The wild-child actor called to heel by Australia's animal rules has not had an easy life. Johnny Depp, star of the forthcoming jungle epic I'm a Celebrity, Get My Dogs Out of Here, hadn't really wanted to be in Australia at all. Or even in a movie at all.At 51, and after 30 years in the business, he had reached the point at which an actor has to look himself in the eye and ask what truly matters in life.So when Disney came to him with the offer of a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film, he realised the answer was money, postponed his retirement, and signed up once more as the rascally seadog Captain Jack Sparrow."Basically," he told Vanity Fair, "if people are going to pay me stupid money, I'm going to take it."Unfortunately, stupidity on this scale tends to rub off, and as consolation for those hard weeks of filming on the sweaty shores of Queensland, Depp decided to sneak his pet terriers, Pistol and Boo, over from Los Angeles.The Australians take a dim view of anyone breaching their dog-importation rules, and when the pooches were later spotted at an "exclusive grooming parlour" near Brisbane, much hell broke loose.Barnaby Joyce, the agriculture minister, informed the nation that "a gentleman by the name of John Christopher Depp, aka Jack Sparrow," had "failed to get the proper certification and permits required"."Mr Depp has to either take his dogs back to California or we're going to have to euthanase them. If we start letting movie stars - even though they've been the sexiest man alive twice - to allow their dogs to come to our nation, then why don't we just break the laws for everybody? It's time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the US," he said.Depp's people initially claimed the star might not have realised the dogs were on the plane. Then suggested it was all the fault of his new wife, Amber Heard, 28, scrumptious but inexperienced in the ways of jet-setting.What can be said is that Depp's "sexiest man" days are behind him, and his career beyond the Pirates franchise is in big trouble.A string of flops, most notably The Lone Ranger, on which Disney lost almost $200-million, the comedy Mortdecai, and last year's sci-fi thriller Transcendence has, according to The Hollywood Reporter trade paper, cast doubt over Depp's future as a leading man, and forced him to cut his fees.Other reports claim Disney questioned whether Depp could even continue as Sparrow, causing a postponement and big questions about the new film's budget.For a while, it seemed likely that Depp would save everyone the trouble. Two years ago, he looked ready for retirement, telling the BBC that the end of his acting career was "not too far away", and hinting that he feared losing his personality to the roles he played."When you add up the amount of dialogue that you say per year and you realise that you've said written words more than you've had a chance to say your own words, you start thinking about that as an insane option for a human being."It hasn't been the easiest of lives. Depp was born in Kentucky, to an engineer and a waitress of seemingly restless ilk, who moved constantly - sometimes living in motel rooms - until they arrived in Florida, where they divorced.Depp's first ambition was to be a rock musician, joining the Six Gun Method band which enjoyed modest success. The search for a recording contract took him to Los Angeles, where he married Lori Alison, a studio make-up artist.She introduced him to Nicholas Cage, who liked the "wild boy" look and took young Johnny to a casting agent. His first screen role involved being eaten alive by a killer bed in the cult 1984 horror film Nightmare on Elm Street.It was enough. Or perhaps not. While his acting career soared, with a series of impressive box-office hits, his life was on the slide. Lori divorced him, and a three-year engagement to Winona Ryder ended painfully.Then he met Kate Moss. The two were quite an act. Furniture sailed through the air, restaurants shuddered to the sound of their rows. On one occasion, when police were called to a New York hotel, they discovered the couple sitting amid a pile of debris, which Depp claimed had been caused by a giant armadillo he had found hiding in the wardrobe.There was no sign of the beast on the scene, and soon no sign of Depp, either. When he finally threw in the towel and went back home, Moss was broken-hearted.He came back, claiming to have given up drink and drugs, and, for the next 14 years, lived in apparent contentment with French chanteuse Vanessa Paradis, with whom he has two children. That ended in 2012, and earlier this year he married Amber in the Bahamas.Jack Sparrow has made him more money than all his other roles put together."In the immediate nearness of the gold," says Jack Hawkins in Treasure Island, "all else has been forgotten ."Including the pooches' paperwork. It's been a pirate's life for Depp. And in some ways, a dog's. ..