Leonardo DiCaprio’s birthday: A look at his best films over the years

Whether one likes him or not, no one can deny the acting achievements and stardom of Leonardo DiCaprio. He recently celebrated his 48th birthday, prompting his fans to look at some of his best works of art that have stood the test of time and continue to enthrall audiences and film buffs even today. Ever since getting his first break in coming-of-age cult films, he moved on to much bigger budget movies with some of the world’s best directors.

This gritty film portrays the trade of ‘blood diamonds.’ DiCaprio aces his role as a Rhodesian diamond smuggler, with a thick South African accent involved in the Sierra Leone civil war. The film was critically acclaimed and DiCaprio received nominations for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.

In this film released in 2006, DiCaprio plays the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper who goes undercover to learn about the inner workings of the Irish mob in Boston. The film was critically acclaimed and was a box office success. It is one of the highlights of DiCaprio’s and Martin Scorsese’s partnership in films.

In this film, DiCaprio plays, perhaps his most admired and well-known role as the romantic and poor young man who falls in love with Rose (Kate Winslet), the rich and privileged woman, who hates the marriage match that her family is forcing her into. Her fiance is the villain, while DiCaprio is the protagonist in this memorable romantic tragedy that is played aboard the Titanic ship and the backdrop of its real-life sinking incident.

This period film had DiCaprio and Tom Hardy paired for the first time in a gritty survival drama set in the cold snowy winters. It proved immensely lucky for DiCaprio and bagged him his first Academy Award after five previous nominations. The film is based on the story of a frontiersman, Hugh Glass, who is abandoned by his hunting crew, when severely injured. He survives and plots revenge on the people who abandoned him.

In the Wolf of Wall Street, he plays the role of Jordan Belfort, the controversial real-life American entrepreneur, former stockbroker, author and financial criminal. The film with DiCaprio’s tongue-in-cheek acting proved to be the most commercially successful film for director Martin Scorsese. Ironically, the film was produced by Red Granite Pictures, which was dissolved in 2018 after being implicated in a Malaysian corruption scandal.

In this film released in 2002, DiCaprio plays the role of an intriguing genius and witty conman and shows his exploits as a fraudulent doctor, lawyer, and as co-pilot for a major airline -- all before his 18th birthday. A master of deception, he is also a brilliant forger in the film. Directed by Steven Spielberg, this film did great at the box office and was nominated for several Academy Awards.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a comedy drama film and ranks among one of DiCaprio’s unusual performances as a desperate actor, Rick Dalton. The film details the struggles of the underdog and the pressures of ‘making it’ in the film industry. It was nominated for 10 Academy awards and was a commercial success.

In this 2010 film, directed by the enigmatic director, Christopher Nolan, Leonardo plays the role of a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the ‘subconscious’ mind of his targets. He is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious. This mind boggling film went on to win four Academy Awards and was the fourth highest grossing film of 2010.