See Leonardo DiCaprio's Best Roles

Leonardo DiCaprio has inhabited many characters in his 25-year career as an actor, but his turn as a fur trapper in Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s The Revenant is the first role that required him to inhabit a dead animal carcass. And eat bison liver. And swim in frozen Canadian rivers at the height of winter. It was a brutal filming experience which yielded a similarly brutal film, and over the coming months we’ll learn whether it was enough to earn the actor his first Academy Award. But although it may have been his most physically taxing role, it’s just one of a career’s worth—or really, half a career’s worth—of memorable characters. As The Revenant opens nationwide on Jan. 8, here’s a look back at DiCaprio’s most memorable performances at the movies.

Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com.