Everything about Brad Pitt totally explained
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt Pitt received a
Golden Globe Award and an
Academy Award nomination for his role in the 1995 film
Twelve Monkeys. and is regarded as a
Hollywood A-lister. His former marriage to actress
Jennifer Aniston and current relationship with
Angelina Jolie have been widely covered in the world media. Along with his brother Doug and sister Julie Neal, he grew up in
Springfield,
Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. Pitt was raised a Baptist. He attended
Kickapoo High School, where he was involved in sports, debating, student government, and acting. He attended the
Missouri School of Journalism at the
University of Missouri–Columbia. He is a member of the
Sigma Chi Fraternity.
In 1991, Pitt starred, along with Vera Martins, as Joe Maloney in
Across the Tracks, in which he portrayed a high school runner with a difficult criminal brother played by
Ricky Schroder.
In 1997, Pitt starred alongside
Harrison Ford as the
IRA terrorist Rory Devany in
The Devil's Own, the first of several films where Pitt used an
Irish accent in his performance. That same year he played the main role of
Austrian
mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in the
Jean Jacques Annaud film
Seven Years in Tibet.
In 1998, Pitt starred as the main character in the film
Meet Joe Black, where he played a
personification of
Death inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it's like to be human.
2000s: Ascension to the A-list
In 2000, Pitt filmed the
Cold War thriller
Spy Game in which he starred alongside veteran actor
Robert Redford, who played the role of his mentor. In 2001, Pitt worked with long-time friend
Julia Roberts in the comical road movie
The Mexican. At the end of the year, Pitt finished filming
Ocean's Eleven with
George Clooney and
Matt Damon, a remake of the 1960s version which starred
Frank Sinatra.
Since then, he's starred in numerous films, including
Ocean's Twelve In 2005, Pitt starred in
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which he and
Angelina Jolie played husband and wife assassins.
In March 2006, it was announced that
Paramount had purchased the rights to
The Sparrow for Pitt's production company, Plan B, and that Pitt would be playing the lead role of Sandoz. In June 2006 it was announced that Paramount and Plan B will be working on a new zombie film called
World War Z, based on the
book of the same name by
Max Brooks.
Pitt made his return to Hollywood in late 2006 with
Alejandro González Iñárritu's critically acclaimed
Babel, starring alongside
Cate Blanchett. The movie garnered a total of seven
Academy Award and
Golden Globe nominations, one of which was a
Golden Globe nomination for Pitt as
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. That same year, he also produced the eventual
Best Picture winner,
The Departed. In 2005, he produced and starred in
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik, but the film wasn't released until late 2007.
Other projects
Pitt has appeared in
television commercials designed for the Asian market, advertising such diverse products as
Edwin Jeans. He also appeared in a
Heineken commercial which aired during the
2005 Super Bowl; it was directed by
David Fincher, who directed Pitt in the feature films
Se7en and
Fight Club.
Together with
Jennifer Aniston and
Paramount Pictures head
Brad Grey, Pitt founded the production company Plan B. Aniston is no longer a partner in the company, although she's still attached to many projects that were set up before her divorce from Pitt. The company produced the blockbuster
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring
Johnny Depp, as well as
The Departed and
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Pitt made a guest appearance in
an eighth-season episode of
Friends, as a man who has a grudge against Aniston's character
Rachel Green, lent his voice on an episode of
King of the Hill, where he played Boomhauer's brother,
Patch Boomhauer, and on an episode of
MTV's
Jackass, in which he took part in a staged abduction of himself. In a later
Jackass episode, he and several cast members ran wild through the streets of
Los Angeles in gorilla suits.
Pitt has been an active supporter of research into diseases such as
AIDS. He is the narrator of the acclaimed Public Television series
Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge, which discusses current important global health issues.
Pitt is also a knowledgeable fan of architecture, particularly that of
Frank Lloyd Wright, and has helped the
National Trust for Historic Preservation raise money.
Personal life
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Pitt dated several of his co-stars, including
Robin Givens (
Head Of The Class),
Jill Schoelen (
Cutting Class), Not long after the wedding, Pitt sued
Damiani International, the company which had made the wedding ring he gave Aniston, for selling replica "Brad and Jennifer" rings. According to Pitt, the ring was his design and was to be exclusive. Under the settlement reached in January 2002, Pitt would design jewelry for Damiani that Aniston would model in ads, and the company would stop selling the copies.
Though their marriage was for years considered the rare Hollywood success, rumors of marital problems began circulating, and the Pitts announced their separation on
January 7 2005. As Pitt's marriage to Aniston drew to a close, he and actress
Angelina Jolie were involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal in which Jolie was often painted as the "other woman", largely due to their chemistry during the filming of
Mr. & Mrs. Smith. While Jolie and Pitt both denied any claims of adultery, speculations continued to mount throughout 2004 and early 2005. In an interview with Ann Curry in June 2005, Jolie explained, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, isn't something I could forgive. I couldn't look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife."
In early 2005, the concept of a "troubled marriage" - and arguably his own - inspired Pitt to cooperate with photographer
Steven Klein for a photoshoot entitled "Domestic Bliss" for
W magazine.
Aniston filed for divorce on
March 25 2005; the divorce was finalized on
October 2 2005.
Relationship with Angelina Jolie
One month after Aniston filed for divorce, in April 2005, a set of paparazzi photos emerged that seemed to confirm the rumors of a relationship between Pitt and actress
Angelina Jolie. The photos, which were reportedly sold for $500,000, showed Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in
Kenya. During the summer, the pair were seen together with increasing frequency, and the entertainment media dubbed the couple "Brangelina". Two months later, the highly anticipated July 2005 issue of
W magazine hit newsstands, featuring Pitt and Jolie posed as a couple.
In July 2005, Pitt accompanied Jolie to Ethiopia, where Jolie adopted her second child, a six-month-old girl named Zahara; In December 2005, it was confirmed that Pitt was seeking to legally adopt Jolie's two children as his own; per the legal requirements, classified advertisements in the Los Angeles paper
Daily Commerce announced the name change request. On
January 19 2006, a judge in California approved this request, and the children's legal surnames were formally changed to "Jolie-Pitt".
On
January 11 2006, Jolie confirmed to
People magazine that she was pregnant with Pitt's child. On
May 27 2006, Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, at the Cottage Medi-Clinic Hospital in
Swakopmund,
Namibia.
Following media reports suggesting Jolie might be pregnant again, she attended the
Independent Spirit Awards 2008 in a close-fitting dress, indirectly confirming those rumors.
People quoted a source who confirmed her pregnancy. In May 2008, Jolie confirmed on the
Today show that they were expecting twins.
The Jolie-Pitt children
Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt » Born on August 5 2001 as Rath Vibol in Cambodia; adopted at seven months old on March 10 2002. Prior to the adoption, he lived in an orphanage in Cambodia's second-largest city, Battambang. Jolie's adoption of Maddox, which took place during her former marriage to actor Billy Bob Thornton, is often credited with sparking the celebrity adoption trend of the 2000s.
Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt » Born on November 29 2003 as Pham Quang Sang in Vietnam; adopted at three years old on March 16 2007. On March 2 2007, Vu Duc Long, the head of Vietnam's international adoption department, confirmed that Jolie had filed papers to adopt a child from Vietnam. Two weeks later, on March 16, Jolie traveled to Vietnam with Maddox to pick up her new son. Pax had lived in the Tam Binh orphanage since he was found abandoned outside a Ho Chi Minh City hospital shortly after his birth. Since the orphanage doesn't allow unmarried couples to adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent, with Pitt later adopting his son domestically.
Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt » Born on January 8 2005 as Tena Adam or Yemsrach in Ethiopia; adopted at six months old on July 6 2005. Jolie adopted her from a Wide Horizons for Children orphanage in Addis Ababa. Shortly after they returned to the United States, Zahara was hospitalized for salmonella-intestinal infection, as well as dehydration and malnutrition. in 2007 media outlets stated that Zahara's biological mother, Mentewabe Dawit, was still alive and had abandoned her shortly after giving birth. Dawit denied reports claiming she wanted the child back, instead saying she thought Zahara was a "very fortunate human being to be adopted by a world famous lady."
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt » Born on May 27 2006 at Cottage Medi-Clinic Hospital in Swakopmund, Namibia; Pitt and Jolie's only biological child. Shiloh was born by a scheduled cesarean section due to breech presentation; Jolie was assisted during the birth by the couple's Los Angeles obstetrician and local staff. Pitt confirmed that their newborn daughter would have a Namibian passport. The couple decided to offer the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images themselves, rather than allowing paparazzi to take these extremely valuable snapshots. People magazine paid more than $4.1 million for the North American rights, while British magazine Hello! obtained the international rights for roughly $3.5 million; the total rights sale earned up to $10 million worldwide - the most expensive celebrity image of all time. All profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Pitt and Jolie. On July 26 2006, Madame Tussauds of New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; she was the first infant to be recreated in wax by Madame Tussauds.
Life in New Orleans
The family divides its time between
Los Angeles, California and
New Orleans, Louisiana. In an interview with
the Times-Picayune, while filming
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Pitt said:
In December 2006, Pitt gathered a group of housing professionals together in the
Hurricane Katrina-stricken
New Orleans to begin planning a project that Pitt calls
Make It Right, with the goal of financing and constructing 150 new houses in New Orleans'
Ninth Ward. The houses are being designed with an emphasis on
sustainability and affordability, with the hope that the project can and will be replicated throughout the city. Thirteen architectural firms are involved in the project, many of which are donating their services. Pitt and philanthropist
Steve Bing have each committed to matching $5 million in donations.
Religious views
In an
October 7,
2007 interview, Pitt told
PARADE that he's no longer a
fundamentalist Christian. In this interview, Pitt said:
Popular esteem
In 1995, Pitt was chosen by
Empire magazine as one of the 25 sexiest stars in film history. Pitt has also twice been named the
Sexiest Man Alive by
People magazine.
In 2007, Pitt was listed among artists and entertainers as one of
Time magazine's
100 Most Influential People in The World. He was credited, along with his best friend Tiago Miranda Paulo, with using "his star power to get people to look at places and stories that cameras don't usually catch."
Filmography
Producer
Awards and nominations
Awards won:
1993: ShoWest Convention: Male Star of Tomorrow
1995: MTV Movie Awards: Best Male Performance for
1995: MTV Movie Awards: Most Desirable Male for
1996: MTV Movie Awards: Most Desirable Male for Se7en
1996: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Best Supporting Actor for Twelve Monkeys
1996: Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for Twelve Monkeys
1996: Sci-Fi Universe Magazine: Best Supporting Actor in a Genre Motion Picture for Twelve Monkeys
1997: Blockbuster Entertainment Awards: Favorite Supporting Actor, Science Fiction for Twelve Monkeys
1998: Rembrandt Awards: Best Actor for Seven Years in Tibet
2004: Teen Choice Awards: Choice Movie Actor, Drama/Action Adventure for Troy
2005: People's Choice Awards: Favorite Leading Man
2006: MTV Movie Awards: Best Fight Scene for Mr. & Mrs. Smith
2007: Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup best actor: Best Actor for The Assassination of Jesse James
Saturn Award
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! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | Golden Globe Award
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! colspan="3" style="background: #DAA520;" | Venice Film Festival
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Awards nominations:
1995: Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama for Legends of the Fall
1995: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Best Actor for
1996: Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Twelve Monkeys
1995: MTV Movie Awards: Best On-Screen Duo for
1996: MTV Movie Awards: Best Male Performance for Twelve Monkeys
1996: MTV Movie Awards: Best On-Screen Duo for Se7en
2000: Blockbuster Entertainment Awards: Favorite Action Team for Fight Club
2001: Golden Satellite Awards: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical for Snatch
2001: Teen Choice Awards: Choice Chemistry for The Mexican
2002: Emmy Awards: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Friends ("The One with the Rumor")
2002: MTV Movie Awards: Best On-Screen Team for Ocean's Eleven
2004: Kids' Choice Awards: Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie for
2005: Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards: Best Acting Ensemble for Ocean's Twelve
2006: MTV Movie Awards: Best On-Screen Kiss for Mr. and Mrs. Smith
2007: Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for BabelFurther Information
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