By RICHARD SIMPSON

Last updated at 09:28 15 January 2008

Johnny Depp secretly visited Great Ormond Street Hospital yesterday to donate £1 million of his own money to thank staff for saving his daughter's life.

He arrived unexpectedly at the London children's hospital where eight-year-old Lily-Rose was treated last year when her kidneys failed.

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Last week he invited five Great Ormond Street doctors and nurses to the party for the London premiere of his film Sweeney Todd.

And on November 29, unknown to the public, Depp spent four hours at the hospital telling bedtime stories to patients dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow after having his Pirates Of The Caribbean costume flown over from Los Angeles.

In March last year, Lily-Rose spent nine days at Great Ormond Street after E.coli poisoning led to the failure of her kidneys.

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She is said to have contracted the bug while staying with Depp, 43, and her mother Vanessa Paradis, 34, in a rented mansion in Richmond, Surrey, while he filmed Sweeney Todd.

Filming at Pinewood in Buckinghamshire had to be halted as her conditioned worsened so much it was feared she might not live.

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Depp, who was yesterday named best actor in a musical at the Golden Globes for his role in Sweeney Todd, later said of the scare: "It was the most frightening thing we have ever been through. It was hell.

"But the magic is that she pulled through beautifully. Great Ormond Street was terrific, a great hospital."

Disney, which made the Pirates Of The Caribbean films, will also today donate £10million to Great Ormond Street, which needs to raise £170million in five years to re-develop two-thirds of the hospital site.

Meanwhile, Sweeney Todd director Tim Burton says he is finally planning to tie the knot with Helena Bonham Carter.

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The pair met when Burton directed the English actress in Planet Of The Apes seven years ago.

They now have two children together and have knocked through the wall that separated their adjoining London homes.

Burton, 49, whose Sweeney Todd has just won best film musical and best actor in a musical for Johnny Depp at the Golden Globes, told the Radio Times magazine: "Helena and I feel so married we never got around to doing it, but I'm thinking about it. I'm a late bloomer."

The couple had a daughter, born in December, to join their son, four-year-old Billy.

Bonham Carter, 41, who previously dated Kenneth Branagh, has appeared in Burton's movies Big Fish and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.