Lori Anne Allison – Who Is Johnny Depp’s First Wife?
Lori Anne Allison is the first wife of Johnny Depp and the two were married in 1983.
Over the course of 2022, Johnny Depp’s name has been a constant in the entertainment world, from his high-profile divorce from ex-wife Amber Heard to the will he or won’t he return as his most famous character, Captain Jack Sparrow. There are, though, aspects of Depp’s life that don’t get much run, one being the fact that his marriage to Heard was not his first. In fact, it has been almost 40 years since Depp married for the first time. That was to Lori Anne Allison, Jonny Depp’s first wife.
LORI ANNE ALLISON MET JOHNNY DEPP BEFORE HE WAS AN ACTOR
When Johnny Depp was in high school, well before his Captain Jack Sparrow days, his main interest was playing in a band. So, he dropped out of high school to follow that dream. He started a band called The Kids and they were actually very good at finding gigs opening for bands such as Iggy Pop, the Ramones, Talking Heads, and The Pretenders.
Depp met Lori Anne Allison through his band. She was the sister of The Kids’ bassist. But the band moved to Los Angeles, and it was that move that broke up The Kids not long after. Not all was lost for Depp, though, as he and Lori Anne Allison, who was five years his senior, ended up tying the knot.
The couple married in 1983 in a small ceremony in South Florida. You can see the happy couple on their wedding day below.
Back in Los Angeles, Lori Anne Allison (who uses the Depp name still) had designs to pursue a career in the music industry. While her husband would be playing in rock bands, Lori wanted to become a record producer. Unfortunately, her dreams came crashing down when she became partially deaf in her left ear.
Lori Anne Allison was forced to pivot. In fact, Johnny was also in limbo, as his music career pretty much stalled at that time. As a child, she always had an affinity for makeup – at 8 years old Lori used to use a pen to draw makeup on her many dolls and then do them the honor of cutting their hair.
When Lori Anne Allison was 13 years old, she would visit a makeup boutique regularly where she received training in skin enhancement and beauty products. All of this early training and interest paid off and Allison turned to the film industry. More to the point, she became a makeup artist.
It was some of her friends in the entertainment world that got Lori Anne Allison her first Hollywood gig. She was great friends with stars like Christina Applegate and Adam Ant. In fact, it was also through those connections that she got Johnny Depp interested in making movies.
LORI ANNE ALLISON HELPED JOHNNY DEPP GET HIS FIRST ACTING GIGS
At that time, with his music career stalled, Johnny was trying to bring home the bacon by doing odd jobs. But through Lori Anne Allison’s persistence and connections, she was able to hook Johnny up with a rising star of his own, Nicolas Cage. Depp and Cage hit it off quickly and through Cage, Johnny Depp was talked into auditioning for A Nightmare on Elm Street.
“I got the job,” Johnny eventually confessed. “I was stupefied. They paid me all that money for a week. It was luck, an accident. I did it purely to pay the rent. I was literally filling out job applications at the same time, any kind of job. Nic Cage said, ‘You should try being an actor. Maybe you are one and don’t know it.’ I began acting, and I thought, well, this is an interesting road; maybe I should keep traveling on it.”
And travel he did. In the meantime, Lori Anne Allison was traveling her own makeup artist road to success. As both her and Johnny’s careers began to blossom, it was their marriage that took the hit. After only two years of marriage, the pair decided that divorce was the best way to go, so in 1985, they split for good.
Although they both cited irreconcilable differences as the reason, the split was amicable enough that Lori continued to use Depp’s last name. As the years progressed, the two had not spoken much to each other, but still, it never appeared that there was any lingering animosity between either of them.
This came into play when Johnny was going through his bitter divorce from Amber Heard.
SHE IS A HOLLYWOOD MAKEUP ARTIST
Lori Anne Allison has a number of Hollywood movie credits to her name. Her very first feature film was the 1992 film, Sunset Heat which starred her friend Adam Ant, Michael Paré, and oft-bad guy, the late Dennis Hopper. She followed that up with the 1993 feature, Acting on Impulse, which starred C. Thomas Howell, Nancy Allen, and Linda Fiorentino.
Over the years, Lori Anne Allison offered her talent to films such as Cyber Bandits, Venus Rising, The Ultimate Lie, and Matters of Consequence. She has done makeup for friends, and for television shows, and has worked with stars like Josh Groban, Bonnie Raitt, and the late Cloris Leachman. She even started her own line of lip gloss.
SHE CREATED THE LIP GLOSS SERENDEPPITY
It was 2015 when Lori Anne Allison introduced Serendeppity (like the way she used “Depp” in the name?), a line of lip gloss that is more versatile than simple lip gloss. She offers 10 glosses that she calls “very moisturizing” and has given those 10 glosses some very interesting names. She explained it all in a 2015 interview with Enstarz.
When she was asked how she came about with the lip gloss colors, Lori Anne Allison explained, “The colors I selected are colors I would wear. The ingredients are all animal-friendly and made in the United States, which was important to me. The glosses are very versatile. I just went with colors I think everyone can use. They can be used on your cheeks and I use the clear one on my cuticles. They’re all very moisturizing. People should experiment with them.”
The 10 glosses are uniquely named, and they are obviously Hollywood-themed. They include Baby Jane, Blanche, Olivia, Sandy, Marilyn, Knockout, Pinky, Wild Horses, Black Cherries, and Misty. In her explanation as to how she came up with those names, Lori Anne Allison explained that Baby Jane and Blanche comes from the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, a movie that starred Bette Davis as Baby Jane and Joan Crawford as Blanche.
“Olivia” was named after her favorite actress, Olivia Hussey. “Sandy” was named for Olivia Newton-John in Grease. “Marilyn” is a classic red named after Marilyn Monroe.
“Knockout” was from the inspiration by Laila Ali, daughter of heavyweight boxing legend Muhammed Ali. Lori Anne Allison says “Pinky” was named after her best friend, Pinky. “Wild Horses” got its name because it was one of her favorite songs from the Rolling Stones.
“Black Cherries” is the only gloss that doesn’t have ties to Hollywood. Lori Anne Allison says simply it looks like squeezed black cherries. Finally, there is “Misty,” which she named after a character in the Clint Eastwood film, Play Misty for Me.
LORI ANNE ALLISON DEFENDED JOHNNY DEPP DURING HIS LEGAL ISSUES WITH AMBER HEARD
If there ever had been any bad blood between Lori Anne Allison and her ex-husband Johnny Depp, it was put to rest a long time ago. This was never more evident when Depp was going through his legal battles with Amber Heard. Lori was one of the many who came to Johnny’s defense.
Lori Anne Allison felt it was necessary to come forward with her own thoughts about Heard’s claims of physical abuse, stating that Johnny was a “soft person” and would never raise a hand toward a woman, saying he’d never hurt a fly. She, along with his many exes – Sherilyn Fenn, Winona Ryder, Kate Moss, and even Vanessa Paradis with whom Johnny has two children – all came out to defend Depp.
According to Allison, “Johnny Depp would never lay a hand on a woman and isn’t capable of hurting anyone.”
Although the pair divorced nearly 40 years ago, Lori Anne Allison says they are still friends. She claims they still speak from time to time, wishing him nothing but the best.
