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Brad Pitt
Pitt at the 81st Academy Awards on February 22, 2009
Born	William Bradley Pitt December 18, 1963 (1963-12-18) (age 46) Shawnee, Oklahoma, United States
Occupation	Actor, film producer
Years active	1987–present
Spouse(s)	Jennifer Aniston (2000–2005)
Domestic partner(s)	Angelina Jolie (2005–present)

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt¹ (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one. He has been described as one of the world's most attractive men, a label for which he has received substantial media attention.²³

Pitt began his acting career with television guest appearances, including a role on the CBS soap opera Dallas in 1987. He later gained recognition as the cowboy hitchhiker who seduces Geena Davis's character in the 1991 road movie Thelma & Louise. Pitt's first leading roles in big-budget productions came with A River Runs Through It (1992) and Interview with the Vampire (1994). He was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 drama Legends of the Fall, which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. In 1995 he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven and the science fiction film 12 Monkeys, the latter securing him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Four years later, in 1999, Pitt starred in the cult hit Fight Club. He then starred in the major international hit Ocean's Eleven (2001) and its sequels Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). His greatest commercial successes have been 2004's Troy, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Pitt received his second Academy Award nomination for his title role performance in the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Following a high-profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt was married to actress Jennifer Aniston for five years. Pitt currently lives with actress Angelina Jolie in a relationship that has garnered wide publicity.⁴ He and Jolie have three adopted children—Maddox, Zahara, and Pax—and three biological children—Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Since beginning his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues both in the United States and internationally. Pitt owns a production company named Plan B Entertainment, whose productions include the 2007 Academy Award winning Best Picture, The Departed.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Early work 2.2 Critical success 2.3 From 1999 to 2003 2.4 After 2003 3 Other projects 3.1 Film and television work 3.2 Humanitarian causes 4 In the media 5 Personal life 5.1 Children 6 Filmography 6.1 Actor 6.2 Producer 7 References 8 External links

Early life

The son of Jane Etta (née Hillhouse), a high school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company owner, Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma.⁵ Along with his siblings Doug (born 1966) and Julie Neal (born 1969),⁶ he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. He was raised as a conservative Southern Baptist.⁷

Pitt attended Kickapoo High School where he was a member of the golf, tennis and swimming teams. He participated in the school's Key and Forensics clubs, in school debates, and in musicals.⁸ Following his graduation from high school, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri in 1982, majoring in journalism, with a focus on advertising.⁸ As a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity,⁵ he acted in several fraternity shows.⁹ As graduation approached, Pitt saw his friends getting jobs but did not feel ready to settle down himself. He loved films – "a portal into different worlds for me" – and, since films were not made in Missouri, he decided he would go to where they were made.⁷ Two weeks prior to earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles to take acting lessons.¹

Career

Early work

While struggling to establish himself in Los Angeles Pitt took lessons from acting coach Roy London.¹⁸ He took on various occasional jobs, spending some time as a chauffeur¹⁰ and dressing up as an El Pollo Loco chicken in order to pay for acting lessons.

Pitt's onscreen career began in 1987 with uncredited parts in the films No Way Out, No Man's Land and Less Than Zero.⁸ His television debut came in November of the same year with a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains.¹¹ He appeared in four episodes of the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas¹² between December 1987 and February 1988 as Randy, the boyfriend of Charlie Wade (played by Shalane McCall).¹ Pitt described his character as "an idiot boyfriend who gets caught in the hay."¹³ Speaking of his scenes with McCall, Pitt later said "It was kind of wild, because I'd never even met her before."¹ Later in 1988 Pitt made a guest appearance on the Fox police drama 21 Jump Street.¹⁴

Later in 1988, the Yugoslavian-U.S. co-production The Dark Side of the Sun gave Pitt his first leading film role, as a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic to find a remedy for a skin condition.¹⁵ The film was however shelved on the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence, and was released only in 1997.⁸ Pitt made two motion picture appearances in 1989: the first in a supporting role in the comedy Happy Together; the second a featured role in the horror film Cutting Class, the first of Pitt's films to reach theaters.¹⁵ He also made guest appearances on television series Head of the Class, Freddy's Nightmares, Thirtysomething, and (for a second time) Growing Pains.¹⁴

Pitt was cast as Billy Canton, a drug addict who takes advantage of a young runaway (played by Juliette Lewis) in the 1990 NBC television movie Too Young to Die?, the story of an abused teenager sentenced to death for a murder.¹⁵¹⁶ Ken Tucker, television reviewer for Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Pitt is a magnificent slimeball as her hoody boyfriend; looking and sounding like a malevolent John Cougar Mellencamp, he's really scary."¹⁶ The same year, Pitt co-starred in six episodes of the short-lived Fox drama Glory Days,¹ and took a supporting role in the HBO television movie The Image.¹⁵ His next appearance came in the 1991 film Across the Tracks; Pitt portrayed Joe Maloney, a high school runner with a criminal brother, played by Ricky Schroder.¹⁷ After years of supporting roles in movies and frequent television guest appearances, broader public recognition came for Pitt with his supporting role in the 1991 road film Thelma & Louise. He played J.D., a small-time criminal who befriends Thelma (Geena Davis). His love scene with Davis has been cited as the moment that defined Pitt as a sex symbol.¹¹¹⁸

After Thelma & Louise, Pitt had a firm following among female audiences, but was at this point regarded more for his sex appeal than his acting chops. Pitt's next two roles in the 1991 film Johnny Suede, a low-budget picture about an aspiring rock star,¹⁵ and the 1992 film Cool World¹⁵ did little to advance his career in light of their poor reviews and box office,¹⁹²⁰ but 1992 also brought Pitt the role of Paul Maclean in Robert Redford's 1992 biographical film A River Runs Through It.²¹ His portrayal of the character has been described as a career-making performance,²² and proved to audiences that Pitt could be more than just a pretty face,²³ though Pitt admitted that he felt under pressure when making the film.²⁴ He added that he considered it one of his "weakest performances ... It's so weird that it ended up being the one that I got the most attention for."²⁴ Pitt also benefited greatly through working with such a talented cast and crew and compared working with Redford to playing tennis, saying that "when you play with somebody better than you, your game gets better."²²

Pitt reunited with Juliette Lewis, co-star from Too Young to Die?, in the 1993 road film Kalifornia, in which he played Early Grayce, a serial killer and the boyfriend of Lewis's character.¹⁵ Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Pitt's performance "outstanding, all boyish charm and then a snort that exudes pure menace".²⁵ He also garnered attention for a brief appearance in the cult hit True Romance as a stoner named Floyd, providing much needed comic relief to the action flick.²⁶ Pitt capped the year by winning a ShoWest Award for Male Star of Tomorrow.²⁷

Critical success

1994 marked a significant turning point in Pitt's career. Starring as vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the feature film Interview with the Vampire, based on Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name,¹⁵²⁸ he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater, and Antonio Banderas.¹⁵²⁸ Despite winning two MTV Movie Awards at the 1995 ceremony,²⁹ his performance was not well-received. According to the Dallas Observer, "Brad Pitt ... is a large part of the problem [in the film]. When directors play up his cocky, hunkish, folksy side ... he's a joy to watch. But there's nothing about him that suggests inner torment or even self-awareness, which makes him a boring Louis."³⁰

Following the release of Interview with the Vampire, Pitt starred in Legends of the Fall (1994),³¹ a film set during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Pitt portrayed Tristan Ludlow, son of Colonel William Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins), and received his first Golden Globe Award nomination, in the Best Actor category.³² Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas co-starred as Pitt's brothers. The film's reception was mixed,³³ but many film critics complimented Pitt's performance. Janet Maslin of The New York Times said, "Pitt's diffident mix of acting and attitude works to such heartthrob perfection it's a shame the film's superficiality gets in his way"³⁴ while the Deseret News predicted that Legends of the Fall would solidify Pitt's reputation as a lead actor.³⁵

In 1995 Pitt starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow in the crime thriller Seven, playing a detective on the trail of a serial killer (played by Kevin Spacey).³⁶ Pitt called the film a great movie and expressed a belief that the part would expand his acting horizons,³⁷ though he also expressed a desire to move on from "this 'pretty boy' thing [...] and play someone with flaws".³⁸ His performance was critically well-received, with Variety saying that it was screen acting at its best, further remarking on Pitt's ability to turn in a "determined, energetic, creditable job" as the detective.³⁹ Seven earned $327 million at the international box office.¹⁹

Following the success of Seven Pitt took a supporting role as Jeffrey Goines in Terry Gilliam's 1995 science-fiction film 12 Monkeys. The movie received predominantly positive reviews, with Pitt praised in particular. Janet Maslin of the New York Times called Twelve Monkeys "fierce and disturbing" and remarked on Pitt's "startlingly frenzied performance", concluding that he "electrifies Jeffrey with a weird magnetism that becomes important later in the film."⁴⁰ He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film³² and received his first Academy Award nomination.⁴¹

The following year he had a role in the legal drama Sleepers (1996), based on the Lorenzo Carcaterra's eponymous novel.⁴² The film received mixed reviews.⁴³ In the 1997 movie The Devil's Own Pitt starred, opposite Harrison Ford, as the Irish Republican Army terrorist Rory Devany,⁴⁴ a role for which he was required to learn an Irish accent.⁴⁵ Later that year he led as Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in the Jean Jacques Annaud film Seven Years in Tibet.⁴⁶ Pitt trained for months for the role, which demanded significant mountain climbing and trekking practice, including by rock climbing in California and the European Alps with his co-star David Thewlis.⁴⁷

Pitt then had the lead role in 1998's Meet Joe Black. He portrayed a personification of death inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it is like to be human.¹⁵⁴⁸ The film received ambivalent reviews, many critical of Pitt's performance. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle concluded that Pitt struggled to portray an accurate representation of a character who comprehends death.⁴⁹

From 1999 to 2003

In 1999 Pitt portrayed Tyler Durden, a straight-shooting and charismatic mastermind, in Fight Club,⁵⁰⁵¹ a film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name, directed by David Fincher.⁵² Pitt prepared for the part with lessons in boxing, taekwondo, and grappling.⁵³ To look the part, he also consented to the removal of pieces of his front teeth which were restored when filming ended.⁵⁴ While promoting Fight Club, Pitt said that the purpose of the film was not necessarily to take one's aggressions out on someone else but rather to "have an experience, take a punch more" and see how you come out on the other end.⁵⁵ Fight Club premiered at the 1999 Venice International Film Festival⁵⁶ and, despite divided critical opinion on the film as a whole,⁵⁷⁵⁸ Pitt's performance was broadly praised. Paul Clinton of CNN noted the risky yet successful nature of the film⁵⁹ while Variety remarked upon Pitt's ability to be "cool, charismatic and more dynamically physical, perhaps than [...] his breakthrough role in Thelma and Louise".⁶⁰ In spite of a worse-than-expected box office performance, Fight Club became a cult classic after its DVD release in 2000.⁶¹

Following Fight Club, Pitt was cast as an Irish Gypsy boxer with a barely intelligible accent in Guy Ritchie's 2000 gangster film Snatch.⁶² Several reviewers were critical of Snatch, however most praised Pitt.⁶³ Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said Pitt was "ideally cast as an Irishman whose accent is so thick even Brits can't understand him", going on to say that, prior to Snatch, Pitt had been "shackled by roles that called for brooding introspection, but recently he has found his calling in black comic outrageousness and flashy extroversion;"⁶⁴ while Amy Taubin of The Village Voice claimed that "Pitt gets maximum comic mileage out of a one-joke role".⁶⁵

The following year Pitt starred opposite Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy The Mexican,¹⁵ a film that garnered a broad range of reviews⁶⁶ but enjoyed box office success.¹⁹ Pitt's next role, in 2001's $143 million-grossing Cold War thriller Spy Game,¹⁹ was as Tom Bishop, an operative of the CIA's Special Activities Division, mentored by Robert Redford's character.⁶⁷ Salon.com enjoyed the film, though noting that neither Pitt nor Redford provided "much of an emotional connection for the audience".⁶⁸ On November 22, 2001, Pitt made a guest appearance in the eighth season of the television series Friends, playing a man with a grudge against Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Aniston, to whom Pitt was married at the time.⁶⁹ For this performance he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.⁷⁰⁷¹ In December 2001 Pitt had the role of Rusty Ryan in the heist film Ocean's Eleven, a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack original. He joined an ensemble cast including George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts.⁷² Ocean's Eleven, well-received by critics, was successful at the box office, earning $450 million worldwide.¹⁹

In February 2002 Pitt appeared in two episodes of MTV's reality series Jackass, first running through the streets of Los Angeles with several cast members in gorilla suits⁷³ and, in the second episode, participating in his own staged abduction.⁷⁴ In the same year Pitt had a cameo role in George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.⁷⁵ He took on his first voice-acting roles in 2003, lending his voice to the titular character of the DreamWorks animated film Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas⁷⁶ and playing Boomhauer's brother, Patch, in an episode of the animated television series King of the Hill.⁷⁷

After 2003

Pitt had two major film roles in 2004, starring as Achilles in Troy, and making a second appearance as Rusty Ryan, in the sequel Ocean's Twelve. Prior to the filming of Troy, based on the Iliad, Pitt spent six months sword training.⁷⁸ An onset injury to his Achilles tendon delayed production on the picture for several weeks.⁷⁹ With a total worldwide gross of $497 million, Troy stands as the highest grossing film of Pitt's career to end 2008. The film earned $364 million outside the U.S. and $133 million domestically.¹⁹⁸⁰ Stephen Hunter of The Washington Times stated that Pitt excelled at such a demanding role.⁸¹ Ocean's Twelve earned $362 million worldwide,¹⁹ and Pitt and Clooney's dynamic was described (by CNN's Paul Clinton) as "the best male chemistry since Paul Newman and Robert Redford".⁸²

In 2005 Pitt starred in the Doug Liman-directed action comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which a bored married couple discover that each is an assassin sent to kill the other. The feature received reasonable reviews but was generally lauded for the chemistry between Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who played his character's wife Jane Smith. The Star Tribune noted that "while the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry."⁸³ Mr. & Mrs. Smith earned $478 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest hits of 2005.⁸⁴

For his next feature film Pitt starred opposite Cate Blanchett in Alejandro González Iñárritu's multi-narrative drama Babel (2006).⁸⁵ Pitt's performance was critically well-received, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer believed that he was credible and gave the film visibility.⁸⁶ Pitt later said he regarded taking the part as one of the best decisions of his career.⁸⁷ The film was screened at a special presentation at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival⁸⁸ and was later featured at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.⁸⁹ Babel received seven Academy and Golden Globe award nominations, wining the Best Drama Golden Globe, and earned Pitt a nomination for the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe.³²

Reprising his role as Rusty Ryan in a third picture, Pitt starred in 2007's Ocean's Thirteen.⁹⁰ While less lucrative than the first two films, this sequel earned $311 million at the international box office.¹⁹ Pitt's next film role was as American outlaw Jesse James in the 2007 Western drama The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, adapted from Ron Hansen's 1983 novel of the same name.⁹¹ Directed by Andrew Dominik and produced by Pitt's company Plan B, the film premiered at the 2007 Venice Film Festival,⁹² with Pitt playing a "scary and charismatic" role, according to Lewis Beale of Film Journal International,⁹³ and earning Pitt the Volpi Cup award for Best Actor in Venice.⁹⁴ Although Pitt attended the festival to promote the film, he left early after being attacked by a fan who pushed through his bodyguards.⁹⁵ He eventually collected the award one year later at the 2008 festival.⁹⁶

Pitt's next appearance was in the 2008 black comedy Burn After Reading, his first collaboration with the Coen brothers. The film received a positive reception from critics, with The Guardian calling it "a tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy",⁹⁷ noting that Pitt's performance was one of the funniest.⁹⁷ He was later cast as Benjamin Button, the lead in David Fincher's 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a loosely adapted version of a 1921 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story follows a man who is born an octogenarian and ages in reverse,⁹⁸ with Pitt's "sensitive" performance making Benjamin Button a "timeless masterpiece," according to Michael Sragow of the The Baltimore Sun.⁹⁹ The performance earned Pitt his first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination,¹⁰⁰ as well as a fourth Golden Globe and second Academy Award nomination;³²¹⁰¹ the film grossed $329 million worldwide and received thirteen Academy Award nominations in total.¹⁹

Since 2008 Pitt's work has included a leading role in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, released in August 2009 at a special presentation at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.¹⁰² Pitt played Lieutenant Aldo Raine, an American resistance fighter battling Nazis in German-occupied France.¹⁰³ The film was a box office hit, taking $311 million worldwide,¹⁹ and garnering generally favorable reviews.¹⁰⁴ Pitt is also due to appear in Terrence Malick's drama The Tree of Life, co-starring Sean Penn,¹⁰⁵ and has signed on to appear as a British explorer searching for a mysterious Amazonian civilization in the Lost City of Z, based on David Grann's eponymous book.¹⁰⁶

Other projects

Film and television work

Pitt, along with Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures, founded the film production company Plan B Entertainment in 2002,¹⁰⁷ though Aniston and Grey withdrew in 2005.¹⁰⁸¹⁰⁹ The company has produced several films, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp in 2005,¹¹⁰¹¹¹ and 2007's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and A Mighty Heart, starring Angelina Jolie.¹¹¹ Plan B was also involved in producing The Departed, the winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Picture. Pitt was credited onscreen as a producer; however, only Graham King was ruled eligible for the Oscar win.¹¹² Pitt has been reluctant to discuss the production company in interviews.¹⁰⁹

Pitt has appeared in several television commercials: one for the U.S. market, a Heineken commercial aired during the 2005 Super Bowl; it was directed by David Fincher, who had directed Pitt in Seven, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.¹¹³ Other commercial appearances came in television spots designed for Asian markets, advertising such products as SoftBank and Edwin Jeans.¹¹⁴¹¹⁵

Humanitarian causes

Pitt supports the ONE Campaign, an organization aimed at combating AIDS and poverty in the developing world.¹¹⁶¹¹⁷ He narrated the 2005 PBS public television series Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge, which discusses current global health issues¹¹⁸ and, in November 2005, traveled to Pakistan with Angelina Jolie to see the impact of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.¹¹⁹ The following year Pitt and Jolie flew to Haiti, where they visited a school supported by Yéle Haïti, a charity founded by Haitian-born hip hop musician Wyclef Jean.¹²⁰ In May 2007 Pitt and Jolie donated $1 million to three organizations in Chad and Sudan dedicated to those affected by the crisis in the Darfur region.¹²¹ Along with Clooney, Damon, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub, Pitt is one of the founders of "Not On Our Watch", an organization that tries to focus global attention and resources to stop and prevent genocides such as that in Darfur.¹²²

Pitt has a sustained interest in architecture¹²³ and has narrated Design e2, a PBS television series focused on worldwide efforts to build environmentally friendly structures through sustainable architecture and design.¹²⁴¹²⁵ He founded the Make It Right Foundation in 2006, organizing housing professionals in New Orleans to finance and construct 150 sustainable, affordable new houses in New Orleans's Ninth Ward following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.¹²⁶¹²⁷ The project involves 13 architectural firms and the environmental organization Global Green USA, with several of the firms donating their services.¹²⁸¹²⁹ Pitt and philanthropist Steve Bing have each committed $5 million in donations.¹³⁰ The first six homes were completed in October 2008,¹³¹ and in September 2009 Pitt received an award in recognition of the project from the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit trade organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built and operated.¹³²¹³³ Pitt met in March 2009 with U.S. President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to promote his concept of green housing as a national model and to discuss federal funding possibilities.¹³⁴

In September 2006, Pitt and Jolie established a charitable organization, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to aid humanitarian causes around the world.¹³⁵ The foundation made initial donations of $1 million each to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders,¹³⁵ followed by an October 2006 donation of $100,000 to the Daniel Pearl Foundation, an organization created in memory of the late American journalist Daniel Pearl.¹³⁶ According to federal filings, Pitt and Jolie invested $8.5 million into the foundation in 2006; it gave away $2.4 million in 2006¹³⁷ and $3.4 million in 2007.¹³⁸ In June 2009 the Jolie-Pitt Foundation donated $1 million to a U.N. refugee agency to help Pakistanis displaced by fighting between troops and Taliban militants.¹³⁹¹⁴⁰ In January 2010 the foundation donated $1 million to Doctors Without Borders for emergency medical assistance to help victims of the Haiti earthquake.¹⁴¹¹⁴²

In the media

Pitt's sex appeal has been picked up by many sources including Empire, who named him one of the 25 sexiest stars in film history in 1995.⁸ The same year, Pitt won People's Sexiest Man Alive, an accolade he won again in 2000.²¹⁴³ Pitt appeared on Forbes's annual Celebrity 100 list of the 100 most powerful celebrities in 2006, 2007, and 2008, at No. 20, No. 5, and No. 10 respectively.^144145146 In 2007 he was listed among the Time 100, a compilation of the 100 most influential people in the world, as selected annually by Time.¹⁴⁷ The magazine credited Pitt with using "his star power to get people to look [to where] cameras don't usually catch".¹⁴⁷ Pitt was again included in the Time 100 in 2009, this time in the Builders and Titans list.¹⁴⁸

Pitt visited the University of Missouri campus in October 2004 to encourage students to vote in the 2004 U.S. presidential election,¹⁴⁹ in which he supported John Kerry.¹⁴⁹¹⁵⁰ Later in October he publicly supported the principle of public funding for embryonic stem-cell research. "We have to make sure that we open up these avenues so that our best and our brightest can go find these cures that they believe they will find," he said.¹⁵¹ In support of this he endorsed Proposition 71, a California ballot initiative intended to provide federal government funding for stem-cell research.¹⁵²

Starting in 2005, Pitt's relationship with Angelina Jolie became one of the most reported celebrity stories worldwide. After confirming that Jolie was pregnant in early 2006, the unprecedented media hype surrounding the coupled reached what Reuters, in a story titled "The Brangelina fever," called "the point of insanity".⁴ To avoid media attention the couple flew to Namibia for the birth of their daughter Shiloh, "the most anticipated baby since Jesus Christ."¹⁵³ Similarly intense media interest greeted the announcement two years later of Jolie's second pregnancy; for the two weeks Jolie spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, reporters and photographers camped outside on the promenade to report on the birth.¹⁵⁴

In September 2008 Pitt donated $100,000 to the campaign against California's 2008 ballot proposition Proposition 8, an initiative to overturn the state Supreme Court decision that had legalized same-sex marriage.¹⁵⁵ Pitt stated his reasons for the stance: "Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8."¹⁵⁶

Personal life

In the late 1980s and the 1990s Pitt was involved in successive relationships with several of his co-stars, including Robin Givens (Head of the Class),¹⁵⁷ Jill Schoelen (Cutting Class),¹⁵⁷ and Juliette Lewis (Too Young to Die? and Kalifornia), who, at the age of sixteen, was ten years his junior when they started dating.²² Pitt also had a much-publicized romance and engagement to Seven co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, whom he dated from 1995 to 1997.¹⁵⁷

Pitt met Friends actress Jennifer Aniston in 1998 and married her in a private wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000.¹¹⁵⁸ For years their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success;¹¹⁵⁹ however, in January 2005, Pitt and Aniston announced that they had decided formally to separate after seven years together.¹⁵⁸ Two months later Aniston filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.¹⁶⁰

During Pitt's divorce from Aniston, his involvement with Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie attracted vigorous media attention.¹⁶¹ While Pitt denied claims of adultery, he admitted that he "fell in love" with Jolie on the set¹⁶² and said that production on Mr. & Mrs. Smith would continue after his separation from Aniston.¹⁶³

In April 2005, one month after Aniston filed for divorce, a set of paparazzi photographs emerged showing Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in Kenya; the pictures were construed in the press as evidence of a relationship between Pitt and Jolie.¹⁶⁴ During summer 2005 the two were seen together with increasing frequency, and the entertainment media dubbed the couple "Brangelina".¹⁶⁵ Pitt and Aniston's final divorce documents were granted by the Los Angeles Superior Court on October 2, 2005, officially ending their marriage.¹⁶⁰ On January 11, 2006, Jolie confirmed to People that she was pregnant with Pitt's child, thereby publicly confirming their relationship for the first time.¹⁶⁶ In an October 2006 interview with Esquire, Pitt said that he and Jolie would marry when everyone in America is legally able to marry.⁸⁹

Despite media reports that Pitt and Aniston have an acrimonious relationship, in a February 2009 interview, Pitt said that he and Aniston "check in with each other", adding that they were both big parts of each others' lives.¹⁶⁷

In an October 2007 interview, Pitt revealed that he is no longer a Christian and does not believe in an afterlife. "There's peace in understanding that I have only one life, here and now, and I'm responsible."⁷ In a July 2009 interview he said that he did not believe in God, and that he was "probably 20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic."¹⁶⁸

Children

In July 2005, Pitt accompanied Jolie to Ethiopia,¹⁶⁹ where she adopted her second child, a six-month-old girl named Zahara¹⁶⁹ a decision which Jolie later stated she and Pitt had made together.¹⁷⁰ It was confirmed, in December 2005, that Pitt was seeking to legally adopt Jolie's two children, Maddox and Zahara;¹⁷¹ a legal request was granted by a judge in California on January 19, 2006, and the children's surnames were legally changed to "Jolie-Pitt".¹⁷²

Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, in Swakopmund, Namibia, on May 27, 2006. Pitt confirmed that their newly born daughter would have a Namibian passport.¹⁷³ The couple sold the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images and the North American rights were purchased by People for over $4.1 million, while British magazine Hello! obtained the international rights for approximately $3.5 million. The proceeds from the sale, up to $10 million worldwide,¹⁷⁴ were donated to an undisclosed charity by Pitt and Jolie.¹⁷⁵ Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh, making Shiloh the first infant to have a statue at Madame Tussauds.¹⁷⁶

On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a three-year-old boy from Vietnam, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt (originally Pax Thien Jolie).¹⁷⁷ Since the orphanage did not allow unmarried couples to adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent, and Pitt later adopted him as his son in the United States.¹⁷⁸

Following months of media speculation, Jolie confirmed in an interview at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival that she was expecting twins.¹⁷⁹ She gave birth at the Lenval hospital in Nice, France, on July 12, 2008, to twins whom the couple named Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline.¹⁸⁰ 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.¹⁸¹¹⁸² The couple donated the proceeds to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.¹⁸¹¹⁸³

Filmography

Actor

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1987	No Way Out	Officer at party
	No Man's Land	Waiter
	Less Than Zero	Partygoer
	Growing Pains	Jeff	TV series (two episodes: "Who's Zoomin' Who?" and "Feet of Clay" [1989])
	Dallas	Randy	TV series (four episodes)
1988	21 Jump Street	Peter	TV series (one episode: "Best Years of Your Life")
1989	Happy Together	Brian
	Cutting Class	Dwight Ingalls
	Head of the Class	Chuck	TV series (one episode: "Partners")
	Freddy's Nightmares	Rick Austin	TV series (one episode: "Black Tickets")
1990	The Image	Cameraman	TV movie
	Too Young to Die?	Billy Canton	TV movie
	Glory Days	Walker Lovejoy	TV series (six episodes)
1991	Across the Tracks	Joe Maloney
	Thelma & Louise	J.D.
	Johnny Suede	Johnny Suede
1992	Contact	Cox
	Cool World	Detective Frank Harris
	A River Runs Through It	Paul Maclean
1993	Kalifornia	Early Grayce
	True Romance	Floyd
1994	The Favor	Elliott Fowler
	Interview with the Vampire	Louis de Pointe du Lac	MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Male MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Male Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo shared with Tom Cruise Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actor
	Legends of the Fall	Tristan Ludlow	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1995	Seven	David Mills	MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Male Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo shared with Morgan Freeman Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Male
	12 Monkeys	Jeffrey Goines	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance
1996	Sleepers	Michael Sullivan
1997	The Devil's Own	Francis "Frankie" Austin McQuire/Rory Devaney
	Seven Years in Tibet	Heinrich Harrer
	The Dark Side of the Sun	Rick
1998	Meet Joe Black	Joe Black/Man in the Coffee Shop
1999	Fight Club	Tyler Durden
	Being John Malkovich	Himself	Cameo
2000	Snatch	Mickey O'Neil	Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
2001	The Mexican	Jerry Welbach
	Spy Game	Tom Bishop
	Ocean's Eleven	Rusty Ryan	Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team Nominated – Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
	Friends	Will Colbert	TV series (one episode: "The One with the Rumor") Nominated – Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
2002	Full Frontal	Himself
	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	Brad, Bachelor #1
2003	Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas	Sinbad	Voice actor
	Abby Singer	Himself	Cameo
2004	Troy	Achilles	Teen Choice Award for Best Action Actor Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Fight shared with Eric Bana Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Male
	Ocean's Twelve	Rusty Ryan	Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2005	Mr. & Mrs. Smith	John Smith	MTV Movie Award for Best Fight shared with Angelina Jolie Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss shared with Angelina Jolie
2006	Babel	Richard	Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast Palm Springs International Film Festival for Best Cast San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2007	Ocean's Thirteen	Rusty Ryan
	The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford	Jesse James	Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup Best Actor
2008	Burn After Reading	Chad Feldheimer	Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated – Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	Benjamin Button	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Nominated – Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actor Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
2009	Inglourious Basterds	Lt. Aldo Raine	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated – Detroit Film Critics Society for Best Ensemble
2010	The Tree of Life	Mr. O'Brien	post-production
	MegaMind	Metro-Man	post-production

Producer

Year	Film	Notes
2004	Troy
2006	The Departed	Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Film
	Running with Scissors
2007	Year of the Dog	Executive producer
	A Mighty Heart	Co-producer Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Film
	The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2009	The Time Traveler's Wife
2010	Eat, Pray, Love
	The Tree of Life

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brad Pitt

• Brad Pitt at the Internet Movie Database
• Brad Pitt at Yahoo! Movies
• Ancestry at Genealogy.com
• Brad Pitt at People.com
• Not On Our Watch – Founded by: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Jerry Weintraub

Preceded by Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford (as Sexiest Couple Alive in 1993) (no award given in 1994)	People's Sexiest Man Alive 1995	Succeeded by Denzel Washington
Preceded by Richard Gere	People's Sexiest Man Alive 2000	Succeeded by Pierce Brosnan

v • d • e Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture John Gielgud (1981) · Louis Gossett, Jr. (1982) · Jack Nicholson (1983) · Haing S. Ngor (1984) · Klaus Maria Brandauer (1985) · Tom Berenger (1986) · Sean Connery (1987) · Martin Landau (1988) · Denzel Washington (1989) · Bruce Davison (1990) · Jack Palance (1991) · Gene Hackman (1992) · Tommy Lee Jones (1993) · Martin Landau (1994) · Brad Pitt (1995) · Edward Norton (1996) · Burt Reynolds (1997) · Ed Harris (1998) · Tom Cruise (1999) · Benicio del Toro (2000) Complete List · (1943–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)

Persondata
NAME	Pitt, William Bradley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Pitt, Brad
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American actor
DATE OF BIRTH	December 18, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH	Shawnee, Oklahoma, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH