Those under 25 may not know what I'm talking about, but the older you get, the more thankful you become for things that work and stick around and that you've loved for a long, long time. No, this isn't about Woody in "Toy Story": The man I'm referring to here is Johnny Depp.

You may not know that Depp started his career way back in the 1980s and was in the very first Freddy Krueger franchise entry, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (directed, in fact, by Wes Craven). Depp was several shades the wrong side of being Hollywood gorgeous, which only added cachet to his dark, authentic charm. He went on to do interesting, quirky projects with directors such as Lasse Hallstrom ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape?") and Jim Jarmusch ("Dead Man"), pairing with formidable big-name actresses like Charlize Theron ("The Astronaut's Wife") and Helena Bonham Carter ("Sweeney Todd"). And us old fogies can recall a time when he tattooed "Winona Forever" on his forearm and declared the now-fading Winona Ryder the most beautiful girl on the planet. Sigh.

The fact is that Depp has banked on a compelling, alluring strangeness of which Hollywood has always been rather wary, but also deployed to full advantage. A case in point is the enormously successful franchise "Pirates of the Caribbean," which has ensconced Depp as its centerpiece and raison d'etre. Now in its fourth installment, "Pirates" is fast becoming the adult equivalent of the "Harry Potter" series, though Depp as the hungover, rum-swigging, dreadlocked pirate Capt. Jack Sparrow is a far cry from the clean, bespectacled Harry, who really needs to kick back and relax.