Johnny Depp

by ethnic


Birth Name: John Christopher Depp II

Birth Place: Owensboro, Kentucky, USA

Date of Birth: June 9, 1963

Ethnicity: German, English, Irish, French, African and Cherokee

Depp is the star of the films, Pirates of the Caribbean, Public Enemies and Edward Scissor Hands. In an interview he stated that his great grandmother has a lot of Cherokee heritage. (3)

From an interview in 2002 he stated that he was a mixture of German, Irish and Cherokee among other things.(2) There are some rumors on the internet that Depp also has Lebanese heritage, though this is not confirmed.

Some of Depp’s biographies state that his family name Depp is of French origin, derived from the names Pierre Deppe or Dieppe. He jokingly says that his surname means “idiot” in German.

The link below (1) shows a family tree on Depp’s father’s side that leads right up to his grandfather Oren Laramore Depp.  If you go back 9 generations on this family tree it will lead to a woman named Martha, born in 1612, who was a woman of African descent.

An interesting piece of trivia is that Martha’s daughter, Elizabeth Key was the first woman of African ancestry to successfully take legal action to free herself from slavery. This happened in 1656. (4)

Source:

  1. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
  2. http://johnnydepp-zone.com/deppster/
  3. http://www.johnnydeppfan.com/interviews/ias.htm
  4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Key_Grinstead

Photo by PR Photos

{ 416 comments… read them below or add one }

Jimenez January 14, 2012 at 5:43 pm

A lot of sock puppet voting going on here. The ganging up and down voting of people who point out the obvious is just retarded. I know this post of mine will probably receive the same treatment, but who cares?

It’s weird that people get aggressive just because people disagree with them – about something as ridiculously pointless as a celebrity’s ancestry.

I already showed the percentage of blood he would have from his_ known_ Afro American ancestor, namely 1/1024 . It’s on one of the previous comment pages. However, since only his paternal lineage is known, who knows? – He may have other African or Native American ancestors who are not so far back, but unknown. Or maybe he has none? Nevertheless, any exotic features he may have just cannot come just from that single ancestor, since she was ten generations back. It’s simply impossible.

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Alice January 24, 2012 at 5:46 am

Agree with your comment. People should embrace and be proud of all their ancestries. I’m sure Johnny is aware of proud of ALL his ancestries. He has spent a lot of time in Ireland and in an interview said “I’d really like to (trace Irish roots), because there’s a part of me that says, hey, I might be related to Phil Lynott or someone great like that.” “I want to meet up with J.P. Donleavy too, see if I’m related to him,” Depp added. “I’m hoping to get over to Ireland again soon.”
johnnydeppreads.com/index.php?showtopic=438
He is proud of his native American ancestry as well and made this interesting comment. “The interesting thing,” he notes, “if you find out you’ve got Native American blood, which a lot of people do, is you think about where it comes from and go back and read the great books, Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee or [John Ehle's] Trail of Tears, you have to think, somewhere along the line, I’m the product of some horrific rape. You just have that little sliver in your chemical makeup.”
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/05/08/johnny-depp-tonto-lone-ranger/

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Alice January 24, 2012 at 6:57 am

Haha you have to laugh.

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Alice January 24, 2012 at 7:05 am

Thumbing down Johnny’s own comments. Some juvenile people on this site. But lol it is amusing.

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Fralalalala January 14, 2012 at 2:42 pm

Johnny Cash was part Cherokee for a while, too. Did Depp claim Cherokee before or after he researched his lineage? Looks like its easier to verify his African-American heritage than his claimed Cherokee roots.

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mi.mi January 18, 2012 at 2:49 pm

Ya I can deffinately see native american in him. Are u on crack??

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Maria January 13, 2012 at 2:25 pm

Rose you just commented on LaLa Vasquez saying you are African American and Puerto Rican.Now you think every wants to claim people as white and you know this because your white.Ya i smell a troll lol Fucked up world you should know why have to lie about your race.

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me January 13, 2012 at 3:04 pm

many have Gypsy ancestry

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Maria January 13, 2012 at 4:00 pm

Ya me it was probally you anyway,Why you care so much what i do i came on page and Rose had commented on 10 celebs lying about her race how sad.Why you following my comments i do not way to interact with you i told you that obviously have a sad life .Last time you commented me on Hillary Duff calling me a retard and i retaliated by being mean then you commented me saying that you were jealous of me because i know so much about race,And then you go the admin to delete them by thats why i feel sorry for you really do not know anything about race and are a troll.Now fuck off and do not comment me saying i follow other peoples comments when you are following me.That why the recent comment are at the right of the page for .

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Maria January 13, 2012 at 4:05 pm

And can you speak English “You just know keep an eye on other comments in this page will take care of you life bitch?”That makes zero sense idiot Obviously this page is taking over you life why you care if i commented someone else about lying aw unless Rose is you that more like it.Why many troll names do you go under you sad sad individual.

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Maria January 13, 2012 at 4:10 pm

That right thumbs down the comment lol thats all you good for. People like you should not be allowed near a computer.

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Maria January 13, 2012 at 4:12 pm

Now piss right off and don`t comment me again i do not comment on yours anymore because its a waste of time writing to an typing and waste of my time i have realized fucking nutjob.

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rose January 13, 2012 at 1:16 pm

He’s mix… get over it!!

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me January 13, 2012 at 3:14 pm

He is mixed because he has evident characteristics of natives and a full blooded Cherokee great-grandmother on one side of his parents ,and in the other side 1/32-1/16 native.
http://johnnydepp-zone.com/deppster/

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Lana January 13, 2012 at 7:46 pm

are you in your avatar?

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me January 26, 2012 at 8:17 am

yes ; )

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mili January 29, 2012 at 4:03 pm

you’re a liar, I’ve seen that picture on the internet,in an site, before.

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mick January 13, 2012 at 10:11 am

Creeps me out. Sleazy and extremely hammy. Always plays a crazy, hammy eccentric. Blech.

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COMMONSENSE January 9, 2012 at 6:37 pm

that poster didn’t say he doesn’t have any black in him. she was just pointing out how ridiculous it would be to consider him black when the ancestry is very, very distant. His black heritage does go back more than a couple of hundred of years. Chillax. Everyone’s mixed. I guarantee if you stretch anyone’s family tree far enough, you’ll find an ancestor of a different race. That is what this site proves anyway. It goes back in people’s ancestry from the 1600′s and stuff

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Memphis January 11, 2012 at 5:01 pm

It is soo funny that this thread causes so much controversy. Every one wants to dispute any African blood but really embrace the Native identity. I personally see a lot of German. Johnny Depp’s mother looks like she has some distant Native blood but if you look at has Dad’s pic, one definitely see the African/Native/Euro mix. Americans are soo caught up in the social terms of who is “black” or “white” and the stupid one drop rule. Most African Americans have 5 to 20% European blood and so called “White” Americans admixture runs from 1 to 15% African blood really depending on regions of the country.

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SparkleTime January 11, 2012 at 6:27 pm

What controversy? Johnny Depp has African in his lineage, but the thought of him being a black man because he has an ancestor from over 300 hundred years ago . . . . . is plain ridiculous.

http://i46.tinypic.com/r1epsm.jpg

Meh. His father looks Southern European. Saying you can see the 0.03% black in him is ridiculous. When he has that little of African blood, those features could literally have come from ANYTHING.

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Memphis January 29, 2012 at 5:12 pm

Hahaha!!! A. It doesn’t matter because this isn’t a race picking game. Johnny is an American first. B. His father comes from a region where ppl have mixed for countless years (Melungeon, Natives, escaped slaves). Many “black” people could pass for “white” and often claimed Italian C. If he is Southern European they are dark from ancient migrations, slave trade, and Arab, Berber, Afro Arab (Moor) mix. “Black” is a social identity, Johnny Depp ain’t “black” but his dad looked mixed.

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SparkleTime January 9, 2012 at 5:24 pm

Don’t care if I get thumbed down!

He is HARDLY black. He has a black grandmother that was born in 1612 — TEN generations ago! 1/1000th (o.o3%) black does not make a black man!

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COMMONSENSE January 9, 2012 at 5:33 pm

LOL

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Roxy January 19, 2012 at 12:55 pm

You are so right!

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Amanda December 31, 2011 at 5:30 pm

He isn’t wrong about his surname. It does have negative meaning, his surname means twit, dimwit, crumb, or ding-a-ling. I think that is worst than having mud as a surname.

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me December 31, 2011 at 9:28 am

you can see in this photo a lot of Native influences in Johnny Depp
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bB_SYjr7J7g/Tmzi813bo-I/AAAAAAAADlQ/WUetKzLjn5w/s640/young+johnny+depp+09.jpg

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SparkleTime December 20, 2011 at 6:53 pm

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

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me December 21, 2011 at 5:26 am

I know most people who visit here are not nordicists or mixed race supremacists. Johnny Depp is mixed to me, he has olive skin and a square face as most of the descendants of the natives.
Sometimes he looks white:
http://blogmais.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/johnny_depp_i_charli_90203o.jpg

Sometimes he looks hispanic:
http://www.fotosimagens.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Johnny-Depp-fotos.jpg

but in general he seems to 1 / 4 native
http://cinemacomrapadura.com.br/imagens/2011/01/johnny_depp5.jpg
It seems that you want to whiten celebrities, I can understand, for example, Mariah Carey and Nicole Richie looks white to me. But for other people not.

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SparkleTime December 21, 2011 at 2:24 pm

-_-

I am not trying to “whiten” a celebrity. I did not even mention Johnny Depp’s race in my comment.

By the way, he is an 1/8th Cherokee, not a 1/4th.

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