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Leonardo DiCaprio (Credit: ABC)Leonardo DiCaprio is 41, and he has done more good work than Tom Cruise had at that age. In fact, DiCaprio had done more great work by age 31, by which time he had already made “This Boy’s Life,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” “Total Eclipse,” “Romeo + Juliet,” “Titanic,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator” and “The Departed.”
Now that DiCaprio has won his first Oscar on Sunday night (of five nominations) it might be time to toss this question out: Is Leonardo DiCaprio the greatest movie star ever? Has he given more excellent performances in more critical and financial hits than Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Cooper, Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Denzel Washington … or anybody?
Before you answer that question, consider that since turning 31, you could add to DiCaprio’s film list “Blood Diamond,” “Shutter Island,” “Inception,” “The Great Gatsby,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” and, now, “The Revenant.”
Over the last 20 years, there have probably been bigger box office stars, but surely DiCaprio would have topped Cruise and Johnny Depp if he had played it safe with “Mission Impossible” or “Pirates of The Caribbean” or some other bloated and predictable franchise film. No other star with DiCaprio’s kind of leverage has taken such enormous chances — and scored such enormous payoffs.
In his first professional job at age 5 – or so the legend is printed – he was kicked off the set of “Romper Room” for being disruptive. The next 15 years or so may seem like the inevitable arc of a gifted child star – commercials that practically made his face recognizable before high school.
