As Johnny Depp launches his sixth collaboration with quirky filmmaker Tim Burton, we look back on a career filled with unusual choices

By Sean Axmaker
Special to MSN Movies

Is Johnny Depp a star because of his idiosyncratic choices or despite them? He doesn't play by movie star rules, and he has historically steered clear of big-budget, high-profile productions, focusing rather on a wide array of challenging roles and eccentric characters. Depp plays in the kinds of films that garner great reviews but small audiences -- that is, until the acclaimed actor starred in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," his first bona fide hit.

Although Depp had small roles in a pair of iconic 1980s hits -- as the doomed boyfriend in Wes Craven's genre-reviving "A Nightmare on Elm Street," and as a young grunt in Oliver Stone's landmark "Platoon" -- it was TV that first put Depp on the map. "21 Jump Street" made Depp a pop icon, but it was the succession of vividly realized, often wildly eccentric screen characters that made him an actor to be reckoned with.

Singing -- and not for the first time -- in Tim Burton's adaptation of the Broadway hit, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," Depp still plays the Hollywood game by his own rules. And, by the looks of it, he's having as much fun as his characters.

Here's a brief survey of the offbeat and memorable characters in the career that Depp built. (DreamWorks/Paramount Pictures)