Johnny Depp has never won an Oscar??? How can this be? A lover, a pirate, an outlaw, a cop, a singing demon barber ... hard-edged drama, quirky drama, surreal comedy, lush romance, ghoulish fairytales ... he's done it all, more than once, and brilliantly. Yet despite three noms (Finding Neverland, Sweeney Todd, Pirates) the Academy has so far overlooked his versatile genius. Hopefully Depp's Dillinger impression will get their attention. In the meantime, here's a slightly lopsided list of JD's best and just so-so films.

Top 6

Donnie Brasco
It's undercover so deep NYC FBI agent Pistone -- alias Donnie Brasco -- loses the way back to his life before he became Mafioso "Lefty" Ruggiero's (Al Pacino) apprentice. Depp/Donnie more than holds his own beside wise guy veteran Pacino with likable innocence, wit, and loyalty as a good man drowning in muddy moral waters.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Depp does trippy better than anyone. He's at his nuttiest doing a psychedelic ode to drug-addled gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Ed Wood
Another larger-than-life, eccentric JD homage, this time to the legendary "worst director of all time" (so says his Golden Turkey Award from '80s film critic Michael Medved) responsible for Plan 9 From Outer Space and other beloved B bombs. It's a hilarious and touching take on Wood's many oddball faces -- from angora-addicted transvestite to passionate filmmaker.

Sweeney Todd
As magnificent at macabre musical theater as he is at modern mean-streets dramas, Johnny morphs with eerie ease into Victorian London's (and Broadway's) vengeful demon barber of Fleet Street -- notorious for his murderously close shave.

Pirates of the Caribbean
Scene-stealing, wisecracking rogue Jack Sparrow is arguably the best (and at least the most entertaining) pirate ever to sail the silver screen. An unforgettable JD performance even without the sequels.

Edward Scissorhands
Johnny (Burton's not-so-secret weapon) transforms what might seem like a pasty-faced scissor-handed fiend into a sweet, innocent, puppy-dog-eyed hair-and-shrub artiste.

Other stand outs: Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Blow, Finding Neverland, Dead Man ... and I could go on ...

Bottom 4

Don Juan Demarco
Every Hollywood sex symbol deserves at least one cheesy vehicle that highlight's his hunky side. This is Johnny's. (Perhaps in this respect a little like Chocolat -- though audiences also deserve guilty pleasures.)

Nick of Time
Wide-eyed and bespectacled Depp's unwilling assassin (an older, less hip, less wise Officer Tom Hanson?) blunders through this predictably third-rate tick-tock flick.

The Ninth Gate
Even a talent like Depp has no where to go in a satanic Polanski thriller that deadends with no payoff.

Cry Baby
One of the misses on John Waters' hit/miss resume, both the film and its cry-baby greaser hero (JD) fall surprisingly flat despite the heaping helping of kitsch they're dished up with.

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