Brad Pitt - Actors
Summary
"William Bradley 'Brad' Pitt" (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor, film producer, and social activist. He became famous during the mid 1990s after having starring roles in several major Hollywood films, including "Interview with the Vampire" in 1994 and the thriller "Se7en" in 1995. Pitt was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award, both of which were for his role in "Twelve Monkeys" (1996).
Pitt is consistently cited as one of the most attractive men alive by celebrity magazines and is regarded one of the top Hollywood A-listers. His former marriage to Jennifer Aniston and current relationship with Angelina Jolie have been widely covered in the world media. He is the father of four children, one biological, all of whom have also received fevered media coverage. Since his connection with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues, both domestically (in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20409763/ Pitt envisions day when energy bills will be 'useless'
Hollywood star believes New Orleans project will serve as national model, access date 2007-08-23 and abroad (in the poverty-stricken third world).
Early life
Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the son of Jane Etta (née Hillhouse), a high school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company owner.http://www.filmreference.com/film/24/Brad-Pitt.html Along with his brother Doug and sister Julie Neal, he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. He was raised a Baptist. (Ancestry of Brad Pitt) (Brad Pitt Hello Magazine Profile) He attended Kickapoo High School, where he was involved in sports, debating, student government, and acting. He attended the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri - Columbia where he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity.
Career
Early career
In 1987, Pitt arrived in Beverly Hills, California. He studied under coach Roy London for six years. He first appeared in the sitcom "Head Of The Class", for a while dating the show's star Robin Givens. He also guest starred in two episodes of "Growing Pains". Pitt appeared as Chris in the long-running soap "Another World". While auditioning for the show "Our House", he was asked to read for another part, and found himself playing Shalane McCall's boyfriend Charles on the daytime soap "Dallas". He also had a number of roles in prime-time series, such as "thirtysomething", "21 Jump Street", and "Freddy's Nightmares". Pitt appeared uncredited in both "Less Than Zero" and Charlie Sheen's "No Man's Land" before appearing in "Cutting Class", about a maniac stalking cheerleaders. He began dating co-star Jill Schoelen.
Moderate success
In 1988, Pitt had his first starring role, in "Dark Side Of The Sun", where he played a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic to find a remedy for a skin condition. The movie was shot in Yugoslavia in the summer of '88 with Pitt being paid $1,523 a week for seven weeks. However, with editing nearly complete, war broke out and much of the film was lost. The film was released years later. Pitt won a part in the TV movie "Too Young to Die?", about an abused teenager given the death penalty for murder. Pitt played the part of a drug addict, Silly Canton, who took advantage of runaway Juliette Lewis, who Pitt began dating in real life. The pair would be together for three years.
In 1991, Pitt starred as Joe Maloney in "Across the Tracks" in which he portrayed a high school runner with a difficult criminal brother played by Ricky Schroder. Pitt attracted broader public attention from a supporting role in "Thelma & Louise" where he played a small time criminal drifter in a love scene with Geena Davis.
After "Thelma and Louise", Pitt starred in the low budget 1991 film "Johnny Suede" as an awkward dreamer who aspired to be a big-haired rock star alongside Catherine Keener and Nick Cave, directed by Tom DiCillo. Pitt had agreed to play the part before "Thelma & Louise" was released. After appearing in "Cool World", Pitt starred in Robert Redford's "A River Runs Through It" in 1992, for which Pitt learned fly fishing by casting off of Hollywood buildings. Then came "Kalifornia" in 1993, a road movie in which he played a scruffy serial killer alongside his then girlfriend Juliette Lewis and "X-Files" actor David Duchovny.
1994-2000: Mainstream success and acclaim
In 1994, Pitt played vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the movie adaptation of Anne Rice's novel "Interview With The Vampire". Pitt played the eighteenth century vampire which required several hours work in make-up on set to achieve the white skin of the character and he had to wear a pair of luminous green eyes, vampire fangs and a shoulder-length hairpiece to complete the appearance. Pitt worked with the eleven-year-old Kirsten Dunst, as well as Tom Cruise, Christian Slater and Antonio Banderas. He then starred in "Legends of the Fall" and "Se7en". In "Se7en" Pitt starred as the police detective David Mills alongside Morgan Freeman in the hunt for a serial killer played by Kevin Spacey.
Pitt was then nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Jeffrey Goines in the 1995 film "Twelve Monkeys" in which he acted alongside Bruce Willis. In 1997 Pitt played the IRA terrorist Rory Devany in "The Devil's Own" alongside Harrison Ford, the first of several films where he has acted using an Irish accent.
That same year he played the main role of Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in the Jean Jacques Annaud film "Seven Years in Tibet". Pitt trained for months for the role which demanded a great deal of trekking and mountain climbing, working out with co-star English actor David Thewlis by rock climbing in California and the Alps. Due to the themes of Tibetan nationalism in the film, the Chinese government banned Pitt and Thewlis from China for life. (Brad Pitt at AllMovie) 70493 David Thewlis at AllMovie In 1998, Pitt starred as the main character in the film "Meet Joe Black". Pitt starred as a personification of Death inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it is like to be human while informing a billionaire tycoon that his life on Earth is nearly over. The film gave Pitt another chance to work alongside Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins whom he had previously worked with in "Legends of the Fall".
In 1999, Pitt starred in "Fight Club", based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. Working with his previous director whom he had worked with on "Se7en" Pitt portrayed the character of Tyler Durden, a highly colorful and complex character.
In 2000 Pitt played the role of Mickey, a gypsy Irish boxer in the gangster movie "Snatch" alongside Vinnie Jones and Benicio del Toro. The film was a wild caper involving a diamond heist, Russian and American mafia and the shady underground world , that saw Pitt brought in as a ringer by two failing promoters. The movie saw him moving on from his attempt at the conventional Devil's Own Northern Irish accent, and perhaps inspired by his co-star Benicio del Toro's recent performance in "The Usual Suspects", Pitt created a just-barely-intelligible accent suggesting the Irish Gypsies, referred to as Pikeys in the movie. Pitt continued to train for the role, and honed his boxing skills at Ricky English's gym in Watford.
2000s: Ascension to the A-list
After his wedding to "Friends" actress Jennifer Aniston on July 29, 2000, he immediately began filming for "Spy Game", a Cold War thriller in which he starred alongside veteran actor and look-alike Robert Redford playing the role of his mentor. In 2001 Pitt worked with long-term friend and actress Julia Roberts in the comical road movie "The Mexican". At the end of the year, Pitt finished filming "Ocean's Eleven" with George Clooney and Matt Damon, a remake of the 1960s version which starred Frank Sinatra.
Since then, he has starred in numerous films, including "Ocean's Twelve" and the epic "Troy", based on the Iliad, in which he portrayed the legendary hero Achilles. Ironically, during the production of "Troy", Pitt tore his Achilles tendon, delaying production for several weeks. (For Pitt's sake)
In 2005, Pitt starred in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith", in which he and Angelina Jolie played husband and wife assassins.
In March 2006, it was announced that Paramount had purchased the rights to "The Sparrow" for Pitt's production company, Plan B, and that Pitt would be playing the lead role of Sandoz. (Warner Bros has captured a SPARROW and is planning on giving it to Brad Pitt!!!) In June 2006 it was announced that Paramount and Plan B will be working on a new zombie film called "World War Z", based on the book of the same name by Max Brooks. (Paramount Gets World War Z)
Pitt made his return to Hollywood in late 2006, with Alejandro González Iñárritu's critically acclaimed "Babel", starring alongside Cate Blanchett. The movie garnered a total of seven Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, one of which was a Golden Globe nomination for Pitt as Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. The movie has since become Pitt's highest grossing drama. That same year, he also produced the eventual Best Picture winner, "The Departed".
In 2007, Pitt was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. He was listed among artists and entertainers, and was credited with using 'his star power to get people to look at places and stories that cameras don't usually catch.'Winters Keegan, Rebecca (2007). ('Brad Pitt') Time.com Retrieved July 11, 2007.
Other projects
Pitt has appeared in television commercials in Asia, such as for Edwin Jeans, the Toyota Altis, and Japanese canned coffee, ROOTS. He also appeared in a Heineken commercial which aired during the 2005 Super Bowl. It was directed by David Fincher, who directed Pitt in the feature films "Se7en" and "Fight Club". Together with Aniston and Paramount Pictures head Brad Grey, Pitt is the co-founder of the production company 'Plan B'. Aniston is no longer a partner in the company, although she is still attached to many projects that were set up before her divorce with Pitt. The company produced the blockbuster "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" starring Johnny Depp.
He has also had a cameo appearance in an eighth-season episode of "Friends", lent his voice on an episode of "King of the Hill" where he played Boomhauer's brother, "Patch Boomhauer", and on an episode of MTV's "Jackass", in which he took part in a staged abduction of himself. In a later episode, he and some cast-members run wild through the streets of Los Angeles in gorilla suits.
Pitt has been an active supporter of research into diseases such as AIDS. He is a knowledgeable fan of architecture, particularly that of Frank Lloyd Wright, and has helped the National Trust for Historic Preservation raise money.
Brad Pitt is the narrator of the acclaimed Public Television series Rx for survival (... more) . The series discusses current important global health issues.
Pitt is behind Not On Our Watch, an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities such as in Darfur, along with George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub.http://notonourwatchproject.org/
Personal life
Pitt dated actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Thandie Newton, Robin Givens, Juliette Lewis and Sinitta during the 1990s.
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Brad Pitt.
