A youngster called John Christopher Depp II left high school in 1979 to play guitar in a band in the suburb of Miramar, Florida, which had little to set it apart from the rest of Broward County’s flat grid of ranch houses and strip malls. He was fifteen, possibly sixteen. The sources can’t agree on the precise age, which is the kind of minor discrepancy that tends to build up around tales that are repeated over many years.
The order is the same in all of them: he dropped out of Miramar High School, changed his mind within two weeks, tried to re-enroll, but the principal warned him not to. advised him to pursue his love of music instead. Although no one involved could have known that at the time, it’s one of the more significant scholarly recommendations in American film history.
The guitar had come a few years prior to the choice to drop out; it was a gift from his mother when he was twelve, the kind of item that, in the proper hands, can change a child’s course in life. Before graduating from high school, Depp was already performing in garage bands. His most regular group, The Kids, played around Miramar, developed a local fan base, and practiced in whatever venues were available, achieving the small regional success that garage bands in that era might aspire for.
After his parents’ divorce in 1978, his already nomadic upbringing—which included more than twenty addresses before the family settled in Florida—was further complicated by financial hardship and mental upheaval. By the time he graduated from school, playing guitar in a band was more than just a passion. It was the only thing that seemed steady.
When The Kids felt they had enough to pursue a record deal, Los Angeles was the next natural step—or at least that’s what they did. As usual, the city was not immediately accommodating. The band was never able to secure a contract. They opened for Iggy Pop and The Ramones, which is actually more than most bands ever accomplish. However, the commercial breakthrough never materialized, and Depp had to spend a portion of this time selling ink pens over the phone to cover his rent.
The group disbanded. Around the same time, his first marriage to makeup artist Lori Allison was falling apart. Nicolas Cage, a friend who recognized something more than a struggling musician in Depp, was introduced through Allison. He expressly and frequently urged acting, to the point where Depp finally gave it some thought.
Depp only took a few sessions at the Loft Studio in Los Angeles after getting early film work, which was the extent of his professional acting training. His first major film part came almost by chance in 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, where he met Wes Craven thanks to Cage’s contacts. 1987 saw the release of 21 Jump Street, which made him a television personality he actively chose not to maintain when cinema options arose.
The early Tim Burton collaborations, such as Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, gave that quality a particular context, and the camera appreciated something about him that the music industry hadn’t yet discovered. Unusually for performers who arrive by the path Depp did, he was always more interested in range than stardom.
The University of London granted him an honorary degree in 1999, which is merely a footnote to the official academic accreditation he never obtained through conventional means. It’s the kind of distinction that comes after a career proves itself, and by that point, Depp’s career—which was developed without any traditional conservatory training or preparation for film school—had accomplished just that.
It’s difficult not to notice that the sequence—guitar at twelve, dropout at fifteen, principal’s advise to stay away, band to Los Angeles, band breakup, Nicolas Cage in a living room—is the kind of story that defies conventional notions of what a career path should look like. However, the route resulted in a filmography that the majority of actors with professional training would give anything for.
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