Few screen performers of his generation – male or female – have produced such indelible work on the silver screen with as much dexterity or range.

Equally as good in more serious dramatic roles as he is playing the fool, a unique combination of melancholy and comic playfulness distinguishes many of his appearances on screen, giving Depp a rare, intangible quality alongside his chameleonic approach.

Johnny Dep in Cry Baby

What are Johnny Depp’s best films and performances?

Johnny Depp’s performances haven’t always matched the quality of the films he’s appeared in. Thus, he’s often the best thing about the movie.

The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels are good examples, as is Stephen King film adaptation Secret Window.

That means Depp’s best performances aren’t always to be found in his best films.

However, when we find a balance between the two, we’re often in for something special.

Indeed, Depp appeared in some of the most notable American films of the 1990s, many of which remain criminally overlooked.

Johnny Depp in one of his most celebrated and commercially successful roles as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.

A good indication of a “Johnny Depp” character that’s worth seeing accomplishes the very traits he always eager to explore.

He said in an interview the things he finds fascinating involved “an exploration of the outside, or the outsider, or what’s considered the outsider, or the underdog, or the damaged.”

10. Benny And Joon (1993)

Dir. Jeremiah S. Chechik (1993)

The first time Johnny Depp was able to showcase his comedic side, Jeremiah S. Chechik’s Benny and Joon is memorable because of the actor’s amusing recreation of the physical slapstick of famed silent era comic stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. He’s over-the-top but sincere, showcasing a winning charm and sense of innocence.

9. The Ninth Gate

Dir. Roman Polanski (1999)

An underrated – and for the most part, understated – horror film from director Roman Polanski sees Depp play Dean Corso, a New York City rare book dealer who sets out to authenticate a book supposedly written by – and able to raise – the Devil. Corso’s rather odious behaviour is offset by an understandable obsession to serve his curiosity.

8. Arizona Dream

Dir. Emir Kusturica (1993)

A curiously fascinating offbeat comedy-drama that fits perfectly with Depp’s off-kilter sensibilities, Arizona Dream sees the actor playing a fish counter who claims instead of counting them he’s listening to their dreams.

That gives a not-so-subtle introduction to the off-the-wall lunacy on offer in Emir Kusturica’s surreal film.

At this point in his career, Depp was clearly more interested in unique indie voices as Arizona Dream underlined, his early work with John Waters and Jim Jarmusch making a fitting triple bill that champions the actor’s blossoming talent.

7. Dead Man

Dir. Jim Jarmusch (1995)

Fittingly surreal and off-kilter, Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, which marks Johnny Depp’s first collaboration with the indie-auteur, sees the actor play William Blake, an accountant who ends up on the run after being accused of murder.

Described by its writer-director as a “psychedelic western”, Dead Man eschews typical genre conventions but finds itself sharing some of classic western’s existential musings amidst the seemingly unrestrained possibilities of the American frontier.

6. Sleepy Hollow

Dir. Tim Burton (1999)

Sleepy Hollow looks stunning; its gothic styling straight from a Grimm-inspired bad dream and dressed in muted blues and greys, a ghostly mist lingering only to add to the film’s gorgeous otherness. Depp is sceptic investigator Ichabod Crane, a man of science and steampunk gadgetry who is unwilling to believe the town’s superstitious fears.

When the Headless Horseman reveals himself, Crane’s hysterics in the face of a very real paranormal threat bring a comic levity to director Burton’s unsettling stage.

5. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

Dir. Lasse Hallström (1993)

Memorable for Leonardo DiCaprio’s incredible performance, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape emotional centre emerges from the genuinely heartfelt performance of Depp.

Here he’s Gilbert, a working class grocery store clerk who’s got to make ends meet while caring for his obese mother and his disabled brother.

But an encounter with free-spirited Becky (Juliette Lewis) reveals a renewed zest for life that reveals the possibilities outside the constraints of small-town living and family commitments taking him on a journey of self-sacrifice and personal growth.

4. Donnie Brasco

Dir. Mike Newell (1997)

Depp embodies undercover FBI agent Donnie Brasco in this gangster drama based on the true story of Joseph D. Pistone who successfully infiltrated the New York mob and detailed his compelling story of mafia life in the book, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia.

Without the eccentricities, wardrobe and make-up touch-ups, or cartoonish sensibilities that had accompanied some of his other roles in the 1990s, this is Depp laid bare, discovering a steely courageousness in the face of unrelenting danger. He finds a fascinating fine line between confident swagger and fearful fragility.

3. Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas

Dir. Terry Gilliam (1998)

Depp goes full gonzo as a free-wheeling inebriated journalist who, under the influence of drugs, alcohol and a penchant for trouble, brings to the screen the stylised exploits of the real-life Hunter S. Thompson.

Director Terry Gilliam’s cartoonish approach is apt in conveying Thompson’s off-the-wall approach to an existence where his professional and personal life were inextricably linked – for better and for worse.

Depp’s affection for Thomson is writ large in his embodiment of the man’s manic paranoia and off-kilter unreality, an over-caffeinated comic energy that would inform numerous commercial hits in the 2000s and beyond including, most notably, Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

2. Edward Scissorhands

Dir. Tim Burton (1990)

Edward Scissorhands marks Depp’s first collaboration with Tim Burton and the beginning of a particularly fruitful professional relationship.

Inspired by the tragi-figures Frankenstein and Pinocchio, the actor perfectly finds that sense of the tortured soul seeking a meaningful existence.

There aren’t many actors capable of finding such childlike innocence and credible poignancy behind the wild hair and oversized metallic “scissorhands”.

1. Ed Wood

Dir. Tim Burton (1994)

Tim Burton’s best film also features Johnny Depp’s most irresistibly charming turn as the “worst director of all time”.

The eponymous character’s unstoppable idealism is matched by a huge heart and cartoonish smile.

In spite of Wood’s affectations and eccentricities, Depp manages to find a winning pathos (helped by a wonderfully endearing relationship built with Martin Landau’s Bela Lugosi) amidst the most pitiable proclamations and ever-present Angora sweaters.