NEED TO KNOW
Depp says frequent moves in his childhood left him feeling like an “outsider” at a young age
Music later became a lifeline after his mother gave him an acoustic guitar at age 12
In 2004, he purchased a wooden house in the Bahamas where he found “total peace” out of the spotlight
After uprooting his life roughly 40 times during a turbulent childhood, Johnny Depp is opening up about how he finally found a permanent sense of “total peace” in the Bahamas.
Up until age 7, the actor, now 63, grew up in a one-story red brick house in Owensboro, Ky. He was the youngest of four children and was raised by his father, John, a civil engineer, and his mom, Betty Sue, a waitress.
In 1970, the family relocated to Miramar, Fla., which sits about 25 minutes west of Hollywood, Fla. While there, Depp says his family “moved around constantly — upwards of 40 different places.” It meant the Pirates of the Caribbean star attended many different schools and made him a “loner.”
Johnny Depp pictured in December 1987.
Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty
“I also was born with a ‘lazy left eye, so I had to wear an adhesive patch over my strong eye to force the left one to work with the right,” Depp told The Wall Street Journal in a Nov. 10 feature. “I was an outsider.”
At age 12, Depp’s mother handed him a relative’s acoustic guitar and quickly, “music became a lifeline, and eventually I formed a band.”
During junior high, Depp’s parents divorced, and he says his mother “fell into a deep depression,” adding that he “stayed until she got better. Then she threw me out,” which seemingly occurred when he was 17 years old. She went on to marry a man named Robert in 1981, who became Depp’s “mentor, father-figure, brother and friend.”
By the end of 1983, Depp moved to Los Angeles with his band. I was there when he met Nicolas Cage at a friend’s house. The actor came to see the band several times and, six months later, he suggested Depp try acting: “I was up for anything that would help pay the bills.”
Cage introduced Depp to his agent, and he was subsequently cast in the 1984 film A Nightmare on Elm Street. He would later go on to gain additional notoriety for his roles in Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Donnie Brasco.
Today, Depp says he lives most of the time in the Bahamas. PEOPLE previously reported the actor bought Little Hall’s Pond Cay, a 45-acre island with six beaches, for $3.6 million in 2004.
“It’s where I’ve found total peace and quiet,” Depp told the outlet. “Nobody’s pointing a camera at me or staring. I bought my 1940s wood house in 2004 and added a yurt and a painting studio. Art continues to be a sanctuary that lets me process the world around me.”
Johnny Depps attends a special screening of ‘Ebenezer’ in New York City on Nov. 1, 2026.
Credit: Jason Mendez/Getty
He adds: “I like to grab about four or five books and flop on the couch and read. Or I play guitar in my music studio.”
Depp is reentering the spotlight with the Nov. 13 release of Ebenezer, a new film based on Charles Dickens’ legendary A Christmas Carol character.
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The Oscar nominee previously stepped back from major Hollywood productions amid his highly publicized legal battles with ex-wife Amber Heard, during which both alleged physical, emotional and mental abuse. Their televised six-week defamation trial concluded in June 2022, when a jury found Heard liable on all three counts of defamation related to a 2018 op-ed she wrote. The jury also found Depp liable on one count of defamation in Heard’s countersuit. After initially appealing the verdict, the former couple reached a settlement in December 2022.
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