03, Patty Jenkins).

Laura Dern
, b. Los Angeles, 1966
Laura Dern is in her forties now, heading steadily away from the mode in which she has been most effective—by which I mean not simply youth, but a kind of readiness for teen fable as demonstrated in two poles-apart roles for David Lynch (her onetime partner), the virginal girl in
Blue Velvet
(86) and the lipstick hotshot, Lula, in
Wild at Heart
(90). Her acting in those two films is much more imaginative than naturalistic. It suggests how far she is suited to a kind of fairytale approach—not mainstream, but based in her nearly childlike sincerity.

She is the daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, and she could be seen in bits in her parents’ films before she settled into her own career:
White Lightning
(73, Joseph Sargent);
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
(74, Martin Scorsese);
Foxes
(80, Adrian Lyne);
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains
(82, Lou Adler);
Teachers
(84, Arthur Hiller);
Mask
(85, Peter Bogdanovich); winning praise as the young girl seduced in
Smooth Talk
(85, Joyce Chopra);
Sister, Sister
(87, Bill Condon);
Haunted Summer
(88, Ivan Passer);
Fat Man and Little Boy
(89, Roland Joffé); nominated for an Oscar in
Rambling Rose
(91, Martha Coolidge);
Afterburn
(92, Robert Markowitz); J
urassic Park
(93, Steven Spielberg);
A Perfect World
(93, Clint Eastwood);
Down Came a Blackbird
(95, Jonathan Sanger); an extremist in
Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy
(96, Roger Young); narrator on
Bastard Out of Carolina
(96, Anjelica Huston);
Citizen Ruth
(96, Alexander Payne);
The Baby Dance
(98, Jane Anderson);
October Sky
(99, Joe Johnston);
Dr. T & the Women
(00, Robert Altman);
Daddy and Them
(01, Billy Bob Thornton); J
urassic Park III
(01, Johnston);
Within These Walls
(01, Mike Robe);
Novocaine
(01, David Atkins);
Focus
(01, Neil Slavin);
I Am Sam
(01, Jessie Nelson);
Damaged Care
(02, Harry Winer);
We Don’t Live Here Anymore
(04, John Curran).

She was in
Happy Endings
(05, Don Roos);
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
(05, Jane Anderson);
Lonely Hearts
(06, Todd Robinson);
Inland Empire
(06, Lynch);
Year of the Dog
(07, Mike White);
Tenderness
(08, John Polson); and hilarious as Katherine Harris in
Recount
(08, Jay Roach).

Vittorio de Sica
(1902–74), b. Sora, Italy
1940:
Rose Scarlatte; Maddalena Zero in Condotta
. 1941:
Teresa Venerdi
. 1942:
Un Garibaldino al Convento
. 1943:
I Bambini ci Guardano/The Children Are Watching Us
. 1945:
La Porta del Cielo
. 1946:
Sciuscia/Shoeshine
. 1948:
Ladri di Biciclette/Bicycle Thieves
. 1951:
Miracolo a Milano/Miracle in Milan
. 1952:
Umberto D
. 1953:
Stazione Termini/Indiscretion of an American Wife
. 1954:
L’Oro di Napoli/Gold of Naples
. 1956:
Il Tetto
. 1961:
La Ciociara/Two Women; Il Giudizio Universale
. 1962: “La Riffa,” episode from
Boccaccio 70; I Sequestrati di Altona/The Condemned of Altona
. 1963:
Il Boom
. 1964:
Ieri, Oggi, Domani/Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Matrimonio all’Italiana/Marriage, Italian Style
. 1965:
Un Mondo Nuovo
. 1966:
Caccia alla Volpe/After the Fox;
“Una Sera Come le Altre,” episode from
Le Streghe
. 1967:
Sept Fois Femme/Woman Times Seven
. 1968:
Gli Amanti/A Place for Lovers
. 1969:
I Girasoli/Sunflower
. 1970:
Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini/The Garden of the Finzi-Contini
. 1971: “Il Leone,” episode from
Le Coppie
. 1973:
Una Breva Vacanza
. 1974:
The Journey
.