Best Known As: Film Actor

Gist:  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. 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.

Life Facts:  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. he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. He was raised as a conservative Southern Baptist during childhood.

Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he was a member of the golf, tennis and swimming teams. In addition, he was a part of the school's Key and Forensics clubs. He participated in school debates and musicals. where he acted in several fraternity shows. He majored in journalism, with a focus on advertising. In 1985, two weeks prior to earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, California to take acting lessons. When asked why he left the university, Pitt responded: "I had this sinking feeling as graduation approached. I saw my friends getting jobs. I wasn't ready to settle down. I loved films. They were a portal into different worlds for me, and Missouri wasn't where movies were made. Then it hit me: If they didn't come to me, I'd go to them."

1994 marked a significant turning point in Pitt's career, when he starred as vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the feature film Interview with the Vampire. The latter of which was based upon Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name. He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater, and Antonio Banderas. his performance was not well-received. According to the Dallas Observer, "Brad Pitt ... is a large part of the problem [in the film]. When directors play up his cocky, hunkish, folksy side ... he's a joy to watch. But there's nothing about him that suggests inner torment or even self-awareness, which makes him a boring Louis."

' in 1995 and 2000]]

Following the release of Interview with the Vampire, Pitt starred in Legends of the Fall in 1994. The film is set during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Pitt portrayed Tristan Ludlow, son of Colonel William Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins). Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas co-starred as Pitt's brothers. The film received generally unfavorable reception, but many film critics complimented Pitt's performance. Janet Maslin of The New York Times said, "Pitt's diffident mix of acting and attitude works to such heartthrob perfection it's a shame the film's superficiality gets in his way." The Deseret News predicted that Legends of the Fall would "further cement [Pitt's] big-screen, romantic leading-man status". Pitt garnered his first Golden Globe Award nomination in the category for Best Actor.

In 1995, he starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow in the crime film Seven as the police detective David Mills who hunts a serial killer portrayed by Kevin Spacey. Variety was very complimentary towards Pitt. "This is screen acting at its best. Pitt turns in a determined, energetic, creditable job as the eager young detective." The film garnered positive reviews and earned $327 million at the international box office. Pitt won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film,

The following year, Pitt was in the legal drama Sleepers (1996), based on the Lorenzo Carcaterra novel of the same name; the film starred Kevin Bacon and Robert DeNiro. The film was a major critical failure. Pitt starred opposite Harrison Ford as the Irish Republican Army terrorist Rory Devany in the 1997 movie The Devil's Own. Pitt was required to learn an Irish accent for the film. In addition, that same year he portrayed 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 significant mountain climbing and trekking practice. Part of this included rock climbing in California and the Alps with his co-star David Thewlis.

Pitt had the leading role in Meet Joe Black in 1998. He portrayed a personification of death inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it is like to be human. The film received mixed reviews and Pitt's performance was often criticized. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle concluded: "It's not just that Pitt's performance is bad. It hurts. Watching Pitt struggle, with inert face and glazed eyes, to make an audience believe that he knows all the mysteries of death and eternity is painful."

In the late 1980s and the 1990s, Pitt was involved in a series of relationships with several of his co-stars, including Robin Givens (Head of the Class),

and Pitt at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009]]

Pitt met Friends actress Jennifer Aniston in 1998 and married her in a private wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000. 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. 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".

Despite media reports that Pitt and Aniston have an acrimonious relationship, in a February 2009 interview, Pitt said that he and Aniston "check in with each other". In an October 2007 interview, Pitt revealed that he is no longer a Christian nor believes in an afterlife. "There's peace in understanding that I have only one life, here and now, and I'm responsible." In July 2009, he said in an interview that he did not believe in God, and that he was "probably 20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic."

Career Facts:  In the 1999 film Fight Club, Pitt portrayed Tyler Durden, a straight-shooting and charismatic mastermind who runs an underground fight club. The film, an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name, was directed by Seven director David Fincher. To prepare for the role, Pitt took lessons in boxing, taekwondo, and grappling. For the cosmetics of his role, Pitt voluntarily had pieces of his front teeth removed, which were restored after filming concluded. During promotion for the film, he said, "The fighting is not necessarily 'take your aggressions out on someone else.' The idea is just to get in there, have an experience, take a punch more importantly and see how you come out on the other end." Fight Club premiered at the 1999 Venice International Film Festival. The film failed to meet expectations at the box office, However, it became a cult classic after its DVD release. Despite the film's reception, Pitt's performance was favored by critics. Paul Clinton of CNN said, "Pitt has proved he's not afraid of experimentation, and this time it pays off." Variety remarked on Pitt's ability to be "cool, charismatic and more dynamically physical, perhaps than he has been since his breakthrough role in Thelma and Louise".

, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, cast of Ocean's Eleven and director Steven Soderbergh in December 2001]]

After Fight Club, Pitt appeared in the Guy Ritchie-directed gangster film Snatch in 2000. Pitt's performance as an Irish Gypsy boxer, and his delivery of a barely intelligible Irish accent, drew criticism and praise. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "[He] is ideally cast as an Irishman whose accent is so thick even Brits can't understand him. The picture also trades on our past associations with Pitt. For years Pitt was shackled by roles that called for brooding introspection, but recently he has found his calling in black comic outrageousness and flashy extroversion."

The following year, Pitt starred opposite Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy The Mexican (2001). but was successful at the box office. Pitt starred alongside Robert Redford, who portrayed his mentor. The film grossed $143 million worldwide. The film was well-received by critics and was successful at the box office; it earned $450 million worldwide. For this performance he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

Pitt had a cameo role in George Clooney's 2002 directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and appeared in an episode of MTV's Jackass, where he and several cast members ran wild through the streets of Los Angeles in gorilla suits. In a later Jackass episode, Pitt took part in a staged abduction of himself. In 2003, he took his first voice-acting roles; he lent his voice to the titular character of the DreamWorks animated film Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and voiced Boomhauer's brother Patch in an episode of the animated television series King of the Hill.