Two Decades Of Leonardo DiCaprio Chasing An Oscar

Leonardo DiCaprio (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Leonardo DiCaprio has been in Hollywood since the 1990s. There have been many films that he starred in exploded on the market. However, that seemed not enough to earn him an Oscar award. It took him more than two decades to get the award. How is his career?

Men who were born on November 11, 46 years ago or in 1974, started acting at the age of five. He made his first appearance on the children's television show Romper Room.

As a teenager, DiCaprio appeared in numerous commercials and educational films. In 1990, he began appearing on a series of television shows, including The New Lassie and Roseanne. In 1991, DiCaprio was cast in a recurring role in Growing Pains. That year DiCaprio also made his big screen debut in Critters 3, a low-budget horror film.

DiCaprio's breakthrough came in 1992 when he beat 400 other nominees to act opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy's Life (1993). DiCaprio received a warm welcome back to acting for his next film, What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). Because of his acting in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, DiCaprio for the first time, at such a young age, was nominated for an Oscar.

Leo and the Oscar

While acting in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, DiCaprio was only 18 years old. He was nominated in 1993 for his role as Arnie, Gilbert Grape's (Johnny Depp) brother with developmental disabilities. In one heartbreaking scene, Arnie finds his beloved mother lying lifeless. An excited Arnie, thinking her mother is kidding him, then despair when she finds out that her mother won't wake up.

However, it is too early for DiCaprio to earn an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The award went to Gene Hackman in the film Unforgiven.

To quote Britannica, In the mid-1990s DiCaprio began to attract a wider audience with films that were more mainstream. She became a teen idol after starring in William Shakespeare's Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), which retells classic love stories in a modern way. In 1997 DiCaprio became an international star with the release of James Cameron's epic Titanic.

His good looks and touching portrayal of Jack Dawson, a penniless artist who falls in love with a high-end passenger (played by Kate Winslet), helped make Titanic one of the highest-grossing films ever.

Titanic was nominated for 14 record-breaking awards and won 11 of them, including Best Picture and Best Director. Kate Winslet was nominated for her performance as Rose. From the cast to the people who recorded voices and designed dresses everything worked, except for Leonardo DiCaprio.

DiCaprio's pain of not getting an Oscar was not just once or twice. At the 2003 Oscars, Leonardo was not nominated for his role as Frank Abagnale Jr. or for the Gangs of New York. At that time the Oscar was awarded to Adrien Brody for The Pianist for Best Actor.

DiCaprio earned a second Oscar nomination where he played the famous tycoon Howard Hughes as he struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder in the film The Aviator. He researched the role by living with someone with OCD and observing their behavior over several days. The preparation resulted in an extraordinary performance. But did that give him an Oscar? Not.

DiCaprio's third nomination was when he played a smuggler and ruthless former mercenary in the American-German thriller, Blood Diamond. This time DiCaprio's study spent a month with ex-soldiers for military training and hunting in the South African bush, but still that's not enough. The Oscar at that time fell to Forest Whitaker who acted for The Last King of Scotland.

DiCaprio's acting in Wolf of Wall Street (2014), a film based on Belfort's 2007 memoir of the same name, earned him an Oscar nomination for the fourth time. But again, DiCaprio didn't get an Oscar.

Until finally 2016 was the best year for Leonardo DiCaprio and then made headlines. Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his first Oscar. Citing Oscar's official website, the film also stars Tom Hardy, which is based on the true story of 19th century explorer Hugh Glass (DiCaprio), who travels nearly 200 miles to civilization to seek revenge after his comrades abandon him for death and kill his son.

For his role, DiCaprio won Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in The Revenant. His Oscar acceptance speech has certainly become one of the record books.

"The making of The Revenant is about the relationship between humans and nature. The world we collectively perceive as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needs to move to the southern tip of the planet just to find snow. Climate change is real, it's happening now, "said DiCaprio.

"To the children of our children, and to the people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this extraordinary award tonight. Let us cherish this planet. Thank you so much. , "said DiCaprio.

Leonardo DiCaprio is special. Whether you accept the award or not, the years of acting have shown no decline. Despite being inundated with offers to appear in blockbusters and other mainstream films, DiCaprio has frequently accepted roles featuring the complex characters that have defined his career.