Angelina Jolie Biography

NAME: Angelina Jolie

Nickname : Angie, Catwoman, Ange, AJ

Height : 5' 8" (1.73 m)

OCCUPATION: Activist, Film Actress

BIRTH DATE: June 04, 1975 (Age: 36)

EDUCATION: Beverly Hills High School

PLACE OF BIRTH: Los Angeles, California

Actress, humanitarian. Born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, to actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand. She rose to stardom in the 1990s. She began acting at a young age, studying at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute while in her early teens. Jolie later attended New York University.

At the age of 16, Angelina split up with her punk rocker boyfriend, and decided to revive her childhood dreams of becoming an actress. She moved into an apartment opposite her mother, and secured her first on-stage role, as a German S&M dominatrix! For the first time ever, she also began to make the peace with her father. She realised that when it came to acting, he had a great deal to teach her. With her braces and glasses gone, she even succeeded in landing work as a model, and even appeared in the video for Meat Loaf’s 'Rock’n’Roll Dreams Come Through'. She also appeared in promo videos for Lenny Kravitz and the Rolling Stones.

Her first film was, to be put mildly, unremarkable; a supporting role as a human- machine hybrid in the 1993 "Cyborg II: Glass Shadows".

However her second film and first lead role in 1995 could be described as a milestone for her, not only because she got recognition in the film industry, but also because the venture put her in the company of free-spirited British actor, Lonny Lee Miller. After a brief courtship, the co-stars got married. Angelina ignored the customary white wedding dress and made a statement by wearing black rubber pants and a shirt that had inscribed across it, in blood, the groom's name.

More films followed, such as the 1996 "Legs" a very dynamic and powerful adaptation of the Joyce Card Oates novel "Foxfire". Also in 1996 "Love in all there is" and in 1997 she starred in "Playing God" alongside David Duchovny.

Her animated portrayal of Cornelia Wallace in the 1997 TV movie "George Wallace" garnered her a Best supporting Actress Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination.

But her stardom was truly set ablaze by another electrifying portrayal, this time as the drug-addicted AIDS-afflicted model Gia Cavangi in the 1998 HBO production "Gia". "Gia" netted her a second Golden Globe statuette and another Emmy nomination.

As an acclaimed actress the offers for more challenging roles came flooding in. In 1999 she co-starred with Billy Bob Thornton (her second husband) in the comedy "Pushing Tin" and in the same year she tackled a headline role in "The Bone Collector" alongside Denzel Washington.

Angelina pushed emotional, physical and mental boundaries to the limits in her strong turn as a seductive sociopath in "Girl, Interrupted" - a starring vehicle for Winona Ryder - that was based on author Susanna Kaysen's best selling account of her own two-year confinement in a psychiatric hospital. Perhaps not surprisingly Jolie's full-tilt performance in the coveted supporting role was rewarded with a Golden Globe, not to mention a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

By 2000, Angelina Jolie had three Golden Globes and an academy Award on the mantelpiece. On May 5th, that same year, Jolie married actor Billy Bod Thornton; a marriage that ended however in divorce in 2003. During that time Angelina Jolie Voight made big headlines again with news about her transformation to the highly conspicuous Lara Croft in "Tomb Raider, the Movie".

In 2002 she also appeared in the romantic comedy, "Life or Something Like," directed by Stephen Herek, where she plays a television reporter in a quest to find the meaning of life. And the following year she filmed the sequel to Tomb Raider - "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life."

She next starred in the thriller, "Taking Lives," with Ethan Hawke in 2004, a year after portraying a United Nations relief worker in the provocative drama, "Beyond Borders." In 2005, the actress co-starred with Brad Pitt in an amusing remake, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." She also appeared in Oliver Stone's ancient Greece epic, "Alexander," and action/adventure "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. She lent her voice to animated feature "Shark Tale."

In 2006, she appeared in Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd," a film about the early history of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, played by Matt Damon. She played Margaret Russell, Wilson's neglected wife. The following year, Jolie made her directorial debut with the documentary "A Place in Time," which captures life in 27 locations around the globe during a single moment in time. The film was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In the same year, Jolie starred as Mariane Pearl in Michael Winterbottom's documentary-style drama, "A Mighty Heart," about the 2002 kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. The film earned Jolie her fifth Golden Globe nomination and her third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. She also played Grendel's mother in Robert Zemeckis' animated epic, "Beowulf."

In 2008, Jolie co-starred alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the action movie "Wanted." In the same year she provided the voice of Master Tigress in the animated movie "Kung Fu Panda." She also took on the lead role in "Changeling," a drama by Clint Eastwood. She played Christine Collins, who is reunited with her kidnapped son in 1928 in Los Angeles, only to realize the boy is an imposter.

In 2010, Jolie starred in the thriller "Salt" as CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who goes on the run after she is accused of being a KGB spy. That same year she played opposite Johnny Depp in "The Tourist."

In 2011, she again provided the voice of Master Tigress in box office hit "Kung Fu Panda 2." This same year she directed "In the Land of Blood and Honey," a love story set during the Bosnian war. The film features actors from the region and was filmed in English and Serbo-Croat.