Marlon Brando

PIRATE PANACHE: Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, 77th Annual Academy Awards, 2005
Think of the extraordinarily beautiful Depp as Tim Burton's muse or doppelganger, the director's hallucinatory projection of himself on the silver screen. Absent Burton, for whom he's starred ... moresix times, Depp believes he might have ended up as "just another piece of expendable Hollywood meat." Three Oscar noms -- for "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," Captain Jack Sparrow ("Pirates of the Caribbean") and "Peter Pan" author James Barrie ("Finding Neverland") -- signify that the Dream Factory rates the Dark One higher than meat. Moody Method types James Dean and Marlon Brando shaped Depp's idea of himself as an actor, and he shares those rebels' edgy ambivalence about stardom. Johnny Scissorhands sports numerous scars (reportedly self-inflicted) and tattoos, commemorating important persons or events in his life: "My body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist." But on Oscar night 2005, when Depp was nominated for "Neverland," clothes marked the man: The actor was a style standout in a custom-made, midnight-blue tux with shawl collar, two-tone shoes suggestive of spats, and typically tousled hair. Mr. Stench looked mighty flash. (Sara De Boer/Retna Ltd.)