Everyone knows Johnny Depp made his film debut in A Nightmare on Elm Street, but that was hardly his only trip into the horror movie realm. Depp famously got the role as Nancy’s boyfriend Glen nearly by accident, accompanying a friend to their audition and being asked to read as well. One wonders what would’ve become of movie history had Depp not gotten turned into a blood fountain by Freddy Krueger, but he did, and Depp went on to be one of cinema’s most unique performers.
Personal scandals aside, Depp remains a charismatic, talented presence onscreen, and still maintains a legion of devoted fans. It’s been a few years since he ventured into horror, but here’s the times that’s happened so far, outside of his movie debut.
Johnny Depp’s Horror Roles (Besides Nightmare on Elm Street)
Johnny Depp‘s first proper horror role after meeting the business end of Freddy Krueger’s knife glove in A Nightmare on Elm Street came much later, in 1999. Depp starred as Dean Corso in director Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate, which sees a rare book dealer get drawn into a web of evil while searching for a possibly demonic text. It’s a slow burn, but a very atmospheric one. Before that though, Depp played a couple horror-tinged roles in non-horror films, including the title characters in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. He also made a bizarre cameo in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.
Also in 1999, Depp played the villain in sci-fi/horror feature The Astronaut’s Wife, opposite Charlize Theron. Depp’s character is an astronaut who returns from outer space a changed man, in the sense that he’s literally no longer the same person. Depp rounded out his quite eventful 1999 by starring as Ichabod Crane in Burton’s rendition of the classic ghost story Sleepy Hollow. In 2001, Depp played the brilliant but troubled Inspector Frederick Abberline in From Hell, a graphic novel adaptation that sees Depp on the hunt for Jack the Ripper. By 2004, Depp was playing Mort Rainey in the Stephen King adaptation Secret Window, an author with unique problems.
The following year, Depp voiced lead Victor Van Dort in Burton’s horror-tinged animated film Corpse Bride, and two years after that, he teamed with Burton again to play the title character in gory horror musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Another horror-tinged Depp/Burton collaboration came in 2012, with Depp playing Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows. Depp’s strangest horror role came in two Kevin Smith films, playing the nearly unrecognizable Guy Lapointe in both Tusk and Yoga Hosers.
