Titanic is a film.
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio ( [ dᵻˈkæpri.oʊ ] born November 11 , 1974 ) is an American actor , film producer , and environmental activist . He gained public recognition with leading roles in The Basketball Diaries ( 1995 ) and the romantic drama Romeo + Juliet ( 1996 ) , before achieving international fame with James Cameron 's epic romance Titanic ( 1997 ) , which became the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron 's science fiction film Avatar ( 2009 ) overtook it . Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance-disaster film directed , written , co-produced , and co-edited by James Cameron .