Johnny Depp was raised by middle class folks working regular jobs. John Depp Sr. was a civil engineer who dedicated his career to working for the government. He started out as a city engineer in Kentucky and went on to become Public Works director in Florida. “A true Public Works Professional and the kind of hidden hero most citizens never hear about,” the Florida chapter of the American Public Works Association noted. Later, Depp Sr. also worked as a contractor with expertise in alternative paving processes.
For his work, Depp Sr. received a lifetime achievement award from the association in 2012. Depp surprised his father with a celebratory video shared by the APWA. “I want to take this moment to congratulate you for … your dedication to your work and to the people and the way you’ve conducted yourself over the years with grace and dignity and integrity and fairness to all,” he gushed.
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Depp Sr.’s job was stable, but it didn’t come with a big salary. To help provide for their four children, Palmer worked waiting tables, often picking up double shifts. “[She was] counting nickels and pennies and dimes at the end of the night,” Depp told Rolling Stone in 2013. Even then, money was barely enough to feed all six of them. “They went into, like, a quadruple bankruptcy every Christmas,” he added. Depp remembers rubbing his mother’s feet, sore from running around at work all day.
