Angelina Jolie Voight, which translates to 'pretty little angel', was born 4
June 1975 in Los Angeles to Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand.
Angelina's father is an Oscar Award Winning actor, whom
Angelina has had a much publicized rocky relationship with over the
years. Her mother is "part Iroquois Indian from Chicago" and not
French Parisian as much of the media has claimed, actress and model.
Her brother is James Haven Voight, whom now goes by James Haven.
James is a film director and attended the USC School
of Cinema. Angelina has starred in five of his student films. Ms. Jolie
remains extremely close to her mother and brother to this day.
Angelina's parents divorced when she was 6 months old. Her father was not
an active partner in little Angelina's life and she says that she
"cannot remember her father very well growing up." This was the
beginning of an unstable relationship between Angelina and Jon
Voight. After the family split up, Angelina and her brother James
continued living with their mother in Los Angeles and later on in New York.
As a little girl in kindergarten, Angelina was part of a group called
the Kissy Girls. She said that they would chase the boys around and kiss them.
Angelina was seen kissing one of the boys by the school fence which
didn't please watching parents so the school put a stop to their game.
Like many young girls, and living in New York with her mother and
brother, she used to love playing dress ups. "I had this black velvet
frilly little showgirl thing with sparkles on my butt, and I used to
love those plastic high heels", says Angelina. Not like most young
girls, Angelina liked collecting snakes and lizards. Her favourite
lizard was named Vladimir and her favourite snake, Harry Dean Stanton.
She also, like many girls her age, had a major crush on Mr. Spock.
Angelina's first role in a film was at age 7, 1982, in Lookin' To
Get Out. A movie about gamblers in trouble, which was also co-written
and starred her father, Jon Voight. Angelina had a very small part as Tosh.
As Angelina got older and having never owned a house and constantly
moving as a child, it took an emotional toll on her and she believes
today that her desire to be a funeral director at one point (she even
took a home course) was due to "never being rooted anywhere" as a
child. She was craving stability.
When Angelina was 11 years old, her mother moved the family back to
Los Angeles. It was during these early teens that Angelina's life was
covered by a dark cloud. "When other little girls wanted to be ballet
dancers I kind of wanted to be a vampire", Angelina has said of her
days as a young girl. When she was 14 years old, she had her
boyfriend of two years live at the house she shared with her mother and
brother. It was during this time she started playing with knives in the bedroom.
One night they were having sex, nothing felt like enough for Angelina so
she grabbed a knife and cut him and he did her the same until they were both
covered in blood. She has said that it felt more honest to her, having sex this way.
Apparently today, there is a faint scar on Angelina's jaw line from where she
asked her boyfriend to draw the blade along.
At 16, inspired by her mother (whom previously studied acting at the Actors
Studio with Lee Strasberg), Angelina also went to the Strasberg
Institute and it was here that she got the acting bug and wanted to
act professionally. She trained at the institute for two years,
appearing in several stage productions. During her time at Beverly
Hills High School, Angelina saw herself as an outcast. She was
constantly picked on for her glasses, braces and now, world wide
famous big lips. She calls her teens her "awkward mental breakdown"
adolescence. "I wore black fishnets and boots because I wanted to hide
myself. I wanted to feel everything and go slam dancing. But at the
same time, I was doing plays and taking ballroom classes at Arthur
Murray. I'd wash off all the ink I had drawn on my arms, take off my
twenty-hole Doc Martens and put on high heels and a dress and win
tango competitions. My friends thought I was insane. But I thought it
was fun", says Jolie.
Unable to bond with other human beings, one of the ways Angelina
coped was through self mutilation "to feel alive". Though today,
with that long in the past, she does not regret being so open
about that part of her life. "I don't believe in regret. I have had
people come up to me who used to mutilate
themselves with knives – or are cutting themselves – and want to talk
about why they are doing it or why they or I stopped. I don't have
shame in my life. The tattoos, the cutting, it's all connected to
something that feels real", says Jolie of that time in her life.
Her two year relationship with her boyfriend had now ended and she
moved out of her mother's home and into her own apartment across the
street and went back to theatre. Angelina and her father briefly
became closer during this time. Voight noticed her talent, being moved
to tears by her reading of the part of Catherine in A View From The Bridge.
Angelina, having blossomed into a beautiful teenager, was now modeling
and appearing in video clips for big stars like Meat Loaf, Lenny Kravitz,
Lemonheads and The Rolling Stones.
Life seemed to be going in the right direction for Angelina, but what
ever confidence she had, kept on plummeting. It was around this time
that she tried hiring a man to kill her. Thankfully the hitman told
her to think about this request for a month and one would assume that
Angelina never called him back.
In 1993, Angelina took on her first proper role in a film. She starred as Casella Reese in Cyborg 2. A film Angelina says was
a "happy experience until she saw the final product." In the same year
Angelina took part in Angela & Viril and Alice & Viril, the two
minute films directed by Steven Shainberg. Next was 1995's Without Evidence
in which Angelina played Jodie Swearingen in the film based on a true crime story.
It is certainly not one of her best films, but it was her starting point of
good things to come.
Her next big role would come in 1995's Hackers. She played Kate "Acid
Burn" Libby, a sexy computer whizz. It was also during this films production
that Angelina met her future first husband, English actor Jonny Lee Miller.
The pair fell madly in love and married when Angelina was just 21 years old.
When Jolie wore Jonny Miller's name in blood on her shirt teamed with black leather pants
and black sandals during their wedding, her intentions were not to
shock. Still owning the shirt today, Jolie is just very honest and
thinks "it's more strange when people spend $2m on a dress."
It was around this time that Angelina started being extremely open
with the media, telling tales of her fascination with knives and S&M
sex. The press the world over has speculated about Jolie's love and
collection of knives over the years. But the reality is they are
simply collector's items, antique weapons that she has been collecting
since she was 12 years old. "My mom bought me my first few, from
antique stores or fairs. Some of them are from all over the world.
It's more about history and honour and fighting and strength and
culture", says Angelina. As for her love of S&M sex, a lot of the
information released through the press, has either been misinterpreted
or blown out of proportion. It was "mostly about trying to connect"
with her lovers, says Jolie.
Film roles for Angelina starting coming in quickly now, she was now
filing on average three films per year. After Hackers, Angelina's
next film role was in 1996 playing Eleanor Rigby in the quirky
Mojave Moon, a film about a roadtrip, a romance, and a not-so-dead
body. Also filmed in 1996 were Love Is All There Is in which Angelina
plays the Italian pride Gina, and Foxfire, a favorite among the fans.
In Foxfire Angelina plays Legs Sadovsky, a charismatic and mysterious
tough girl who changes the lives of a group of teenage girls.
1997 was a big year for Angelina, both for her film career and her
personal life. The first of her four films for the year was the TV
movie, True Women, a historical romantic drama set in the West, based
on the book by Janice Woods Windle. Next was Playing God, in which
she starred opposite David Duchovny and rumoured lover Timothy Hutton.
Another TV movie followed, called George Wallace. Angelina played the
wife of the segregationist Governor of Alabama who was shot and
paralysed while running for President, winning herself a Golden Globe
and an Emmy nomination for her fine performance. The fourth film for
the year was the highly popular and stunning performance in Gia.
Angelina played the real life star Gia Marie Carangi, a rebellious lesbian
supermodel from the seventies who had her life taken to AIDS at the
tender age of 26.
It was while filming the award winning HBO Gia that Jolie's private
life fell apart. She initially refused the role of Gia Carangi four
times because she thought the role felt too personal to her and the toll it
would take on her mental state. "I didn't think I could
balance my life and my mind and my work. It happened that I became
exposed at the same time that I was playing a role about somebody
being exposed. I felt beaten down. I didn't feel like a good person. I
felt pretty bad", Jolie has said. On a brighter side, Jolie's fine
performance earned her for the second consecutive year a Golden
Globe and was nominated for an Emmy. After the Golden Globes ceremony
in true Angelina style, she jumped into a swimming-pool, still wearing
her hand-beaded Randolph Duke gown.
Unfortunately Angelina's marriage to Jonny Lee Miller fell apart and
their pair sought a divorce. At the time of the break up, Angelina
said "I don't know how good a wife I was. And that's the one thing
that made it possible for me to be somewhat OK with us separating."
Upon reflecting, Angelina felt that Jonny "kept me centered and we had
a beautiful, amazing marriage. But our lives went in different
directions. I actually felt like I'd handled it better than my
parents. We were so completely honest." Today she has nothing but kind
words for Jonny and to this day is still close friends with him.
After Gia wrapped up filming, Jolie decided to take a break from
movies because she felt that she didn't have anything else to give
and enrolled in and briefly attended the New York University's Film
School where she studied film and took a writing class. Angelina also
set tongues wagging in by confessing her bisexuality and that had had a
relationship with the model turned actress, Jenny Shimizu, who she
met on the set of Foxfire.
Once back to filming, her next role was as Gloria McNeary in 1998's
Hell's Kitchen and the quirky Joan in Playing by Heart, an acclaimed
film with a brilliant cast. Playing by Heart is still considered one of
Angelina's best performances. During the filming of 1999's Pushing Tin, Angelina
Jolie met her second husband to be, Billy Bob Thorton. At the time Billy Bob was engaged to
Laura Dern but he quickly broke it off to be with Angelina. They married in May 2000 at
the Little Church of the West Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. Minus a chaperone, Angelina
wore a tight blue sleeveless jumper and battered old 501's while carrying red and white roses.
Thorton too, wore casual attire. The pair became infamous for their salacious quotes and honesty.
When trying out for her next lead role 1999's The Bone Collector,
Jolie was originally knocked back with 'Angelina who?' Eventually, to
secure Jolie and her co-star Denzel Washington, a cap on the budget
was made by the studio and were told that any additional costs were to
come out of the crews own pockets. Jolie was the only person to put up
a sum which came to one million dollars.
After finishing up on The Bone Collector, 1999 was to see one of
Angelina's best performances, one that won her an Oscar for Best
Supporting Actress. It is, of course, Girl, Interrupted in which she played
the troubled Lisa Rowe. Girl, Interrupted was filmed in a mental
hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where a section of the ward was
closed down for the filming whilst the rest of the hospital carried on
as normal. Jolie describes Lisa Rowe as "somebody who lives completely
on impulse. She's very angry at people for not being who they are –
for living with masks on, in love with their own problems. She just
wants to shake everybody." And although Angelina is not normally a
social person on movie sets and stayed in character for the duration
of filming, she received nothing but praise for her performance and
efforts. Fellow co-star Winona Ryder praises Jolie's acting talents
and states that "I know that Angie puts herself through a lot when she
works." While the Director, James Mangold, "felt like the luckiest boy
on earth" after seeing Angelina audition for the role of Lisa and
knew immediately that she was the one to play her.
Of course there was the infamous kiss with her brother, James Haven,
at the Oscars. Angelina doesn't understand what all of the fuss
was about and does not regret it one bit. She says it was "a beautiful
thing between a brother and a sister who care and support each other.
It was a huge, emotional moment and we caught each other's mouths...
That's it."
Angelina doesn't keep any industry awards she receives. Her brother
has her Golden Globe and her mother keeps her Oscar. "I think it's
just good not to have them around to look at all the time", says Jolie.
Her next project was Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) with co-star Giovanni
Ribisi commenting Angie, "The media promotes Angelina as an
eccentric, like everything she's into is taboo and scary, but she is a
hyperintelligent actress and a totally honest woman who doesn't happen
to agree with middle-class status quo crap." Straight from the 60
Seconds set, she was off to film 2001's sexy Original Sin
opposite Antonio Banderas. She played a mail order bride who turns out to be
dominating, manipulative and thoroughly untrustworthy.
Always wanting to adopt a child but fearing she would not make a suitable
parent, Jolie adopted her first child in 2001, a son, Maddox Chivan
Jolie from Cambodia. Maddox, whom Angelina calls Mad, was born as Rath Vibol and
was three months old at the time. Angelina and Billy Bob fell for the child and
filed paperwork to begin the long adoption process. Months after Angelina was finally
allowed to bring the todler home in June 2002.
Unfortunately Angelina's relationship with Billy Bob Thornton was also falling apart
during the time. Eleven days after Maddox arrived to the US, Thornton moved out of
the couple's Los Angeles home. Jolie quickly filed for divorce. "I am a scared person.
I walked away. It's the most stupid thing I've ever done. I fell in love the hardest
I have ever fallen, and that was a scary thing. Nothing was her fault, absolutely nothing,
it was all down to me. I was afraid she would see how scared I was and realise I was
not the man she thought I could be", commented Thornton later on. Angelina and Billy Bob
did not speak for nearly two years but they eventually made ameds and are close friends
today.
On August 27, 2001 Angelina Jolie was announced as Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR in Geneva. Angelina has traveled to over 14 different countries in her bid to her assist refugees.
Though she is "no bunny hugger", she has donated $5 million to start a
Cambodian Wildlife Preserve and donated funds to rebuild a hospital in
Sri Lanka. Her philosophy towards her earnings, "If you make $10
million, you can give away $5 million and not miss it."
The world wide hit, Tomb Raider also in 2001 was her next film role.
To fill this role, Angelina had to master upper-class manners,
kick-boxing, street-fighting, yoga, ballet, car racing, dog-sledding
and a British accent. 2002's Life or Something Like
It followed in between the next installment of the Tomb Raider movies,
2003's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.
After deciding that she needed a break from the US, Angelina and Maddox packed
their bags and bought a house in Buckinghamshire, near the Pinewood Studios where
she filmed the Lara Croft films. They also own a house in Cambodia. Angelina feels
strongly about her son having connection to his native land.
More often than not, Angelina is photographed by the paparazzi or
questioned about her private life. She says "I try to ignore it, but
there are some things you read that you don't like. Something that
hurts me is fine; something that hurts someone through me is hard to
deal with." But even with her celebrity status, the people closest to
her, her friends and family, still treat Jolie the same as ever.
In the past when voted as the one of America's most beautiful people, "
I got so much shit for that 'most beautiful' thing. They'd see me first
thing in the morning and go, 'Ooh, look at that. Is that what the world's
most beautiful people look like?'", Jolie laughs.
After long delays due to the sacking of Kevin Costner, 2003's Beyond
Borders was filmed in which Angie starred as Sarah Jordan. Angelina considers this
project one of the most dear to her. The film followed by Talking Lives where she
played opposite Ethan Hawke. Angelina's next project came in the form as a voice for a
fish called Lola in the CGI animated Shark Tale where she worked along
side Will Smith and Jack Black.
Angelina next had a bit part in The Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow, in which she played Franky. The wild Franky and Angelina have more than one
thing in common, both being trained pilots and considering flying a passion.
Next was the not so successful epic Alexander in which Angelina portrayed Olympias.
She played the mother to Colin Farrell's Alexander and was rumoured to having
affairs with both Farrell and the film's director, Oliver Stone.
Disappointment was soon forgotten when 2005's summer hit, Mr. and Mrs.
Smith was released. The rumour mill went into over drive that Angelina and Brad were now an item. Both Angelina and Brad kept a safe distance between each other during the premieres and
promotional events, but were photographed by the paparazzi spending a lot of time together.
While it was never officially announced by either party, Angelina and Brad has been a couple since 2005.
Angelina adopted her second child in July 2005. Zahara Marley Jolie was born 8th January 2005 in
Ethiopia and was adopted from a mother that was too poor to care for her child. Zahara is said to make Maddox very happy and that he is proud that his continent is the largest of his family members.
Angelina was also honored as an official citizen of Cambodia by the King for her ongoing efforts to help the environment there.
In January 2006, Brad Pitt was granted permission to legally adopt Angelina’s children, Maddox and Zahara making their surnames Jolie-Pitt.
Also during January, the announcement that Angelina was carrying Brad Pitt’s baby and on May 27th, Angelina gave birth via a c-section to a baby girl named Shiloh HERE Jolie-Pitt.
2006 Angelina has some juicy looking roles to be completed. The
Good Shepherd directed by Robert De Niro starring opposite Matt Damon, Beowulf in which Angelina is currently lending her voice to the Queen of Darkness and A Mighty Heart in which Brad Pitt will produce.
Last updated August, 2006
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