Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie
Voight on June 4, 1975) is an Oscar-winning American
actress. She is known for her exotic looks, her tumultuous
off-screen life, and her humanitarian work with refugees.
She has received three Golden Globes as well as an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in the film Girl, Interrupted.
Biography
Angelina Jolie was born in Los Angeles, California,
to actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She
is the niece of Chip Taylor and the goddaughter of
Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. She is also
the sister of James Haven. In a 2004 article in Vogue
she stated that her mother is from Chicago. At the
Premiere Magazine "Women in Hollywood" Awards
she said her mom was born in a bowling alley and has
stated that because of her name people often assume
that her mother is French. Jolie's grandparents were
French Canadian. Her paternal grandfather was from
Czechoslovakia. Her mother also studied with Lee Strasberg.
She is of Czech, French Canadian, English, and Iroquois
descent. As a teenager, Jolie dreamed of becoming
a funeral director.She attended the Lee Strasberg
Theatre Institute from the age of 11, later attending
Beverly Hills High School. Though she enrolled at
the film school at New York University after finishing
Gia, she did not complete her studies.
Jolie has been long estranged from
her father, though a reconciliation was attempted
by his appearing with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
In the October 2004 issue of Premiere Magazine, Jolie
indicated that she was no longer interested in pursuing
a relationship with her father, but that she did not
hate him because she realized that "...we only
have so much energy in this life." Soon after,
he claimed that she has "serious emotional problems"
on Access Hollywood, and she legally dropped Voight
as her last name, taking "Angelina Jolie"
as her legal name.
Career
Her first starring role came in the 1995 movie Hackers.In
1998 she achieved a major critical success, starring
in the TV movie "Gia," the true tale of
a '70s supermodel who died of AIDS. Jolie won Golden
Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Golden Satmifie awards,
and was nominated for an Emmy.
She had roles in several box office
flops until 1999, when she co-starred in The Bone
Collector with Denzel Washington and won an Oscar
for Girl, Interrupted. Her first headlining blockbuster
role came from 2001's video game based Lara Croft:
Tomb Raider.
Several of her subsequent movies,
such as Life or Something Like It, Alexander, and
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow , were major
box office disappointments, although Jolie herself
usually received good notices. She did provide the
voice of Lola in the successful animated film, Shark
Tale. Nonetheless she has become one of Hollywood's
most "in-demand" actresses. Following the
success of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, she's set to earn
up to $15 million to star in the film The Good Shepherd.
Besides her acting and humanitarian
endeavors, Jolie has also worked as a professional
model in London, New York and Los Angeles and appeared
in numerous music videos including those of Korn,
Meat Loaf, Lenny Kravitz, and The Rolling Stones.
Relationships
On March 28, 1996 she married British actor Jonny
Lee Miller, with whom she had co-starred in the movie
Hackers. Jolie attended her wedding in black leather
trousers and a white shirt, which had her husband's
name painted in her blood on the back. Jolie and Miller
divorced on February 3, 1999. Jolie then married American
actor Billy Bob Thornton on May 5, 2000. Due to their
frequent public declarations of passion and gestures
of love (most famously wearing each others' blood
in vials around their necks), their relationship was
a favorite topic of the entertainment media. Jolie
and Thornton divorced on May 27, 2003.
Jolie has said in interviews that
she is bisexual. In an interview with Barbara Walters,
Jolie said "If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow,
would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and touch
her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!"
In an interview with a British tabloid, model Jenny
Shimizu claimed to have a long-standing romantic and
sexual relationship with her former Foxfire co-star.
Brad Pitt
In early 2005, Jolie found herself at the center of
a well-publicized Hollywood scandal when she was accused
of being the "other woman" in the marital
break-up of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. The allegation
was that she and Brad had started an affair during
filming of the spy comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. However
in several interviews she has denied starting an affair
with Pitt. In an interview with Marie Claire magazine
recently she stated that she could never have a relationship
with a married man because she has seen what relationships
like that did to her mother. Her father has acknowledged
that he cheated on Jolie's mom when they were married.
Jolie stated she "could not, could not look herself
in the mirror" if she had an affair with a married
man.
Thanks to a mixture of generally good
reviews and advance publicity due to all the rumors,
Mr. & Mrs. Smith opened in the No. 1 position
at the box office after it was released in early June
2005, providing Jolie with her first box-office success
in several years.In late June 2005, the New York Post
reported a claim that Jolie was pregnant, a report
republished on June 30 by Britain's Sky TV, Sun Media
Corporation in Canada, and the Asian Hindustan Times,
among others. Her publicist denied this report, which
would ultimately prove to be premature.
Speculation over the nature of Jolie
and Pitt's relationship continued throughout the summer
of 2005. On August 22, the Calgary Herald ran a front-page
story with a photo of Jolie taken during a surprise
visit she made to Calgary, Alberta a couple of days
earlier, accompanied by Zahara. Brad Pitt was at that
time filming a movie in Calgary, as was her father,
Jon Voight. It was later reported that Jolie and Pitt
visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
in Drumheller, Alberta together, and CNN and the Calgary
Sun reported on September 22, 2005 that they visited
West Edmonton Mall together. On September 30, the
Calgary Sun reported that Pitt and Jolie had rented
a house together in the city of Spruce Grove, Alberta,
west of Edmonton where Pitt was filming more scenes
for his movie; the same issue printed a photograph
of the two actors (dubbed "Brangelina")
leaving an Edmonton grocery store.
On January 11, 2006, both Jolie's
and Pitt's representatives confirmed, through People
Magazine, that the two were expecting their first
biological child in Summer 2006, thus indirectly confirming
for the first time that they were in a relationship
Humanitarian Work
Jolie has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees since 2001, and
frequently travels to remote countries to draw attention
to the plight of people in Third World nations. In
2003, she published Notes from My Travels, a collection
of journal entries that chronicled her early work
with the U.N.. In a January 2005 interview with Reuters,
Jolie criticized fellow actors for not being committed
enough in helping others, and stated that she gives
one-third of her income to charitable organizations.
On October 12, 2005, Jolie was awarded the Global
Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA.
Jolie was also one of the first celebrities
to accept an invitation to be one of the bearers of
the Olympic Torch during the 2004 Olympic Games, though
she was ultimately unable to participate due to filming
commitments.
Since taking on her goodwill ambassador
duties, Jolie has on numerous occasions made public
statements that she wants to quit acting and concentrate
on her UN work (for example, see Ireland On-Line in
June 2005). However, she has also stated that her
work provides the income necessary for her to continue
travelling the world on behalf of the UN.
Jolie continues to balance the demands
of being a movie star with that of being a humanitarian,
despite an apparently grueling schedule. On June 7,
2005, the Associated Press wire service reported on
Jolie giving a presentation in Islamabad, Pakistan.
That very same day, she attended the premiere of Mr.
& Mrs. Smith in Los Angeles. She now lives full-time
in Buckinghamshire, England, and owns property in
Cambodia, which she had to have demined. Angelina
Jolie spent the new year of 2005 by going abroad to
film a documentary called "A Moment in the World."
She called on several actors and actresses to film
in various locations around the world at the same
time for three minutes. This was done in order to
capture random moments that are happening across the
world at the same time. Some confusion has arisen
between this project and the independent endeavor
A Moment on Earth, in which 60 filmmakers around the
world captured two separate moments on August 5th
and 6th, 2004. No release dates for either project
are known at this time.
In August 2005, Cambodia's King Norodom
Sihamoni awarded Jolie a Cambodian citizenship for
her conservation work in the country.In September
2005 Jolie was named the new spokesperson for the
clothing line St. John Knits starting in the Spring/Fall
0f 2006. The deal with the clothing company includes
the startup of a charity headed by Ms. Jolie. The
charity will focus on children's issues and causes.
It has been reported but not confirmed that she will
also sit on the board of directors and have stock
in the company. The deal is also believed to be the
biggest celebrity clothing endorsement with the actress
receiving 10-15 million dollars. Other celebrities
such as Gwyneth Paltrow receive something in the neighborhood
of 5 million dollars to promote luxury clothing and
accessories.
On October 24 Angelina Jolie attended the First Annual
Benefit Gala for the Worldwide Orphans Foundation.
While there she pledged to partner with WWO to treat
children in Ethiopia who have been orphaned by AIDS
and are HIV positive. "AIDS is chronic and manageable,
and does NOT have to kill any longer," said Ms.
Jolie. Ms. Jolie announced her plan to support WWO's
Pediatric HIV/AIDS Clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
and pledged an initial grant. The gala helped the
organization raise $800,000. Dr. Jane Aronson, the
organization's founder, and Ms. Jolie first met through
the adoption of her daughter Zahara and Jolie credits
the doctor with helping save her daughter's life.
Adoptions
On March 10, 2002 Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox
Chivan Jolie. He was born on August 5, 2001 as Rath
Vibol in Cambodia. He was being housed in an orphanage
when Angelina Jolie saw him for the first time when
she was stopped in Cambodia during production of the
film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. After the divorce from
her second husband Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie received
sole custody for Maddox.
In Fall 2004, it was reported that
Jolie had started proceedings to adopt another child,
this time from Russia. However, no adoption ever took
place. On March 8th, Jolie took part in a Washington
Press club luncheon. It was there that she announced
the founding of the National Center for Refugee and
Immigrant Children in Washington, D.C., an organization
that provides free legal aid to children who prior
to this had no legal representation. Jolie donated
$500,000 to the center which will help keep it afloat
for the first two years of its operation. At that
same conference she stated that she never intended
to adopt a Russian orphan boy. Jolie expressed a deep
sadness at the media's exploitation of the child.
She stated that she was on business through the United
Nations and not looking for a child to adopt. She
also mentioned that her son wanted an "African
brother or sister" because of his love of Africa
and the work he knows she does in that region.
Around the same time, Lauryn Galindo,
the Hawaii-based adoption facilitator whose services
Jolie had used to adopt Maddox, was sentenced to 18
months in prison after pleading guilty to visa fraud
and money laundering charges. She had been falsifying
records of children to be adopted in visa applications
to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,
and several of the children she placed had not been
abandoned at all but were enticed away or bought from
their birth families. There is no evidence that Maddox
was among them, although the investigation is continuing.
Maddox Jolie, as he is legally named, was naturalized
as a United States citizen some time ago, and there
is no indication that that will be rescinded.
On July 5, 2005, People magazine reported
that Jolie was in the final stages of adopting a baby
girl, who was orphaned by AIDS, from Ethiopia, through
the agency Wide Horizons for Children. Jolie has named
her daughter Zahara Marley Jolie. A woman in London
has been claiming she is Zahara's birth mother since
August 2005. Ms. Jolie has contacted a lawyer in London
to look into the matter. On September 28, 2005 while
making an appearance to discuss America's financial
involvement with fighting AIDS globally on CNN's "The
Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, Jolie stated
that her daughter is an "AIDS orphan." By
that she means her birth mother died from the disease
but her daughter does not have the disease. The birth
father of Zahara is not known. Her statement made
it clear that the birth mother is indeed dead. In
late October 2005, an Ethiopian judge ruled that there
is no evidence to suggest that Ms. Jolie would have
to file for re-adoption of her daughter Zahara Marley
Jolie. The judge ruled that the woman claiming to
be her mother is not the birth mother. Earlier in
the summer, another woman had come forward claiming
to be the grandmother of Zahara. That claim also proved
to be false.
American magazine US Weekly indicated
erroneously that Jolie and Brad Pitt had adopted Zahara
together. When the magazine realized its error, the
presses were stopped and an apology issued to Jolie
and Pitt; printing of the issue resumed with the correction
made, though a number of copies with the error were
still released to the public. Reportedly, however,
Pitt was present when Jolie signed the adoption papers.
The agency later said Brad Pitt was not present when
Angelina Jolie picked up her daughter.On December
2, 2005, it was confirmed that Pitt was seeking to
legally adopt Jolie's two children. In support of
this bid (and as part of legal requirements), Jolie
took out classified advertisements in the Los Angeles
paper, the Daily Commerce, announcing the name change
request, and on January 19, 2006, a judge in California
approved this request. The children's legal surnames
were formally changed to Jolie-Pitt
Other trivia
She has said that she is bisexual and once claimed
to have been in love with fashion model Jenny Shimizu,
her co-star in the film Foxfire. "I would probably
have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband.
I fell in love with her the first second I saw her."
Is the 3rd highest paid actress after Julia Roberts
and Cameron Diaz.[citation needed]
She is left-handed.
She wears a size 9 shoe.
Jolie once described herself as "most likely
to sleep with a female fan."
She speaks "very little French" according
to her book Notes from My Travels.
The name Angelina actually means "little angel"
in Italian. Jolie in French means "pretty".
She drives a black Ford truck.
She has a pilot's license.
She collects knives and has interest in mortuary science.
She was born at 9:09 a.m. in Los Angeles.
She claims to have a fondness for Liverpool Football
Club, having revealed that her baby son, Maddox, "only
wants to play for Liverpool" after he was admitted
to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool for treatment.
She has continually denied rumors of an incestuous
relationship with her brother, James Haven. During
her acceptance speech for winning the Best Actress
in a Supporting Role award for Girl, Interrupted during
the 2000 Academy Awards, Jolie stated "I'm so
in love with my brother right now" which, combined
with her affectionate behavior towards her brother
that night, sparked the rumors. On Inside the Actor's
Studio she stated that she never had an incestuous
relationship with her brother, stating that "the
world is a lot sicker than I thought," in reference
to the conclusion everyone jumped to. Also in an interview
with People Magazine she and her brother stated that
being children of divorce they relied on each other
and because of that they hold on to each other, as
a means of emotional support. Jolie has starred in
five student movies, all of which were directed by
her brother.
In October 2005, The Sun tabloid in Britain, as well
as several American entertainment news programs, reported
that Jolie was in the running to appear with her Lara
Croft: Tomb Raider co-star Daniel Craig in the next
James Bond film, Casino Royale. This ultimately proved
to be a false report.
Filmography
Lookin' to Get Out (1982)
Cyborg 2 (1993)
Angela & Viril (1993) (short subject)
Alice & Viril (1993) (short subject)
Without Evidence (1995)
Hackers (1995)
Mojave Moon (1996)
Love Is All There Is (1996)
Foxfire (1996)
Playing God (1997)
True Women (1997)
Gia (1998)
Hell's Kitchen (1998)
Playing by Heart (1998)
Pushing Tin (1998)
The Bone Collector (1999)
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Original Sin (2001)
Life or Something Like It (2002)
Trading Women (2003) (documentary) (narrator)
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Beyond Borders (2003)
Taking Lives (2004)
Shark Tale (2004) (voice of Lola)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Alexander (2004)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
The Good Shepherd (2006)
Beowulf (2007) (voice of the Queen of Darkness)
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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