Leonardo DiCaprio

Early life DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of George DiCaprio, a distributor of comic books, and Irmelin Indenbirken, a former legal secretary. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, while the remainder of his ancestry is German. DiCaprio's name allegedly came about because his pregnant mother was standing in front of a Leonardo da Vinci painting at a museum in Italy when he kicked, which made her decide to name him after the famous artist.

His parents divorced when he was a year old. He grew up in Echo Park, a notorious neighborhood DiCaprio describes as the 'Hollywood slums'. At age five, he appeared on his favorite television series, Romper Room, and was almost fired for misbehaving. He attended John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. He was rejected by an agent early in his career for having a name that sounded too foreign, suggesting that it should be changed to Lenny Williams, but DiCaprio refused. Personal life DiCaprio is best friends with actor Tobey Maguire, whom he beat to get roles in Roseanne and This Boy's Life.

He is also good friends with Lukas Haas, Kevin Connolly and Kate Winslet. He has been romantically linked to fashion models Kristen Zang, Amber Valletta, Helena Christensen, Eva Herzigova, Naomi Campbell, and Gisele Bündchen. He is currently dating Israeli model Bar Refaeli, since winter of 2005. DiCaprio sued Playgirl magazine to stop the New York-based monthly magazine from publishing unauthorized nude photos of him in its July 1998 issue. Some reports claim the photos were secretly taken while the actor was lounging in the nude, while others say they came from stills of his nude scenes in, or from outtakes of, the movie Total Eclipse. The case was settled on June 29, 1998 for an undisclosed amount. A registered Democrat in California, DiCaprio has been active in promoting moderately progressive causes, and in 2004 supported Senator John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign.

DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for opting to fly on commercial flights instead of chartering private jets (and therefore using more fuel), which many celebrities do. He has also mentioned that his house has solar panels, and that he owns a Honda hybrid car and has bought hybrids for family members.