NY, Nov 24: The brooding, dark-eyed actor Johnny Depp is this year's "Sexiest Man Alive," according to People magazine. The 40-year-old Depp, who recently starred in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," will appear on the cover of the magazine's Dec. 1 issue, People said on Thursday.

"He's a little dangerous, he has a secret, he has great warmth -- all those things you can see in his eyes," director Lasse Hallstrom, who worked with Depp in the 2000 movie "Chocolat," said in the magazine. Once a chain-smoking Hollywood bad boy, Depp caught the public's eye in the television series "21 Jump Street" in the 1980s. He earned critical acclaim on the big screen in such movies as "Edward Scissorhands" in 1990 and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" in 1993.
The American actor and his French wife, actress Vanessa Paradis, who live in France, have a daughter and a son.

People also compiled a "Top 10" list of the sexiest men alive. They are Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher, George Clooney, Lenny Kravitz, Justin Timberlake, Hugh Grant, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Denzel Washington and Colin Farrell.
People gave its first "Sexiest Man Alive" honors to Mel Gibson in 1985. Others winners have included John F. Kennedy Jr., Sean Connery, Denzel Washington, Richard Gere and Ben Affleck.
Bureau Report