Leonardo DiCaprio left with his father George in London on Tuesday evening.
The Oscar-winning actor, 48, was spotted at the London hotspot of Chiltern Firehouse with his father George, 79, and stepmother Peggy Farrar.
George is one of Leo’s regular red carpers, along with his mother Irmelin. His parents divorced when the actor was a year old and George married Peggy in 1995.
Leo and his father both dressed in black zip jackets for dinner, at London’s Chiltern Firehouse, seemingly unaware that 28-year-old Gigi Hadid – whose romance with him reportedly died out in February – was already there.
George also wore black tuxedo pants and shiny black loafers, and he wore his long white hair to his shoulders, while sporting a goatee and yellow-rimmed glasses.
Father and son: Leonardo DiCaprio left with his father George in London on Tuesday evening for dinner at the Chiltern Firehouse hotspot
Dapper: George, 79, is one of Leo’s regular red carpers, along with his mother Irmelin. His parents divorced when the actor was one year old
Peggy wore a white puffer jacket, matching white pants and lavender and blue Hoka sneakers.
Farrar observes the Sikh religion and therefore wore a white turban to contain his hair.
George most recently had a small role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1970s coming-of-age comedy Licorice Pizza.
He played a wig shop owner and waterbed salesman who convinced the film’s protagonist (played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Cooper) to start his own waterbed business.
News of George DiCaprio’s cameo first emerged from New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan, who shared some “excerpts” from his interview with Paul Thomas Anderson that did not make it into the article.
Anderson revealed, “I created a photo of a guy who owned a wig shop that sold these waterbeds, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.”
The director said he knew someone who looked exactly like the image he had for this character, and it finally came to him.
“And like a flash that I remember, Leo’s dad looks exactly like that,” Anderson added.
The filmmaker said he “found him” and asked him if he would ever be interested in starring in a film and George replied “Sure”.
“I explained the scenario to him. He said: ‘It looks great. Did Leo tell you that I owned a waterbed business? said Anderson, revealing the company was called ‘Foggy Bottom’.
Helping hand: Leo and George were joined by the actor’s stepmother Peggy Farrar, whom George married in 1995
Also on screen! George recently had a small role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1970s coming-of-age comedy Licorice Pizza
Helping hand: Leo helped Peggy, who was wearing a white puffer jacket, along with matching white pants, out of the car and into the venue
The director joked, “It was one of those things. I just said, “Well, you’re the right man for this job.”
Leonardo has already acknowledged that his father was “a huge force with me”.
He recalled at the SAG Foundation Awards that it was George who introduced him to Robert De Niro’s films and told him “this is what great acting looks like”, when at the start of his son’s career , he would project scenarios for him.
“My dad always told me, ‘Go out there, son, and whatever you do, I don’t care if you succeed or not, just have an interesting life,'” Leo also told Parade.
George has had a varied career, working as a writer, editor, publisher, distributor and former performance artist, known for his work in underground comics.
Close: Leonardo previously credited his father with being ‘a huge force with me’ (pictured together at a climate summit in Paris in 2015)
Throwback: Young Leonardo DiCaprio being held by his father George in a photo from July 1975 outside their home in Hollywood, California
Since 2008, George has worked as an executive producer in the film industry, mainly for documentaries and short films and often alongside his son.
Leo recalled how his father exposed him to the counterculture through his artistic work.
“The first memory I have is of me at a hippie gig with my dad and the band didn’t show up,” he once told Rolling Stone.
‘There was an audience of hundreds of people singing for the band, and my dad took me up on stage – I don’t know how old I was, probably about 3 – and I got up there and I have tap danced for hundreds of people.’
