Leonardo DiCaprio

DiCaprio in 2011, Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

Birth Name: Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio

Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States

Date of Birth: November 11, 1974

Ethnicity: German, one quarter Italian, Russian, likely small amount of Polish

Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor, film producer, and environmentalist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Revenant (2015). He has also starred in the films Critters 3, This Boy’s Life, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Basketball Diaries, The Quick and the Dead, Total Eclipse, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Marvin’s Room, Titanic, The Man in the Iron Mask, Celebrity, The Beach, Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator (2004), The Departed, Blood Diamond, Body of Lies, Revolutionary Road, Shutter Island, Inception, J. Edgar, Django Unchained, The Great Gatsby (2013), The Wolf of Wall Street, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Don’t Look Up, and Killers of the Flower Moon, and on television’s Growing Pains and Parenthood (1990). He founded production company Appian Way Productions. He has also created the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, for the environment, and is a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

He is the son of Irmelin (Indenbirken), a legal secretary, and George DiCaprio, a comic book writer and distributor. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his paternal grandmother was of German, and some Polish, ancestry. Leonardo’s mother is a German immigrant, and is of German and Russian descent. A picture of Leonardo with his mother and maternal grandmother can be seen here.

He is said to have been named Leonardo because, he first started kicking inside his mother’s womb when she was viewing a Leonardo da Vinci painting in a museum.

Leonardo’s paternal grandfather was George Leon DiCaprio (the son of Salvatore D. DiCaprio and Rosina Cassella). George was born in New York, to Italian parents, from Alife, Province of Caserta, Campania. Salvatore was the son of Biase/Biagio Di Caprio/DiCaprio and Maria Emanuela/Emanuele Incagnoli. Rosina was the daughter of Cipriano Cassella and Camilla Conzales.

Leonardo’s paternal grandmother was Olga Anne Jakubowsky, later Jacobs (the daughter of Paul Jakubowsky/Jacobs/Jacub/Jackes and Bertha Minna Ludwig). Leonardo’s grandmother Olga was from Braunschweig, Germany. Paul was born in Liebau, Schlessin, Germany, now Lubawka, Poland, the son of Paul Jakubowsky and Olga Breuer. Bertha was born in Zerbst, Germany, the daughter of Ludwig Christian and Minna Muller.

Leonardo’s maternal grandfather was Wilhelm Heinrich Indenbirken (the son of Wilhelm Indenbirken and Adelheid Grachowski). Leonardo’s grandfather Wilhelm was born in Herne, Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Leonardo’s great-grandfather Wilhelm was the son of August Indenbirken.

Leonardo’s maternal grandmother was named Yelena/Helene Lisbeth Smirnova/Smirnow (the daughter of Stefan/Stepan Petrovich Smirnov and Irene/Irina). Yelena was of Russian origin, possibly with roots in Mishkinsky District, Bashkortostan. Leonardo’s great-grandfather Stefan was the son of Pyotr/Petr Smirnov.

Sources: People Magazine mention of Leonardo’s Russian ancestry – http://www.people.com

Genealogies of Leonardo DiCaprio – http://www.geni.com
http://www.wikitree.com

Notes on Leonardo’s paternal grandfather, George Leon DiCaprio’s, ancestry – http://blogs.ancestry.com

Birth record of Leonardo’s paternal grandfather, George Leon DiCaprio – https://familysearch.org

Leonardo’s paternal grandfather, George Leon DiCaprio, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

U.S. Naturalization record of Leonardo’s paternal grandmother, Olga Anne Jakubowsky/Jacobs – https://www.familysearch.org

U.S. Naturalization record of Leonardo’s paternal great-grandfather, Paul Jakubowsky/Jacobs/Jacub/Jackes – https://www.familysearch.org

Death record of Leonardo’s paternal great-grandmother, Bertha Minna Ludwig – https://www.familysearch.org