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Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt at the Incirlik hospital, Incirlik Air Base.
Born
William Bradley Pitt
Height5 ft 11 in /1.80m [1]
SpouseJennifer Aniston (2000-2005)

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor.

Early life

Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to Southern Baptist parents William and Jane Pitt. He and his two siblings, Doug Pitt and Julie Neal Pitt, grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. Pitt's parents and siblings still live near Springfield. Brad Pitt is of English ancestry. .

At Quincy High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, and student government. He attended the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri - Columbia where he became a member of The Sigma Chi fraternity. He was eight credits shy of graduating with a journalism degree in 1986 when he left to try his luck in Hollywood. According to one of his former advertising professors at MU, Pitt was working on an independent project that was a calendar called "The Men of Mizzou." He was the creative director for the entire project, but it was never completed and ultimately prevented him from earning his degree.

His choice of career was something of a surprise to those around him. Pitt had acted in several fraternity shows, but never really revealed a desire to act professionally. Pitt seemed to show more promise in music. But then suddenly, with no real experience behind him, he simply took off for California with just $325 in his pockets.

Career

On arriving in Hollywood, Pitt studied under coach Roy London for six years. He first appeared in the sitcom Head Of The Class, for a while dating the show's star Robin Givens. He was also in an episode of Growing Pains.

Pitt appeared as Chris in the long-running soap Another World. While auditioning for the show Our House, he was asked to read for another part, and found himself playing Shalane McCall's boyfriend Charles in Dallas. He also had a number of roles in prime time series such as thirtysomething, 21 Jump Street, and Freddy's Nightmares. Pitt appeared uncredited in both Less Than Zero and Charlie Sheen's No Man's Land before appearing in Cutting Class, about a maniac stalking cheerleaders. He began dating co-star Jill Schoelen, who had earlier been seeing Keanu Reeves.

In 1988, Pitt had his first starring role, in Dark Side Of The Sun, where he played a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic to find a remedy for a terrible skin condition. The movie was shot in Yugoslavia in the summer of '88 with Brad being paid $1,523 a week for seven weeks. However, with editing nearly complete, war broke out and much of the film was lost. The film was released years later.

Pitt won a part in the TV movie Too Young to Die?, about an abused teenager given the death penalty for murder; Pitt played white trash drug-hound pump Silly Canton, Brad's character was particularly unpleasant, taking breastly advantage of runaway Juliette Lewis, who he began dating in real life. "It was quite romantic", he later observed dryly "shooting her full of drugs and stuff". The pair would be together for three years.

1991-1993

In 1991, Pitt starred as Joe Maloney in Across the Tracks in which he portrayed a high school runner with a difficult criminal brother played by Rick Schroder.

Pitt attracted broader public attention from a supporting role in Thelma & Louise where he played a small time criminal drifter in a steamy love scene with Geena Davis. His reputation as a sex symbol may begin from the moment he walks away from the camera while Thelma comments about his backside, That's him going. I just love watching him go. Brad had in fact been third choice for the role[citation needed]. The first choice, William Baldwin, chose to do Backdraft instead.

After Thelma and Louise, Pitt starred in the low budget 1991 film Johnny Suede as an awkward dreamer who aspires to be a big-haired rock star alongside Catherine Keener and Nick Cave, directed by Tom DiCillo. Pitt had agreed to play the part before Thelma & Louise was released. After performing a role in Cool World, Pitt was in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It in 1992, for which Pitt learned fly fishing by casting off of Hollywood buildings.[citation needed] Pitt struck up a friendship with co-star Buck Simmonds and following the movie, moved into an apartment together.[citation needed]

Then came Kalifornia in 1993, a road movie in which he played a scruffy serial killer alongside his then girlfriend Juliette Lewis and X-Files actor David Duchovny.

1994-2000

In 1994, Pitt played vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the movie adaptation of Anne Rice's novel Interview With The Vampire. Pitt played the eighteenth century vampire which required several hours work in make-up on set to achieve the white skin of the character and he had to wear a pair of luminous green eyes, vampire fangs and a shoulder-length hairpiece to complete the appearance. Pitt worked with the eleven-year-old Kirsten Dunst, as well as Tom Cruise, Christian Slater and Antonio Banderas.

He then starred in Legends of the Fall and Se7en. In Se7en Pitt starred as the police detective David Mills alongside Morgan Freeman in the hunt for a serial killer played by Kevin Spacey.

Pitt was was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Jeffrey Goines in the 1995 film Twelve Monkeys in which he acted alongside Bruce Willis. In 1997 Pitt played the IRA terrorist Rory Devany in The Devil's Own alongside Harrison Ford, the first of several films where he has acted using an Irish accent. Reportedly Pitt had a difficult time with the making of the film and expressed his unhappinness with the final script which had apparently been rewritten seven times.

Pitt starred as Heinrich Harrer in the 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet

That same year he played the main role of Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in the Jean Jacques Annaud film Seven Years In Tibet. Pitt trained for months for the role which demanded a great deal of trekking and mountain climbing, working out with co-star English actor David Thewlis by rock climbing in California and the Alps. Due to the themes of Tibetan nationalism in the film, the Chinese government banned Pitt and Thewlis from China for life. [1] [2]

In 1998, Pitt starred as the main character in the film Meet Joe Black. Pitt starred as a personification of Death inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it is like to be human while informing a billionaire tycoon that his life on Earth is nearly over. The film covers many storylines at once, including a naive Death's first experiences with simple pleasures like peanut butter and falling in love with a young woman played by Claire Forlani. The film gave Pitt another chance to work alongside Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins whom he had previously worked with in Legends of the Fall.

In 1999 Brad Pitt starred in Fight Club, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. Working with his previous director whom he had worked with on Se7en Pitt portrayed the character of Tyler Durden, a highly colorful and complex character.

In 2000 Pitt played the role of a gypsy Irish boxer in the gangster movie Snatch alongside Vinnie Jones and Benicio Del Toro. The film was a wild caper involving a diamond heist, Russian and American mafia and the shady underground world , that saw Pitt brought in as a ringer by two failing promoters. The movie saw him moving on from his attempt at the conventional Devil's Own Northern Irish accent, and perhaps inspired by his co-star Benicio Del Toro's recent performance in The Usual Suspects, Pitt created a just-barely-intelligible accent suggesting the Irish Pikeys, itinerant and insular Irish Gypsies. Pitt continued to train for the role, and honed his boxing skills at Ricky English's gym in Watford.

2001-present

In 2001 Brad Pitt worked with long-term friend and actress Julia Roberts in the comical road movie The Mexican. After his wedding to Friends actress Jennifer Aniston in the summer of that year he immediately began filming for Spy Game, a Cold War thriller in which he starred alongside veteran actor Robert Redford playing the role of his mentor. 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. The film established a close friendship between the three particularly between Pitt and Clooney.

Since then he has done numerous films, including Ocean's Twelve and the Greek historical epic Troy in 2004 in which he portrayed the historical character of Achilles. During the production of Troy Pitt also sustained an injury to his Achilles tendon which was coincidental playing the role of Achilles. [2]

In 2005 Pitt starred in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which he and his current partner, Angelina Jolie, starred as the title roles. There was much speculation in the press at the time that Pitt was embarking on a relationship with Angelina while the film was under production, but Pitt denied there was any intimate involvement with Jolie while he was married to Jennifer Aniston.

Pitt made his return to Hollywood, in the Fall of 2006, with Alejandro González Iñárritu's critically acclaimed Babel, starring alongside Cate Blanchett. So far, the movie has garnered him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

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. [3] 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.[4]

Other work

Like many A-list stars, Pitt does not normally perform in American television commercials, instead opting to do commercials that are seen in Asia only, most notably for Edwin Jeans, the Toyota Altis, and Japanese canned coffee, ROOTS. A notable exception to this is 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 Aniston and Paramount Pictures head Brad Grey, Pitt is the co-founder of the production company 'Plan B'. Aniston is no longer a partner in the company, although she is still attached to many projects that were set up before her divorce with Pitt. The company produced the blockbuster Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp.

He has also had a cameo appearance in season 8 of Friends and on an episode of MTV's Jackass, in which he took part in a staged abduction of himself. In a later episode, he and some cast-members run wild through the streets of Los Angeles in gorilla suits.

Personal life

Relationship with Angelina Jolie

After his separation from Aniston, Pitt began dating Angelina Jolie. The couple were quickly dubbed "Brangelina" by the media. Pitt accompanied the actress to Ethiopia in July 2005 to pick up her adopted daughter Zahara from an orphanage in that country. In late 2005, Pitt accompanied Jolie twice during visits to Pakistan in her function as ambassador of UNHCR to support earthquake victims in that country. It was announced on December 2, 2005, that Pitt was seeking to legally adopt Jolie's two children, son Maddox and daughter Zahara, and to have the children's surnames legally changed to Jolie-Pitt. On January 19, 2006, a judge in Santa Monica, California approved the name-change request. Jolie gave birth to the couple's first biological child, a daughter named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, at the Cottage Medi-Clinic Hospital in Swakopmund, Namibia. Shiloh was born by a scheduled caesarean section, due to breech presentation, and Pitt was there to cut her umbilical cord. Pitt confirmed that their newly born daughter will have a Namibian passport.[3] Jolie decided to offer the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images rather than allowing paparazzi to make these extremely valuable snapshots. 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; the total rights sale earned up to $10 million worldwide - the most expensive celebrity image of all time.[4] All profits were reputedly donated to an undisclosed charity by Jolie and Pitt.

Shiloh’s name means “peaceful one” in Hebrew. Her middle name, Nouvel, comes from Jean Nouvel, a favorite French architect of Pitt’s.

As for the rumors that say that they are planning to get married, Pitt states "Angelina and I will consider getting married once all people in America are legally able to." Jolie also claims that they are not planning any wedding or even thinking about it. She states "We are legally bound to our children, not to each other."[5]

He currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana with Jolie and their three children, Maddox, Shiloh, and Zahara Jolie-Pitt.[6]

Other interests

Pitt has been an active supporter of research into diseases such as AIDS.

Pitt signing autographs, Dec. 2001

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.

Pitt is also prominently featured in the December 2006 Art Issue of Vanity Fair. Pitt appears on the cover in nothing but a pair of white boxers. The cover promotes an article on the Robert Wilson video portraits, a production of LAB HD that includes numerous celebrities and noted personalities. This cover has drawn criticism from Pitt because although he had signed a release for the image, he did not expect it to end up on the cover of Vanity Fair more than a year later. The video portrait, which represents Pitt’s first effort in avant-garde cinema, was exhibited at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

Pitt is mentioned in a number of songs including rap and R&B songs by Jay-Z/Punjabi MC’s “Beware of the Boys” and The Black Eyed Peas f/Talib et.al in the song “Like That”. He was also mentioned by Shania Twain in the song “That Don't Impress Me Much” in which she makes a reference to Brad Pitt as being the model of male perfection.

Pitt has been awarded a Blue Peter badge.[5]

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Awards won:

Awards nominations:

References

  1. ^ http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=B56988
  2. ^ http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=BP%7C70493
  3. ^ Little Shiloh will be Namibian: Angelina and Brad, Yahoo - News
  4. ^ Picture this: $10m - Record for rights to Brangelina baby snaps, NYPost.com
  5. ^ Brad Pitt receives Blue Peter badge, cinemascreen.co.uk
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