After a stint as an extended guest star on, of all things, the TV sitcom “Growing Pains,” Leonardo DiCaprio made his big-screen debuts in prestige pictures in 1993, opposite Robert De Niro in “This Boy’s Life” and Johnny Depp in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” He was not yet 20 and impossibly beautiful, but with a darkness in his eyes that seemed to veer toward the infinite. He seemed both older than he was and younger than everyone else on Earth. He earned the first of his seven Oscar nominations for his work that year.

When “Titanic” made him an even bigger star four years later, he no longer was just an actor: We knew we would be watching him, no matter what else he did, forever.

Because he belongs to all of us, it’s often overlooked how Gen X his career has been. DiCaprio has avoided,

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