Brad Pitt

William Bradley Pitt is the eldest of three children. He was born on 18 December 1963, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. His mother was a school counselor and his father worked as an executive at his own trucking company. The family moved to Springfield, Missouri, where Brad attended Kickapoo High School. In Springfield Brad also worked for Colonel Day's Levi Emporium as a salesman.

In high school Brad was involved in tennis, basketball, debating, student government and school musicals. He was also named 'best dressed student' by his peers.

Pitt originally aspired to be an advertising art director and studied journalism at the University of Missouri. At the university he also joined the fraternity Sigma Chi, and 'got in enough trouble to keep things interesting.' He posed for the "Men of Mizzou" pinup calender.

In 1987 (his senior year), he left the university, two credits shy of graduation, and packed his battered silver Datsun named 'Runaround Sue' and headed for California (with $375 in his pocket). Pitt told his parents he intended to enroll in the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. His first jobs was handing out free cigarette samples, standing outside El Pollo Loco restaurant in a chicken outfit and also escorting strippers around in a limousine. He also worked as a swimming pool attendant, bus boy and refrigerator boy. The money from these odd-jobs helped to pay for community theater and acting lessons. After only seven months in Los Angeles, Pitt had secured an agent and regular acting work. Slowly, he began to find his way into television and later to his breakout role.

Soon after arriving in California, Brad appeared on 'Growing Pains', 'Another World', a short appearence in 'Less Than Zero' and 'No Man's Land'. He also appeared on a five-episode stint on Dallas as Randy. He also appeared on '21 Jump Street' and in the television movie 'A Stoning in Fulham County'. Brad's first movie 'Dark Side of the Sun' was was shot in Yugoslavia a few years before the war, during the summer of 1987.

Brad was cast in the role of 'J.D.' a lanky cowboy in the movie 'Thelma & Louise.' Pitt's performance as a renegade, sugar-tongued hitchhiker who gets picked up by the two title characters in Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise grabbed universal attention despite only a few minutes of screen time. Pitt's combination of charming bad boy charisma and sexual playfulness (particularly in a fiery love scene with Geena Davis) secured him as a genuine sex symbol. He followed up that success with a good turn in 'A River Runs Through It'. Pitt's next few films failed to boost his acting credibility and establish him as more than just a pretty face in Hollywood. He appeared in The Favor (1992) with Elizabeth McGovern, Tom CiCillo's directorial debut, Johnny Suede (1992), and the unconvincing, half-animated Cool World (1992). In 1993, Brad teamed with his girlfriend Lewis in Dominic Sela's 'Kalifornia'. Pitt played Early Grayce, a man who goes on a cross-country killing spree with his girlfriend. The film was deemed self-indulgently violent and nihilistic by many reviewers and did not do well in the box office. Pitt and Lewis also broke up soon after filming, creating a publicity disaster. In 1994, Brad starred in two great movies, Interview with the Vampire and Legends of the Fall.

In 1995 Brad played a police detective on the trail of a serial killer in David Fincher's disturbing and gory thriller, 'Seven'. During filming, he met and began dating his then relatively unknown costar, Gwyneth Paltrow. Both claimed it was ?love at first sight.? The two stayed together for two and a half years and were one of Hollywood's most admired and celebrated couples. In 1995, Brad also starred as a mental patient in Terry Gilliam's psychological thriller 'Twelve Monkeys' and won a Golden Globe for best supporting actor. He followed with another dark thriller, Sleepers (1996), and Alan J. Pakula's Devil's Own with Harrison Ford before heading to Argentina to film Seven Years in Tibet, an ambitious, seventy million dollar project, which met disappointingly mixed reviews. Unfortunately, his next film, the three-hour movie 'Meet Joe Black', co-starring Anthony Hopkins in which he played a very comely version of Death, also inspired little praise. On June 16th 1997, after a seven-month engagement, Brad's publicist announced that the relationship with Gwyneth was over.

In 1998 Brad began dating Jennifer Aniston star of the TV sitcom Friends. Brad and Jennifer were married July 29, 2000, in Malibu, California. In 1999, after a brief hiatus from the Hollywood hot list, Pitt re-teamed with Seven director, David Fincher, to make Fight Club. The apocalyptic film, also starring Edward Norton, presents an unglamorous Pitt in a disturbing role as leader and recruiter of Fight Club?a bloody diversion for young professional males. Next up for Brad was the British crime-caper Snatch (2001), costarring Benicio Del Toro and directed by Guy Ritchie That same year, Pitt starred with Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy The Mexican, teamed with Robert Redford in the thriller Spy Game, and joined an A-list ensemble cast including Roberts George Clooney and Matt Damon in Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack heist caper Ocean's Eleven. In 2004, he starred as the Greek hero Achilles in Warner Bros.' blockbuster epic Troy. He will also be producing The Madman of Alcatraz, based on the true story of the psychiatrist who treated the infamous Robert "Birdman" Stroud. The couple announced their separation in January 2005 and divorced in October of that year.

Soon after his separation with Jennifer, Brad began dating actress Angelina Jolie with whom he has six children.

Filmography

Inglourious Basterds (2009) .... Lt. Aldo Raine
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) .... Benjamin Button
Burn After Reading (2008) .... Chad Feldheimer
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) .... Jesse James
Ocean's Thirteen (2007) .... Rusty Ryan
Babel (2006) Richard
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) John Smith
Ocean's Twelve (2004) Rusty Ryan
Troy (2004) Achilles
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) Brad, Bachelor #1
Full Frontal (2002) Brad/Himself
Ocean's Eleven (2001) Rusty Ryan
"Friends" Will Colbert (1 episode, 2001)
Spy Game (2001) Tom Bishop
The Mexican (2001) Jerry Welbach
Snatch. (2000) Mickey O'Neil
Fight Club (1999) Tyler Durden
Meet Joe Black (1998) Joe Black
The Dark Side of the Sun (1997) Rick
Seven Years in Tibet (1997) Heinrich Harrer
The Devil's Own (1997) Rory Devaney/Francis Austin McGuire
Sleepers (1996) Michael Sullivan
Twelve Monkeys (1995) Jeffrey Goines
Se7en (1995) Detective David Mills
Legends of the Fall (1994) Tristan Ludlow
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)
The Favor (1994) Elliott Fowler
True Romance (1993) Floyd
Kalifornia (1993) Early Grayce
A River Runs Through It (1992) Paul Maclean
Cool World (1992) Detective Frank Harris
Contact (1992) Cox
Johnny Suede (1991) Johnny Suede
Thelma & Louise (1991) J.D.
Two-Fisted Tales (1991) (TV) Billy (segment "King of the Road")
Across the Tracks (1991) Joe Maloney
"Glory Days" (1990) TV Series . Walker Lovejoy (unknown episodes, 1990)
Too Young to Die? (1990) (TV) Billy Canton
The Image (1990) (TV) Steve Black
Cutting Class (1989) Dwight Ingalls
Happy Together (1989/I) Brian
"Freddy's Nightmares" Rick Austin (1 episode, 1989)
A Stoning in Fulham County (1988) (TV) Theodore 'Teddy' Johnson
"Dallas" .... Randy (3 episodes, 1987-1988)
"Another World" (1964) TV Series Chris (unknown episodes, 1987)
Less Than Zero (1987) (uncredited) Partygoer
No Man's Land (1987) (uncredited) Waiter