William Bradley "Brad" Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He has been cited as one of the world's most attractive men and his off-screen life is widely reported.[2][3] Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and has won one Golden Globe Award out of four nominations.
Pitt began his acting career with television guest appearances, which included a role on the CBS soap opera Dallas in 1987. He gained recognition as the cowboy hitchhiker who seduces Geena Davis's character in the 1991 road movie Thelma & Louise. Pitt's first leading roles in big-budget productions came with A River Runs Through It (1992) and Interview with the Vampire (1994). He was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 drama Legends of the Fall, which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. In 1995, he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven and the science fiction film Twelve Monkeys, the latter earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Pitt starred in the 1999 cult hit Fight Club, as well as the 2001 heist film Ocean's Eleven – a major international hit – and its sequels Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). He has had his biggest commercial successes with Troy (2004) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Pitt received his second Academy Award nomination for his performance in the title role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).
Following a high-profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt was married to actress Jennifer Aniston for five years. As of 2009, he lives with actress Angelina Jolie in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. He and Jolie have three adopted children, Maddox, Zahara, and Pax, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Pitt owns a production company named Plan B Entertainment, which has produced the 2007 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, The Departed, among other films. Since beginning his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues, both in the United States and internationally.
Personal life
Pitt met Friends actress Jennifer Aniston in 1998 and married her in a private wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000.For years their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success. However, in January 2005, Pitt and Aniston announced that they decided to formally separate after seven years together. Two months later, Aniston filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
As Pitt's marriage to Aniston drew to a close, his involvement with actress Angelina Jolie during the filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith turned into a well-publicized Hollywood scandal. While Pitt denied any claims of adultery, he admitted that he "fell in love" with Jolie on the set,and said that production was still going on for Mr. & Mrs. Smith after he and Aniston had separated.
In April 2005, one month after Aniston filed for divorce, a set of paparazzi photographs emerged; the photographs, which showed Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in Kenya, seemed to confirm the rumors of a relationship between Pitt and Jolie. During the summer, the two were seen together with increasing frequency, and the entertainment media dubbed the couple "Brangelina". Pitt and Aniston's final divorce documents were granted by the Los Angeles Superior Court on October 2, 2005, and ended their marriage. On January 11, 2006, Jolie confirmed to People that she was pregnant with Pitt's child and thereby confirmed their relationship for the first time in public. In an October 2006 interview with Esquire, Pitt said that he and Jolie would marry "when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able".
Children
In July 2005, Pitt accompanied Jolie to Ethiopia, where she adopted her second child, a six-month-old girl named Zahara; Jolie later stated that she and Pitt made the decision to adopt the child together. In December 2005, it was confirmed that Pitt was seeking to legally adopt Jolie's two children, Maddox and Zahara. On January 19, 2006, a judge in California approved this request, and the children's legal surnames were formally changed to "Jolie-Pitt".
Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, in Swakopmund, Namibia, on May 27, 2006. Pitt confirmed that their newly born daughter would have a Namibian passport. The couple sold the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images. 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 profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Pitt and Jolie. Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh, making Shiloh the first infant to have a statue at Madame Tussauds.
On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a three-year-old boy from Vietnam, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt (originally Pax Thien Jolie). Since the orphanage did not allow unmarried couples to adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent, and Pitt later adopted him as his son in the United States.
