Angelina Jolie
Jolie at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 2005
Born Angelina Jolie Voight
June 4, 1975 (1975-06-04) (age 34)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Film actor
Years active 1982; 1993 - present
Spouse(s)Jonny Lee Miller (1996 - 1999)
Billy Bob Thornton (2000 - 2003)
Domestic partner(s)Brad Pitt (2005 - present)
Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American
actress. She has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild
Awards, and an Academy Award. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout
the world, and is noted for her work with refugees as a Goodwill Ambassador for
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Her off-screen life
is widely reported.
Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in
the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a
decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading
role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically
acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl,
Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved wider fame after her portrayal of video game
heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has
established herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid actresses in
Hollywood. She has had her biggest commercial successes with the
action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and the animated film Kung Fu Panda
(2008).
Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently
lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media
attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara,
as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne.
==Early life and family==
Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and
Marcheline Bertrand. She is the niece of Chip Taylor, sister of James Haven and
the god-daughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's
side, Jolie is of Czechoslovakian and German descent, and on her mother's
side she is French Canadian and is said to be part Iroquois. However,
Voight has claimed Bertrand was "not seriously Iroquois", and they merely said
it to enhance his ex-wife's exotic background.
After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother were raised by
their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions and moved with them to
Palisades, New York. As a child, Jolie regularly saw movies with her mother
and later explained that this had inspired her interest in acting; she had not
been influenced by her father. When she was eleven years old, the family
moved back to Los Angeles and Jolie decided she wanted to act and enrolled at
the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and
appeared in several stage productions.
At the age of 14, she dropped out of her acting classes and dreamed of becoming
a funeral director. During this period, she wore black clothing, dyed her
hair purple and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend. Two years later,
after the relationship had ended, she rented an apartment above a garage a few
blocks from her mother's home. She returned to theatre studies and graduated
from high school, though in recent times she has referred to this period with
the observation, "I am still at heart—and always will be just a punk kid with
tattoos".
She later recalled her time as a student at Beverly Hills High School (later
Moreno High School), and her feeling of isolation among the children of some of
the area's more affluent families. Jolie's mother survived on a more modest
income, and Jolie often wore second-hand clothes. She was teased by other
students who also targeted her for her distinctive features, for being extremely
thin, and for wearing glasses and braces. Her self-esteem was further
diminished when her initial attempts at modeling proved unsuccessful. She
started to cut herself; later commenting, "I collected knives and always had
certain things around. For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and
feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was
somehow therapeutic to me."
Jolie has been long estranged from her father. The two tried to reconcile and he
appeared with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). In July 2002, Jolie
filed a request to legally change her name to "Angelina Jolie", dropping Voight
as her surname; the name change was made official on September 12, 2002. In
August of the same year, Voight claimed that his daughter had "serious mental
problems" on Access Hollywood. Jolie later indicated that she no longer wished
to pursue a relationship with her father, and said, "My father and I don't
speak. I don't hold any anger toward him. I don't believe that somebody's family
becomes their blood. Because my son's adopted, and families are earned." She
stated that she did not want to publicize her reasons for her estrangement from
her father, but because she had adopted her son, she did not think it was
healthy for her to associate with Voight.
Early work, 1993 - 1997
Jolie began working as a fashion model when she was 14 years old, modeling
mainly in Los Angeles, New York and London. At that time she also appeared in
numerous music videos, including those of Meat Loaf ("Rock & Roll Dreams Come
Through"), Antonello Venditti ("Alta Marea"), Lenny Kravitz ("Stand by My
Woman"), and The Lemonheads ("It's About Time"). At the age of 16, Jolie
returned to theatre and played her first role as a German dominatrix. She began
to learn from her father, as she noticed his method of observing people to
become like them. Their relationship during this time was less strained, with
Jolie realizing that they were both "drama queens".
Jolie appeared in five of her brother's student films, made while he attended
the USC School of Cinematic Arts, but her professional movie career began in
1993, when she played her first leading role in the low-budget film Cyborg 2, as
Casella "Cash" Reese, a near-human robot, designed to seduce her way into a
rival manufacturer's headquarters and then self-detonate. Following a supporting
role in the independent film Without Evidence, Jolie starred as Kate "Acid Burn"
Libby in her first Hollywood picture, Hackers (1995), where she met her first
husband Jonny Lee Miller. The New York Times wrote, "Kate (Angelina Jolie)
stands out. That's because she scowls even more sourly than and
is that rare female hacker who sits intently at her keyboard in a see-through
top. Despite her sullen posturing, which is all this role requires, Ms. Jolie
has the sweetly cherubic looks of her father, Jon Voight." The movie failed
to make a profit at the box-office, but developed a cult following after its
video release.
She appeared as Gina Malacici in the 1996 comedy Love Is All There Is, a
modern-day loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set among two rival Italian
family restaurant owners in the Bronx, New York. In the road movie Mojave Moon
(1996) she was a youngster, named Eleanor Rigby, who falls for Danny Aiello's
character, while he takes a shine to her mother, played by Anne Archer. In 1996,
Jolie also portrayed Margret "Legs" Sadovsky, one of five teenage girls who form
an unlikely bond in the film Foxfire after they beat up a teacher who has
sexually harassed them. The Los Angeles Times wrote about her performance, "It
took a lot of hogwash to develop this character, but Jolie, Jon Voight's
knockout daughter, has the presence to overcome the stereotype. Though the story
is narrated by Maddy, Legs is the subject and the catalyst."
In 1997, Jolie starred with David Duchovny in the thriller Playing God, set in
the Los Angeles underworld. The movie was not received well by critics and Roger
Ebert noted that "Angelina Jolie finds a certain warmth in a kind of role that
is usually hard and aggressive; she seems too nice to be
girlfriend, and maybe she is." She then appeared in the television movie
True Women, a historical romantic drama set in the American West, and based on
the book by Janice Woods Windle. That year she also appeared in the music video
for "Anybody Seen My Baby?" by the Rolling Stones.
Breakthrough, 1997 - 2000
Jolie's career prospects began to improve after her performance as Cornelia
Wallace in the 1997 biographical film George Wallace for which she won a Golden
Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Gary Sinise starred as Alabama
Governor George Wallace. The film, directed by John Frankenheimer, was praised
by critics and, among other awards, received the Golden Globe for Best
Miniseries/Motion Picture made for TV. She played the second wife of the former
segregationist governor who was shot and paralyzed while running in 1972 for
U.S. President.
In 1998, Jolie starred in HBO's Gia, portraying supermodel Gia Carangi. The film
depicted a world of sex, drugs and emotional drama, and chronicled the
destruction of Carangi's life and career as a result of her drug addiction, and
her decline and death from AIDS. Vanessa Vance from Reel.com noted, "Angelina
Jolie gained wide recognition for her role as the titular Gia, and it's easy to
see why. Jolie is fierce in her portrayal filling the part with nerve, charm,
and desperation—and her role in this film is quite possibly the most beautiful
train wreck ever filmed." For the second consecutive year, Jolie won a
Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also won her first
Screen Actors Guild Award. In accordance with Lee Strasberg's method acting,
Jolie reportedly preferred to stay in character in between scenes during many of
her early films, and as a result had gained a reputation for being difficult to
deal with. While shooting Gia, she told her then-husband Jonny Lee Miller that
she would not be able to phone him: "I'd tell him: 'I'm alone; I'm dying; I'm
gay; I'm not going to see you for weeks.'"
Following Gia, Jolie moved to New York and stopped acting for a short period of
time, because she felt that she had "nothing else to give". She enrolled at New
York University to study filmmaking and attended writing classes. She described
it as "just good for me to collect myself" on Inside the Actors Studio.
Jolie returned to film as Gloria McNeary in the 1998 gangster movie Hell's
Kitchen, and later that year appeared in Playing by Heart, part of an ensemble
cast that included Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, Ryan Phillippe and Jon
Stewart. The film received predominantly positive reviews and Jolie was praised
in particular. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Jolie, working through an
overwritten part, is a sensation as the desperate club crawler learning truths
about what she's willing to gamble." Jolie won the Breakthrough Performance
Award by the National Board of Review.
In 1999, she starred in Mike Newell's comedy-drama Pushing Tin, co-starring John
Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. Jolie played Thornton's
seductive wife. The film received a mixed reception from critics and Jolie's
character was particularly criticized. The Washington Post wrote, "Mary
(Angelina Jolie), a completely ludicrous writer's creation of a free-spirited
woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of turquoise rings and
gets real lonely when Russell spends entire nights away from home." She then
worked with Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector (1999), an adapted crime
novel written by Jeffery Deaver. Jolie played Amelia Donaghy, a police officer
haunted by her cop father's suicide, who reluctantly helps Washington track down
a serial killer. The movie grossed $151 million worldwide, but was a critical
failure. The Detroit Free Press concluded, "Jolie, while always delicious to
look at, is simply and woefully miscast."
"Jolie is emerging as one of the great wild spirits of current movies, a
loose cannon who somehow has deadly aim."
—Roger Ebert on Jolie's performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Jolie next took the supporting role of the sociopathic Lisa Rowe in Girl,
Interrupted (1999), a film that tells the story of mental patient Susanna
Kaysen, and which was adapted from Kaysen's original memoir Girl, Interrupted.
While Winona Ryder played the main character in what was hoped to be a comeback
for her, the film instead marked Jolie's final breakthrough in Hollywood.
She won her third Golden Globe Award, her second Screen Actors Guild Award and
an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Variety noted, "Jolie is excellent
as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental
than the doctors in Susanna's rehabilitation".
In 2000, Jolie appeared in her first summer blockbuster, Gone In 60 Seconds, in
which she played Sarah "Sway" Wayland, ex-girlfriend of car-thief Nicolas Cage.
The role was small, and the Washington Post criticized that "all she does in
this movie is stand around, cooling down, modeling those fleshy, pulsating
muscle-tubes that nest so provocatively around her teeth." She later
explained that the film was a welcome relief after the heavy role of Lisa Rowe,
and it became her highest grossing movie up until then, earning $237 million
internationally.
International success, 2001 - present
Although highly regarded for her acting abilities, Jolie's films to date had
often not appealed to a wide audience, but Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) made
her an international superstar. An adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider
videogame, Jolie was required to learn a British accent and undergo extensive
martial arts training to play the title role of Lara Croft. She was generally
praised for her physical performance, but the movie generated mostly negative
reviews. Slant Magazine commented, "Angelina Jolie was born to play Lara Croft
but Simon West makes her journey into a game of Frogger." The
movie was an international success nonetheless, earning $275 million
worldwide, and launched her global reputation as a female action star.
Jolie then starred opposite Antonio Banderas as the mail-order bride Julia
Russell in Original Sin (2001), a thriller based on the novel Waltz into
Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. The film was a major critical failure, with The
New York Times noting, "The story plunges more precipitously than Ms. Jolie's
neckline." In 2002, she played Lanie Kerrigan in Life or Something Like It,
a film about an ambitious TV reporter who is told that she will die in a week.
The film was poorly received by critics, though Jolie's performance received
positive reviews. CNN's Paul Clinton wrote, "Jolie is excellent in her role.
Despite some of the ludicrous plot points in the middle of the film, this
Academy Award-winning actress is exceedingly believable in her journey towards
self-discovery and the true meaning of fulfilling life."
Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of
Life in 2003. The sequel, while not as lucrative as the original, earned $156
million at the international box-office. Later that year Jolie starred in
Beyond Borders, a film about aid workers in Africa. Although reflecting Jolie's
real-life interest in promoting humanitarian relief, the film was critically and
financially unsuccessful. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Jolie, as she did in her
Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, can bring electricity and believability
to roles that have a reality she can understand. She can also, witness the Lara
Croft films, do acknowledged cartoons. But the limbo of a hybrid character, a
badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world,
completely defeats her."
In 2004, Jolie starred alongside Ethan Hawke in the thriller Taking Lives. She
portrayed Illeana Scott, an FBI profiler summoned to help Montreal law
enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The movie received mixed reviews and The
Hollywood Reporter concluded, "Angelina Jolie plays a role that definitely feels
like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of
excitement and glamour." She also provided the voice of Lola, an angelfish
in the animated DreamWorks movie Shark Tale (2004) and she had a brief
appearance in Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), a
science fiction adventure film shot with actors entirely in front of a
bluescreen. Also in 2004, Jolie played Olympias in Alexander, Oliver Stone's
biographical film about the life of Alexander the Great. The film failed
domestically, with Stone attributing its poor reception to disapproval of the
depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but it succeeded internationally, with
revenue of $139 million outside the United States.
Jolie's only movie in 2005 was the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The film,
directed by Doug Liman, tells the story of a bored married couple who find out
that they are both secret assassins. Jolie starred as Jane Smith opposite Brad
Pitt. The film received mixed reviews, but was generally lauded for the
chemistry between the two leads. The Star Tribune noted, "While the story feels
haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the
stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry." The movie earned $478 million
worldwide, one of the biggest hits of 2005.
She next appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006), a film about the
early history of the CIA, as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, played by
Matt Damon. Jolie played the supporting role of Margaret Russell, Wilson's
neglected wife. According to the Chicago Tribune, "Jolie ages convincingly
throughout, and is blithely unconcerned with how her brittle character is coming
off in terms of audience sympathy."
Jolie as Christine Collins on the set of Changeling, November 2007In 2007, Jolie
made her directorial debut with the documentary A Place in Time, which captures
the life in 27 locations around the globe during a single week. The film was
screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and is intended to be distributed through
the National Education Association, mainly in high schools. Jolie starred as
Mariane Pearl in Michael Winterbottom's documentary-style drama A Mighty Heart
(2007), about the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl
in Pakistan. The picture is based on Mariane Pearl's memoirs A Mighty Heart and
had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter described
Jolie's performance as "well-measured and moving", played "with respect and a
firm grasp on a difficult accent." The film earned her a fourth Golden Globe
Award and a third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Jolie also played
Grendel's mother in Robert Zemeckis' animated epic Beowulf (2007) which was
created through the motion capture technique.
Jolie co-starred alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the 2008 action
movie Wanted, an adaptation of a graphic novel by Mark Millar. The film received
predominately favorable reviews and proved to be an international success,
earning $342 million worldwide. She also provided the voice of Master Tigress
in the DreamWorks animated movie Kung Fu Panda (2008). With revenue of $632
million internationally, it became her highest grossing film to date. The
same year, Jolie played Christine Collins, the lead in Clint Eastwood's drama
Changeling (2008), which had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. It is
based on the true story of a woman in 1928 Los Angeles who is reunited with her
kidnapped son—only to realize he is an impostor. Jolie received her second
Academy Award nomination, and also was nominated for a BAFTA Award, a Golden
Globe Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Award. The Chicago Tribune noted,
"Jolie really shines in the calm before the storm, the scenes when one
patronizing male authority figure after another belittles her at their
peril."
Humanitarian work
Jolie first became personally aware of worldwide humanitarian crises while
filming Tomb Raider in Cambodia. She eventually turned to UNHCR for more
information on international trouble spots. In the following months she
visited refugee camps around the world to learn more about the situation and the
conditions in these areas. In February 2001, Jolie went on her first field
visit, an 18-day mission to Sierra Leone and Tanzania; she later expressed her
shock at what she had witnessed. In the coming months she returned to
Cambodia for two weeks and later met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan where she
donated $1 million for Afghan refugees in response to an international UNHCR
emergency appeal. She insisted on covering all costs related to her missions
and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field
staff on all of her visits. Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador on
August 27, 2001 at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.
"We cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that
millions of people are out there suffering. I honestly want to help. I
don't believe I feel differently from other people. I think we all want
justice and equality, a chance for a life with meaning. All of us would
like to believe that if we were in a bad situation someone would help us."
—Jolie on her motives for joining UNHCR in 2001
Jolie has been on field missions around the world and met with refugees and
internally displaced persons in more than 20 countries. Asked what she hoped
to accomplish, she stated, "Awareness of the plight of these people. I think
they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon."
In 2002, Jolie visited the Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand and Colombian
refugees in Ecuador. Jolie later went to various UNHCR facilities in Kosovo
and paid a visit to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya with refugees mainly from
Sudan. She also met with Angolan refugees while filming Beyond Borders in
Namibia.
In 2003, Jolie embarked on a six-day mission to Tanzania where she traveled to
western border camps hosting Congolese refugees, and she paid a week-long visit
to Sri Lanka. She later concluded a four-day mission to Russia as she traveled
to North Caucasus. Concurrently with the release of her movie Beyond Borders she
published Notes from My Travels, a collection of journal entries that chronicle
her early field missions (2001 - 2002). During a private stay in Jordan in
December 2003 she asked to visit Iraqi refugees in Jordan's eastern desert and
later that month she went to Egypt to meet Sudanese refugees.
On her first U.N. trip within the United States, Jolie went to Arizona in 2004,
visiting detained asylum seekers at three facilities and the Southwest Key
Program, a facility for unaccompanied children in Phoenix. She flew to Chad in
June 2004, paying a visit to border sites and camps for refugees who had fled
fighting in western Sudan's Darfur region. Four months later she returned to the
region, this time going directly into West Darfur. Also in 2004, Jolie met with
Afghan refugees in Thailand and on a private stay to Lebanon during the
Christmas holidays, she visited UNHCR's regional office in Beirut, as well as
some young refugees and cancer patients in the Lebanese capital.
In 2005, Jolie visited Pakistani camps containing Afghani refugees, and she also
met with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz;
she returned to Pakistan with Brad Pitt during the Thanksgiving weekend in
November to see the impact of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. In 2006, Jolie and
Pitt flew to Haiti and visited a school supported by Yale Haiti, a charity
founded by Haitian-born hip hop musician Wyclef Jean. While filming A Mighty
Heart in India, Jolie met with Afghan and Burmese refugees in New Delhi. She
spent Christmas Day 2006 with Colombian refugees in San José, Costa Rica where
she handed out presents. In 2007, Jolie returned to Chad for a two-day mission
to assess the deteriorating security situation for refugees from Darfur; Jolie
and Pitt subsequently donated $1 million to three relief organizations in Chad
and Darfur. Jolie also made her first visit to Syria and twice went to Iraq,
where she met with Iraqi refugees as well as multi-national forces and U.S.
troops.
Jolie and Condoleezza Rice at World Refugee Day, June 2005Over time, Jolie
became more involved in promoting humanitarian causes on a political level. She
has regularly attended World Refugee Day in Washington, D.C., and she was an
invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2005 and 2006. Jolie
also began lobbying humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital, where she met
with members of Congress at least 20 times from 2003. She explained in
Forbes: "As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that's the
way to move the ball."
In 2005, Jolie took part at a National Press Club luncheon, where she announced
the founding of the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an
organization that provides free legal-aid to asylum-seeking children with no
legal representation which Jolie personally funded with a donation of $500,000
for its first two years. Jolie also pushed for several bills to aid refugees
and vulnerable children in the Third World. In addition to her political
involvement, Jolie began using her public profile to promote humanitarian causes
through the mass media. She filmed an MTV special, The Diary Of Angelina Jolie &
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa, portraying her and noted economist Dr. Jeffrey
Sachs on a trip to a remote group of villages in Western Kenya. In 2006, Jolie
announced the founding of the Jolie/Pitt Foundation which made initial donations
to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders of $1 million
each. Jolie also co-chairs the Education Partnership for Children of
Conflict, founded at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2006, which helps fund
education programs for children affected by conflict.
Jolie has received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. In 2003, she was
the first recipient of the newly created Citizen of the World Award by the
United Nations Correspondents Association, and in 2005, she was awarded the
Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA. Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni
awarded Jolie Cambodian citizenship for her conservation work in the country on
August 12, 2005; she has pledged $5 million to set up a wildlife sanctuary in
the north-western province of Battambang and owns property there. In 2007,
Jolie became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she received
the Freedom Award by the International Rescue Committee.
Relationships
See also: Brangelina
On March 28, 1996, Jolie married British actor Jonny Lee Miller, her co-star in
the film Hackers (1995). She attended her wedding in black rubber pants and a
white shirt, upon which she had written the groom's name in her blood. Jolie
and Miller separated the following year and subsequently divorced on February 3,
1999. They remained on good terms and Jolie later explained, "It comes down to
timing. I think he's the greatest husband a girl could ask for. I'll always love
him, we were simply too young."
While shooting Pushing Tin (1999) she met American actor Billy Bob Thornton, and
subsequently married him on on May 5, 2000. As a result of their frequent public
declarations of passion and gestures of love most famously wearing one another's
blood in vials around their necks their relationship became a favorite topic of
the entertainment media. Jolie and Thornton divorced on May 27, 2003. Asked
about the sudden dissolution of their marriage, Jolie stated, "It took me by
surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had
just nothing in common. And it's scary but... I think it can happen when you get
involved and you don't know yourself yet."
Jolie and Brad Pitt at the Deauville American Film Festival in 2007Jolie has
said in interviews that she is bisexual and has long acknowledged that she had a
sexual relationship with her Foxfire (1996) co-star Jenny Shimizu, "I would
probably have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband. I fell in love with
her the first second I saw her." In 2003, asked if she was bisexual, Jolie
responded, "Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel
that it's okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her?
Absolutely! Yes!"
In early 2005, Jolie was involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal when
she was accused of being the reason for the divorce of actors Brad Pitt and
Jennifer Aniston. The allegation was that she and Pitt had started an affair
during filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). She denied this on several occasions,
but admitted that they "fell in love" on the set. In an interview in 2005,
she explained, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on
my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the
morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his
wife."
While Jolie and Pitt never publicly commented on the nature of their
relationship, speculations continued throughout 2005. The first intimate
paparazzi photos emerged in April, one month after Aniston had filed for
divorce; they showed Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in Kenya. During
the summer Jolie and Pitt were seen together with increasing frequency and most
of the entertainment media considered them a couple, dubbing them "Brangelina".
On January 11, 2006, Jolie confirmed to People that she was pregnant with Pitt's
child and thereby confirmed their relationship for the first time in public.
Children
Jolie's children
Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt
(born August 5, 2001 in Cambodia; adopted March 10, 2002)
Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt
(born November 29, 2003 in Vietnam; adopted March 15, 2007)
Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt
(born January 8, 2005 in Ethiopia; adopted July 6, 2005)
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt
(born May 27, 2006 in Swakopmund, Namibia)
Knox Laon Jolie-Pitt
(born July 12, 2008 in Nice, France)
Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt
(born July 12, 2008 in Nice, France)
On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox
Chivan. He was born on August 5, 2001 as Rath Vibol in Cambodia, and he
initially lived in a local orphanage in Battambang. Jolie decided to apply for
adoption after she had visited Cambodia twice, while filming Tomb Raider and on
a UNHCR field trip in 2001. After her divorce from her second husband, Billy Bob
Thornton, Jolie received sole custody of Maddox. Like Jolie's other children,
Maddox has gained considerable celebrity and appears regularly in the tabloid
media.
Jolie adopted a six-month-old girl from Ethiopia, Zahara Marley, on July 6,
2005. Zahara was born on January 8, 2005. She was originally named Yemsrach by
her mother, and was later given the legal name Tena Adam at an
orphanage. Jolie adopted her from Wide Horizons For Children orphanage in
Addis Ababa. Shortly after they returned to the United States, Zahara was
hospitalized for dehydration and malnutrition. In 2007, media outlets reported
Zahara's biological mother, Mentewabe Dawit, was still alive and wanted her
daughter back, but she later denied these reports, saying she thought Zahara was
"very fortunate" to be adopted by Jolie.
Brad Pitt was reportedly present when Jolie signed the adoption papers and
collected her daughter; later Jolie indicated that she and Pitt made the
decision to adopt Zahara together. On January 19, 2006, a judge in
California approved Pitt's request to legally adopt Jolie's two children. Their
surnames were formally changed to "Jolie-Pitt".
Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, in Swakopmund, Namibia, by a
scheduled caesarean section, on May 27, 2006. Pitt confirmed that their
newly-born daughter would have a Namibian passport, and Jolie decided to
sell the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images herself,
rather than allowing paparazzi to make these valuable photographs. People paid
more than $4.1 million for the North American rights, while British magazine
Hello! obtained the international rights for roughly $3.5 million. All
profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Jolie and Pitt. Madame
Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; it was the
first infant re-created in wax by Madame Tussauds.
On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a three-year-old boy from Vietnam, Pax
Thien, who was born on November 29, 2003 and abandoned at birth at a local
hospital, where he was initially named Pham Quang Sang. Jolie adopted the
boy from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. She revealed that his
first name, Pax, was suggested by her mother before her death.
Following months of tabloid speculation, Jolie confirmed she was expecting twins
at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. She gave birth to a boy, Knox Laon, and a
girl, Vivienne Marcheline, by caesarean section at the Lenval hospital in Nice,
France, on July 12, 2008. The rights for the first images of Knox and
Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for $14 million the most
expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The money went to the Jolie/Pitt
Foundation.
In the media
Jolie at a photo op in Washington, D.C. in 2005Jolie appeared in the media from
an early age due to her famous father Jon Voight. At seven she had a small part
in Lookin' to Get Out, a movie co-written by and starring her father, and in
1986 and 1988 she attended the Academy Awards as a teenager with him. However,
when she started her acting career, Jolie decided not to use "Voight" as a stage
name, because she wished to establish her own identity as an actress. Jolie
was never shy about controversy and integrated her teenage "wild girl" image
into her public persona in the first years of her career. During her acceptance
speech at the 2000 Academy Awards, Jolie declared, "I'm so in love with my
brother right now", which, combined with her affectionate behavior towards him
that night, sparked speculation in the tabloid media of an incestuous
relationship with her brother James Haven. She has denied those rumors
vehemently, and Jolie and Haven later explained in interviews that after their
parents' divorce they relied on one another and because of that they hold on to
each other as a means of emotional support.
Jolie does not employ a publicist or an agent. She quickly became a
tabloid's favorite, since she presented herself as very outspoken in interviews,
discussing her love life and her interest in BDSM openly, and once claiming
to be "most likely to sleep with a female fan". As one of her most
distinctive physical features, Jolie's lips have attracted notable media
attention and she has been described as "the current gold standard of beauty in
the West" among women seeking cosmetic surgery. She also created headlines
with her much publicized marriage to Billy Bob Thornton and her subsequent
change into an advocate for global humanitarian problems. As she took on the
role of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador she started to use her celebrity to highlight
humanitarian causes worldwide. Jolie has been taking flying lessons since 2004
and she has a private pilot license (with an instrument rating) and owns a
Cirrus SR22 airplane. The media speculated that Jolie is a Buddhist, but she
said that she teaches Buddhism to her son Maddox because she considers it part
of his culture. Jolie has not stated definitively whether or not she believes in
God. When asked in 2000 if there was a God, she said, "For the people who
believe in it, I hope so. There doesn't need to be a God for me."
Jolie and Pitt at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009Starting in 2005, her
relationship with Brad Pitt became one of the most reported celebrity stories
worldwide. After Jolie confirmed her pregnancy in early 2006, the unprecedented
media hype surrounding them "reached the point of insanity" as Reuters described
it in their story "The Brangelina fever". Trying to avoid the media
attention, the couple went to Namibia for the birth of Shiloh, "the most
anticipated baby since Jesus Christ", as it had been described. Two years
later, Jolie's second pregnancy again fueled a media frenzy. For the two weeks
she spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, reporters and photographers camped
outside on the promenade to report on the birth.
Today, Jolie is one of the best known celebrities around the world. According to
the Q Score, in 2000, subsequent to her Oscar win, 31% of respondents in the
United States said Jolie was familiar to them, by 2006 she was familiar to 81%
of Americans. In a 2006 global industry survey by ACNielsen in 42
international markets Jolie, together with Brad Pitt, was found to be the
favorite celebrity endorser for brands and products worldwide. Jolie was
among the Time 100, a list of the 100 most influential people in the world, in
2006 and 2008. She was described as the world's most beautiful woman in
the 2006 "100 Most Beautiful" issue of People, and she was voted the
greatest sex symbol of all time in the British Channel 4 television show The 100
Greatest Sex Symbols in 2007. The Hollywood Reporter named Jolie the
highest-paid actress of 2008, earning $15 million per film. She also topped
Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 list in 2009; she had previously been ranked
No. 14 in 2007, and No. 3 in 2008.
Tattoos
Jolie in New York with several of her tattoos visible, June 2007 Jolie's numerous
tattoos have been the subject of much media attention and have often been
addressed by interviewers. Jolie stated that, while she is not opposed to film
nudity, the large number of tattoos on her body has forced filmmakers to become
more creative when planning nude or love scenes. Make-up has been used to
cover up the tattoos in many of her productions. Jolie currently has thirteen
known tattoos, among them the Tennessee Williams quote "A prayer for the wild at
heart, kept in cages", which she got together with her mother, the Arabic
language phrase "(strength of will), the Latin proverb "quod me nutrit
me destruit" (what nourishes me destroys me), and a Yantra prayer written in
the ancient Khmer script for her son Maddox. She also has six sets of
geographical coordinates on her upper left arm indicating the birthplaces of her
children. Over time she covered or lasered several of her tattoos, including
"Billy Bob", the name of her former husband Billy Bob Thornton, a Chinese
character for death (æ»), and a window on her lower back; she explained that she
removed the window, because, while she used to spend all of her time looking out
through windows wishing to be outside, she now lives there all of the time.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1982Lookin' to Get OutTosh
1993"Angela & Viril"Angela2 minute short film
"Alice & Viril"Alice2 minute short film
Cyborg 2Casella "Cash" Reese
1995Without EvidenceJodie Swearingen
HackersKate "Acid Burn" Libby
1996 Mojave Moon Eleanor "Elie" Rigby
Love Is All There IsGina Malacici
Foxfire Margret "Legs" Sadovsky
1997 True Women (TV)Georgia Virginia Lawshe Woods
George Wallace (TV)Cornelia Wallace Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting
Actress Series/Miniseries/TV Movie
Nominated Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a
Movie
Playing God Claire
1998Gia (TV)Gia Marie Carangi Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a
Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV
Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries
Nominated Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
Hell's KitchenGloria McNeary
Playing by HeartJoanNational Board of Review Award Breakthrough
Performance
Pushing TinMary Bell
1999 The Bone Collector Amelia Donaghy
Girl, Interrupted Lisa Rowe Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture
Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture
Nominated Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting
Actress
2000Gone in Sixty SecondsSara "Sway" Wayland
2001Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Lara Croft Nominated MTV Movie Award for Best
Female Performance
Nominated MTV Movie Award for Best Fight
Original Sin Julia Russell
2002 Life or Something Like ItLanie Kerrigan
2003 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of LifeLara Croft
Beyond BordersSarah Jordan
2004 Taking LivesIlleana Scott
Shark TaleLolaVoice
Sky Captain and the World of TomorrowFrancesca "Franky" CookPeople's
Choice Award Favorite Female Action Star
The Fever (TV)RevolutionaryCameo
AlexanderOlympias
2005Mr. & Mrs. SmithJane SmithMTV Movie Award for Best Fight
Nominated MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss
Nominated People's Choice Award Favorite Female Movie Star
Nominated People's Choice Award Favorite Female Action Star
Nominated People's Choice Award Favorite On-Screen Match-Up (with Brad
Pitt)
2006The Good Shepherd Margaret Russell
2007A Mighty Heart Mariane PearlNominated Broadcast Film Critics
Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama
Nominated Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
Nominated London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress Motion Picture
Beowulf Grendel's mother Nominated MTV Movie Award for Best Villain
2008Kung Fu PandaMaster TigressVoice
Wanted Fox People's Choice Award Favorite Female Action Star
Nominated People's Choice Award Favorite Female Movie Star
Nominated MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
Nominated MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss
Nominated MTV Movie Award for Best WTF Moment
Changeling Christine CollinsSaturn Award for Best Actress
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama
Nominated London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress Motion Picture
2010 Salt Evelyn Salt(post production)
Awards
Year Award Category Film Result
1998 Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a
MovieGeorge WallaceNominated
Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress Series/Miniseries/TV MovieWon
National Board of Review Award Breakthrough Performance Female Playing by
HeartWon
Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Gia Nominated
1999 Golden Globe Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or
Motion Picture Made for TVWon
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a TV
Movie or Miniseries Won
2000 Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress Motion PictureGirl,
InterruptedWon
Screen Actors Guild AwardOutstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a
Supporting RoleWon
Academy Award Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Won
2004 People's Choice Award Favourite Female Action Star Sky Captain And The
World Of Tomorrow Won
2008 Golden Globe Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture
Drama A Mighty Heart Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a
Leading Role Nominated
2009 Golden Globe Award Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture
Drama Changeing Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a
Leading RoleNominated
BAFTA Award Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated
Academy Award Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Nominated
