Best Movies Starring Leonardo DiCaprio

In “The Beach,” DiCaprio portrays Richard, a young American traveler whose discovery of a secret island commune brings about its untimely demise.

DiCaprio stars in this biographical drama about J. Edgar Hoover, a former director of the FBI who had secrets of his own.

DiCaprio portrays both the spoiled King Louis XIV and his brother Philippe, whom Louis has imprisoned in an iron mask to conceal his identity and to prevent him from taking the throne.

In this western, young DiCaprio plays The Kid, an arrogant gunslinger who seeks the approval of the man he believes to be his father: John Herod, an outlaw and the de facto leader of the town of Redemption.

DiCaprio portrays Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire and veteran with humble roots and a foolishly undying love that leads to his undoing.

In this action thriller, DiCaprio plays an insubordinate CIA operative in Jordan who is on a quest to track down a terrorist leader.

Based on the memoir of Jim Carroll, “The Basketball Diaries” follows Jim (played by DiCaprio) as a troubled teenage basketball player who develops a heroin addiction and turns to prostitution to make ends meet.

In this drama set in 1950’s Connecticut, Frank Wheeler (played by DiCaprio) is a restless romantic who hates his job and struggles to find contentment in suburban life.

In this story of an estranged family attempting to reunite in the face of medical struggles, DiCaprio plays troubled teen Hank who has just burned down his family’s house.

In a reimagining of this Shakespeare classic, DiCaprio plays young Romeo, who falls into forbidden love with a girl from a rival family, amidst deadly street feuds.

In this biographical drama based on a memoir by Tobias Wolff, DiCaprio portrays the teenage Toby growing up with an abusive father figure in Washington state and attempting to escape to the East Coast.

DiCaprio stars in this psychological thriller as U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, whose world turns upside down as he investigates the disappearance of a patient at a psychiatric facility.

In a tale of immigration and tribalism in Civil War-era New York City, DiCaprio plays Amsterdam Vallon, a second-generation Irish-American who seeks vengeance against the gang leader who killed his father.

In this revisionist-history comedy, DiCaprio plays Rick Dalton, a washed-up actor in 1969 Hollywood who, along with his stunt doublle and best friend, ends up intercepting the Manson Family murderers.

Attempting a rather difficult accent, DiCaprio plays Rhodesian ex-mercenary Danny Archer, who teams up with an imprisoned fisherman to recover a rare pink diamond during the Sierra Leone civil war.

In this historic-fiction blockbuster, DiCaprio portrays Jack Dawson, a free-wheeling traveller with a knack for portraiture, who falls in love with an upper class beauty on a doomed ocean liner.

In the Aviator, DiCaprio portrays aviation pioneer Howard Hughes during his rise to fame as a film producer, while detailing his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In a role that secured him his first Oscar, DiCaprio portrays a fictionalized version of frontiersman Hugh Glass, who is attacked by a grizzly bear and abandoned by his fellow trappers in the harsh Dakota winter.

DiCaprio stars in this biographical drama that chronicles the rise and fall of Jordan Belfort, a scheming stockbroker with a penchant for drugs, prostitutes, and endless profits.

In a performance that would earn him his first Oscar nomination, DiCaprio portrays Arnie Grape, an autistic teenager growing up in a struggling but tight-knit family in small town Iowa.

In “Django Unchained,” DiCaprio plays villain Calvin Candie, a ruthless cotton plantation owner whose side business is charging admission to view forced slave fights.

In this biographical crime comedy, DiCaprio stars as teenager turned con artist Frank Abagnale who makes millions by impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer.

In this sci-fi action film, DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a professional thief who can enter people’s dreams and retrieve information from their subconscious. For a chance to wipe his record clean, Cobb must reverse his craft and plant an idea into a target’s mind.

In this crime drama, DiCaprio plays undercover cop Billy Costigan, who infiltrates a gang in Boston while attempting to keep his identity secret from a mole in the police department.