Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the son of Jane Etta, a high school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company owner. Along with his brother Doug and sister Julie Neal, he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. Pitt was raised a Baptist. 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. He is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. In 1988, Pitt had his first starring role, in The 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 per week for seven weeks. However, with editing nearly complete, war broke out and much of the footage was lost; the film was released years later.
Pitt has appeared in television commercials designed for the Asian market, advertising such diverse products as Edwin Jeans, the Toyota Altis, and Japanese canned coffee. Pitt has been an active supporter of research into diseases such as AIDS. Pitt is also a knowledgeable fan of architecture, particularly that of Frank Lloyd Wright, and has helped the National Trust for Historic Preservation raise money.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Pitt dated several of his co-stars, including Robin Givens, Jill Schoelen, Juliette Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow, with whom he had a much-publicized engagement. Pitt also dated actresses Sinitta, Thandie Newton, and Jitka Pohlodek.
Pitt met actress Jennifer Aniston in 1998 and married her during an enclosed wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000. The couple ensured that the ceremony would be a private affair by hiring hundreds of guards to block any attempts of invasion by the paparazzi; just one wedding picture was released to the media.
Though their marriage was, for years, considered the rare Hollywood success, rumors of marital problems began circulating, and the Pitts announced their separation on January 7, 2005. As Pitt's marriage to Aniston drew to a close, he and actress Angelina Jolie were involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal in which Jolie was often painted as the "other woman". Aniston filed for divorce on March 25; the divorce was finalized on October 2, 2005.
One month after Aniston filed for divorce, in April 2005, a set of paparazzi photos emerged that seemed to confirm the rumors of a relationship between Pitt and actress Angelina Jolie. Pitt and Jolie are not married. In 2006, Pitt said, "Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able."
The Jolie-Pitt children
Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt
Born on August 5, 2001 as Rath Vibol in Cambodia; adopted at seven months old on March 10, 2002. Prior to the adoption, he lived in an orphanage in Cambodia's second-largest city, Battambang. Jolie's adoption of Maddox, which took place during her former marriage to actor Billy Bob Thornton, is often credited with sparking the celebrity adoption trend of the 2000s. Maddox has gained considerable celebrity in his own right; he appears regularly in the tabloid media and was named the "cutest celebrity kid" in 2006.
Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt
Born on November 29, 2003 as Pham Quang Sang in Vietnam; adopted at three years old on March 16, 2007. On March 2, 2007, Vu Duc Long, the head of Vietnam's international adoption department, confirmed that Jolie had filed papers to adopt a child from Vietnam. Two weeks later, on March 16, Jolie traveled to Vietnam with Maddox to pick up her new son. Pax had lived in the Tam Binh orphanage since he was found abandoned outside a Ho Chi Minh City hospital shortly after his birth. Since the orphanage does not allow unmarried couples to adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent, with Pitt later adopting his son domestically.
Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt
Born on January 8, 2005 as Tena Adam or Yemsrach in Ethiopia; adopted at 6 months old on July 6, 2005. Jolie adopted her from a Wide Horizons for Children orphanage in Addis Ababa. Shortly after they returned to the United States, Zahara was hospitalized for salmonella-intestinal infection, as well as dehydration and malnutrition. Jolie stated that "she was six months and not nine pounds. Her skin, you could squeeze it, it stuck together".[38] Although it was initially reported in the media that Zahara had been orphaned by AIDS, in 2007 media outlets stated that Zahara's biological mother, Mentewabe Dawit, was still alive and had abandoned her shortly after giving birth. Dawit denied reports claiming she wanted the child back, instead saying she thought Zahara was a "very fortunate human being to be adopted by a world famous lady."
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt
Born on May 27, 2006 at Cottage Medi-Clinic Hospital in Swakopmund, Namibia; Pitt and Jolie's only biological child. Shiloh was born by a scheduled cesarean section due to breech presentation; Jolie was assisted during the birth by the couple's Los Angeles obstetrician and local staff. Pitt confirmed that their newborn daughter would have a Namibian passport. The couple decided to offer the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images themselves, rather than allowing paparazzi to take these extremely valuable snapshots. People magazine 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 most expensive celebrity image of all time. All profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Pitt and Jolie. On July 26, 2006, Madame Tussauds of New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; she was the first infant to be recreated in wax by Madame Tussauds.
On February 23, 2008, People magazine revealed a picture of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the Film Independent's Spirit Awards. Jolie was very obviously pregnant, and a companion article states that a friend of the couple says Jolie and Pitt are "thrilled to be adding to their brood."
The family divides its time between Los Angeles, California and New Orleans, Louisiana. In December 2006, Pitt gathered a group of housing professionals together in the Hurricane Katrina-stricken New Orleans to begin planning a project that Pitt calls Make It Right, with the goal of financing and constructing 150 new houses in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. Pitt and philanthropist Steve Bing have each committed to matching $5 million in donations.
In an October 7, 2007 interview, Pitt told PARADE that he is no longer a fundamentalist Christian. |
