Angelina Jolie
June 4, 1975 — Los Angeles, California
Angelina Jolie is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian whose films have grossed over $6.9 billion worldwide, making her one of the highest-paid and most globally recognized performers of her generation — and one of the few Hollywood stars whose off-screen work arguably rivals her on-screen career.
Early Life and Breakthrough
Born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles, she is the daughter of actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand. She grew up far from the comfortable Hollywood life her parentage might suggest — her parents divorced when she was young, and she has described a turbulent adolescence marked by an outsider identity. She began acting professionally as a teenager and first drew major attention in the 1995 film Hackers. Her performance in the television movie George Wallace (1998) won her a Golden Globe, and she followed it with a second Golden Globe for Gia (1998), a deeply committed portrayal of supermodel Gia Carangi.
Girl, Interrupted and Global Stardom
Her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress came for Girl, Interrupted (1999), where she played the volatile Lisa Rowe opposite Winona Ryder — her relentless, physically committed performance dominated the film and the awards season. Action stardom followed with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), which made her the highest-paid actress in Hollywood at the time. The crime thriller Taking Lives, the romantic action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), and the thriller Salt (2010) kept her at the top of the box office through the mid-2000s. In 2013 her Disney villain turn in Maleficent became a global phenomenon, earning over $750 million worldwide.
Did You Know?
Angelina Jolie became a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2001 after visiting refugee camps in Sierra Leone and Tanzania while filming. She has since visited more than 30 countries and conducted field missions in crisis zones including Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Central African Republic. In 2012 she was elevated to UN Special Envoy — a rank higher than Goodwill Ambassador — in recognition of her sustained advocacy. She is widely considered one of the most effective celebrity humanitarian advocates in the history of the UN.
Behind the Camera and Humanitarian Work
Jolie has directed several films, including In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), set during the Bosnian War, and Unbroken (2014), based on the true story of Olympic runner and WWII POW Louis Zamperini. Her humanitarian work through the United Nations and her own foundations has seen her raise hundreds of millions of dollars for refugee relief and education. She has adopted three children — from Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Vietnam — in addition to having three biological children with actor Brad Pitt, whom she married in 2014. Their much-publicized separation in 2016 sparked years of legal proceedings. Outside of acting and filmmaking, Jolie has been a vocal advocate for cancer awareness after undergoing a preventive double mastectomy in 2013 following genetic testing for the BRCA1 mutation.