MY LIFE IN 10 PICTURES

Revisit Leonardo DiCaprio’s storied Hollywood career.

“I’m fulfilling the things I wanted to fulfill, and I’m still sane.” — Leo

EVEN THOUGH he was born and raised in Hollywood, Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio “didn’t know that you could become an actor and have it be a profession.” But once he did, it was “the only thing that I’ve ever known I really, really wanted to do.” And despite poverty and being a child of divorce, he did it — from a debut on Romper Room and Bubble Yum commercials to sitcoms, blockbusters and an Oscar. “It was one of those situations,” he reflects, “where I was lucky enough and fortunate enough to be at the right places at the right time.” Of course, those times also provided a “lot of fun” along the way. But all in all, “I feel like I’m a pretty levelheaded person that has remained happy,” noted Leo, who turns 42 on Nov. 11. “My dreams have been surpassed.”

1 1991 GROWING AWARE

1 “I was on the cover of Bop and Tiger Beat,” recalled Leo of his start in TV, including his first taste of fame on Growing Pains. “Every two months, I would see a new kid’s face, and I remember saying, ‘This is not something that lasts very long.’”

2 1993 WAY OF LIFE

2 “It was like a culture shock,” he said of going from TV to This Boy’s Life. “Everything was so new to me. Watching Robert De Niro on set, seeing his dedication, was one of the most influential experiences of my life.”

3 1993 EATING IN

“It was a gamble,” revealed Leo, who turned down “the first real money offer I’d ever gotten” to grab his part in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape with Johnny Depp. But it paid off with an Oscar nod. And if you’re wondering? “That other movie was Hocus Pocus.”

4 1996 SETTING THE BARD

“I wouldn’t have done it if I’d had to jump around in tights,” he said of Romeo + Juliet,a modern take on Shakespeare that Leo could relate to. “It’s about those things that carry you in a certain direction and you can’t stop.”

5 1997 SHIPPING OUT

“My whole life became about things that weren’t about acting,” admitted Leo following the blockbuster success of Titanic, with Kate Winslet. “It was a very surreal period. It was bizarre. I took a break for a couple of years because it was so intense. I needed to recharge and refocus.”

6 2004 PLANE TRUTHS

“He was obsessed with everything,” related Leo on parallels between himself and The Aviator’s Howard Hughes. “He could not stop until he thought things were perfect.

I’m not like that…only with making movies.”

7 2006 JACKED UP

“As far as Jack was concerned, we kind of expected the unexpected,” Leo said of playing off Nicholson in The Departed. “There were a number of [scenes] where I had no idea what was going to happen.”

8 2012 BAD IS GOOD

“Playing a bad guy opens you up to not having as many rules or restraints,” stated Leo of his role as a plantation owner in Django Unchained. “It takes you to the darkest place [as] a person and lets you indulge in that.”

9 2013 LEARNED COLLEAGUE

Though The Wolf of Wall Street was their fifth collaboration together, Leo is still in awe of director Martin Scorsese. “It’s hard for me to quite articulate or put into words everything that I’ve learned from him.”

10 2016 IN TO WIN

“It all feels incredibly surreal,” expressed Leo, on the support he received for his turn in The Revenant, for which he got his first Oscar.

“It’s quite shocking actually, and what can you say? Except I’m very grateful, I really am. It feels amazing.”