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Academy Award-winner Leonardo DiCaprio long has been a household name – thanks to his work on the big screen and paparazzi photos that show up in the tabloids. This American actor, producer, philanthropist and environmental activist continues to delight and surprise audiences by taking on different roles across many genres as he turns 48.
His career has flourished well beyond his star-making turn as Jack Dawson in 1997’s “Titanic” and he is fearless in his choice of projects he takes part in.
DiCaprio starred in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” “The Quick and the Dead,” “The Basketball Diaries,” “Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet,” “The Man in the Iron Mask,” “Catch Me If You Can,” Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed,” “Shutter Island,” “Christopher Nolan’s Inception,” “Django Unchained, “The Great Gatsby,” “J. Edgar,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Revenant,” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
DiCaprio’s films have grossed more than $7 billion globally.
His upcoming Netflix comedy, “Don’t Look Up,” co-starring Jennifer Lawrence, will be released on Dec. 10 and already earned him $30 million. That is $10 million more than he usually takes in. His net worth is $300 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
In the years 1995 through 2020, he earned more than $300 million from base salaries alone, not to mention $100 from endorsement deals. He invested in vegan “meat” company Beyond Meat which went public in 2019 and was valued at $4 billion.
DiCaprio’s next project, due out in 2023, is “Killers of the Flower Moon,” in which he stars with Robert DeNiro. Another Hollywood legend, Martin Scorsese, is directing. The $200 million film is based on the best-selling book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” which tells the story of the killings of the members of the oil-rich Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma. DiCaprio and Scorsese are among the co-producers.
From 1995 through 2020, he earned more than $300 million from base salaries alone, not to mention $100 million from endorsement deals. Viewers in Japan have seen him in commercials for Jim Beam, he’s endorsed Tag Heuer watches and in 2016, Chinese electric car company BYD signed him as brand ambassador, Men’s Health reported.
He also invested in vegan “meat” company Beyond Meat which went public in 2019 and was valued at $4 billion, though that amount has dropped to just $82.5 million in 2022 because of inflation, increased competition, supply chain disruptions and consumer cutbacks on pricier meats, Reuters reported.
He has used his celebrity status to support many charities, with a passion for environmental issues. He founded the non-profit Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 specifically to help with causes related to the environment. After awarding more than $100 million in grants, the foundation merged with the Emerson Collective and Global Wildlife Conservation to work together to fight climate change and biodiversity loss through a new organization, Earth Alliance.
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born to Irmelin and George DiCaprio on Nov. 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, Calif. Though his parents split when he was a year old, and he lived primarily with his mother, he remained close with both parents. He claims his earliest passions were marine biology and acting.
DiCaprio’s performance skills were evident from his youth. His parents found a talent agent for him, but in the beginning, he was turned down repeatedly at auditions. He eventually landed commercials for Mattel, Kraft Foods, Bubble Yum and Apple Jacks while still a child.
His first major role came when he joined the cast of “Growing Pains” as orphan Luke Brower in 1991 for its final season. He followed that role by appearing as Robert De Niro’s stepson in “This Boy’s Life” in 1993. That same year, he garnered even more favor with critics by starring as a mentally disabled teenager in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.”
In 1997, James Cameron selected him to star in “Titanic.” His backend deal yielded him $40 million from that film alone and the film itself grossed $3 billion globally.
After the success of the romantic classic, he took a variety of roles that kept him in the limelight. He is known for negotiating good backend deals and will take an upfront pay cut, as he did in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” so he could star alongside Brad Pitt.
While DiCaprio has had some public romances with supermodels Gisele Bündchen and Bar Refaeli, he remains unmarried. He has been with Argentine-American actor/model Camila Morrone since 2017.
Real estate is a passion for DiCaprio. He owns an estimated $100 million in property across the world. He even owns a private island, Blackadore Caye, in Belize, for which he paid $1.75 million in 2005 and plans to develop it into a private resort in the future. He also purchased undeveloped land in Malibu for $23 million in 2017.
His first real estate purchases included two neighboring homes, one previously owned by Madonna, located in the Los Feliz part of Los Angeles that he paid $4 million for in 1994.
He bought his first property in Malibu in 1998 for $1.6 million. After trying to sell the 1950s-era bungalow for a market price of $11 million in 2005, he chose to rent it out somewhere between $25,000 to $50,000 per month.
DiCaprio also owns multiple homes in the Los Angeles area. Three in Malibu, two in Silver Lake and two in the Hollywood Hills. He does not flip these properties, however. Instead, he keeps them and rents them out when not in use.
He purchased a midcentury-modern, which was built in 1964 for Dinah Shore, in Palm Springs for $5.2 million in 2014.
The actor’s East Coast real estate includes an apartment in NYC’s Battery Park neighborhood that he paid $3.67 million for in 2008.
In 2014, he purchased a 3,663 square foot condo for $10 million in Greenwich Village. He ended up selling that property at a $2 million loss in 2016 but maintains two other apartments in New York City.
Then, in the fall of 2021, he acquired another Malibu mansion that overlooks the ocean for $14 million.
DiCaprio will be seen in the Netflix film “Don’t Look Up” in December and has four more projects in various stages of development already in the works.
