12 of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Best Roles to Date
From a tragic Shakespearean hero to a millionaire stockbroker, Leonardo DiCaprio has depicted a broad range of weird and wonderful characters across our screens for three decades. After his breakout in the Academy Award-nominated What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and, later, his tear-jerking performance in Titanic, he solidified his status as a ’90s heartthrob. More recently, we have seen him play a charismatic con man, a legendary tycoon, and a rugged frontiersman, all the while scooping up countless awards along the way. Here, we look back on his most impactful roles to date.
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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
DiCaprio received his first Academy Award nomination for the role of Arnie Grape—a young boy facing a number of challenges after the death of his father.
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Romeo + Juliet (1996)
DiCaprio pulls on every young girl’s heartstrings as he plays the hopelessly-in-love Romeo in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy.
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Titanic (1997)
DiCaprio stars alongside Kate Winslet in this unforgettable romantic drama that tells the story of Rose and Jack, whose paths cross on the ill-fated ship.
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The Beach (2000)
DiCaprio stars as Richard, a cocky young traveler whose possession of a strange map leads him to what he believes will be a mystical paradise, in this adventure saga.
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Gangs of New York (2002)
Set in 1860s New York, the actor stars as a young Irish ex-convict seeking revenge against the man who killed his father in Martin Scorsese’s historical epic.
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Catch Me If You Can (2002)
DiCaprio plays cunning fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr., who had already forged millions of dollars’ worth of checks before the age of 19, with unrivaled flair in Steven Spielberg’s crime caper.
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The Aviator (2004)
This alluring biopic depicting the early life of Howard Hughes, the director and legendary aviator, was a perfect vehicle for DiCaprio’s talents.
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The Departed (2006)
In this best picture Oscar-winning masterpiece, DiCaprio plays undercover cop Billy Costigan with his trademark fierceness, alongside the likes of Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, and Mark Wahlberg.
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Revolutionary Road (2008)
In this reunion with Kate Winslet, the actor is utterly devastating as Frank Wheeler, a young man who seeks an escape from his stifling suburban life in the early 1950s.
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Inception (2010)
Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending sci-fi sensation hinges on DiCaprio’s layered performance as an operative adept at stealing corporate secrets using the power of dream-sharing technology.
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The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
DiCaprio gives a powerhouse performance as Jordan Belfort, an ambitious stockbroker who rose to success before corruption, drugs, and crime precipitated his downfall, in Martin Scorsese’s rollicking black comedy.
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The Revenant (2015)
To win his first Oscar for best actor, DiCaprio played Hugh Glass, a frontiersman who faces life-threatening challenges on a perilous fur trading expedition in the 1820s (and, in one scene, even sleeps inside the carcass of a dead horse). Nobody could say he hadn’t earned it.
