Johnny Deep as John Dillinger Public Enemies publicity photo 2009 frame added 2015 Canvas Print

"Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, a notorious and charismatic bank robber whom the FBI declares to be 'Public Enemy No. 1.' Depp was involved in a film adaptation of Shantaram which was postponed in late 2007, allowing him to star in Public Enemies. He was officially cast that December. Depp described Dillinger as 'that era's rock and roll star. He was a very charismatic man and he lived the way he wanted to and didn't compromise." He felt 'some kind of inherent connection' to Dillinger through one of his grandfathers, who ran moonshine, and his stepfather, who committed burglaries and robberies and spent time in the same prison Dillinger helped his associates escape from.

Depp could not find a recording of Dillinger's own voice, but did find recordings of Dillinger's father. He said when he heard Dillinger's father's voice, "I started to do the math and think, 'Well, he was raised basically a farm boy in southern Indiana.' I was born and raised in Owensboro, Kentucky, which is...

I first became obsessed with photography and motion pictures while growing up in post WW2 Manila in the Philippine Islands in the late 1940's/early 1950's. Film noirs were a particular influence. But my first love remains the theater. I acted in numerous amateur productions from 1958 to 1978. In 1979 I earned a MA in drama from the University of Arizona; earlier getting a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, where I co-founded the first film society on campus and ran it for four years. While at the U of A, I studied with the master black and white photo essayist W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) the last year of his life. I am the last person cited in Jim Hughes' definitive biography of Gene, as I wrote about attending his final...