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About Brad Pitt:
American actor and film producer William Bradley Pitt (Brad Pitt) was born on December 18, 1963. His big-screen debut was in the 1989 horror movie Cutting Class, and he became a Hollywood mainstay with his part in Legends of the Fall in 1994. The two-time “Sexiest Man Alive” winner from People magazine, Pitt also demonstrated a willingness to take on more challenging parts for films such as Fight Club (1999) and Seven (1995).
With his roles in Babel (2006), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Inglourious Basterds (2009), and Moneyball (2011), he started to receive more serious award consideration. In 2013, he won his first Oscar in the best picture category as a producer for 12 Years a Slave.
In addition to his latter projects, such as Allied (2016), The Big Short (2015), and his Oscar-winning performance in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019), Pitt is well-known for his prominent relationships with Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie.
Quick Facts:
- Birth Name: William Bradley Pitt
- Birth Date: December 18, 1963
- Birth Place: Oklahoma, United States
- Gender: Male
- Career: Actor, Producer
- Most Known For: Famed for his roles in movies including “Legends of the Fall,” “Fight Club,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Moneyball,” “12 Years a Slave,” and “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” actor and producer Brad Pitt has won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
Early Life:
On December 18, 1963, William Bradley Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to school counsellor Jane Etta and trucking business owner William Alvin Pitt. Soon after, the family relocated to Springfield, Missouri, where he shared a home with Douglas Pitt and Julie Neal, his younger siblings.
Pitt participated in the tennis, swimming, and golf teams at Kickapoo High School. He took part in school debates, musicals, and the Key and Forensics clubs. In 1982, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri after completing his high school education, majoring in journalism with a specialization on advertising.
By the time graduation drew near, Pitt was not prepared to settle down. He was an avid moviegoer, so when he learned that movies weren’t produced in Missouri, he made plans to visit the locations where they were made. Pitt left the university two weeks before he was supposed to graduate and relocated to Los Angeles, where he took acting classes while taking odd jobs.
He accompanied a classmate as her scene partner for an agency audition after enrolling in an acting program. Ironically, Pitt was signed by the agency rather than his classmate. Pitt had just been in Los Angeles for seven months when he obtained an agency and frequent acting gigs.
Career:
Early Career:
Pitt studied acting with acting teacher Roy London while he was having trouble making a name for himself in Los Angeles. His acting career started in 1987 when he appeared in the uncredited roles of Less than Zero (1987), No Man’s Land (1987), and No Way Out (1987).
Pitt’s television career began with appearances in episodes of Dallas, the sitcom Growing Pains, the daytime soap opera Another World, and the brief Fox Television series Glory Days in 1990. In the 1989 NBC made-for-television film Too Young to Die, Pitt portrayed Billy Canton, the drug-addicted pimp of a young runaway (played by Juliette Lewis). At the age of sixteen, Lewis, who was nine years his junior, began dating him and they ultimately moved in together.
Pitt made his big-screen debut with Donovan Leitch in the 1989 horror/slasher film Cutting Class. He also starred as a teenage track star in Sandy Tung’s Across the Tracks, but it was a well-timed cameo in a contentious Hollywood picture that catapulted Pitt into the spotlight.
In Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise (1991), Pitt played a rebellious, sugar-tongued hitchhiker who is picked up by the two main characters. Despite having very little screen time, Pitt’s performance captured the attention of people everywhere. Pitt became a true sex icon because of his seductive playfulness and endearing bad boy appeal, especially in a passionate love scene with Geena Davis.
Pitt’s subsequent films were unable to elevate his acting stature and solidify his position as more than simply a nice face in Hollywood. He starred alongside Elizabeth McGovern in The Favour (1992), Johnny Suede (1992), Tom CiCillo’s directorial debut, and the unconvincing, partially animated Cool World (1992).
Breakthrough in the 90’s:
But later that year, Robert Redford’s 1992 film A River Runs Through It, which was based on Norman McLean’s memoirs, brought the golden kid back to life under the Hollywood sun. Pitt portrayed the fly-fishing, gambling brother of the main character.
In Dominic Sela’s 1993 film Kalifornia, Pitt reteamed with Lewis, his girlfriend of three years. Pitt played Early Grayce, a guy who, together with his lover, goes on a murderous rampage throughout the country. Many critics criticized the movie for being self-indulgently violent and nihilistic, and it fared poorly at the box office. After filming, Pitt and Lewis split up which was a publicity nightmare.
Pitt also dabbled in humorous roles, such as that of “Floyd,” a deranged hippy in Tony Scott’s True Romance. However, his next big break came costarring with Tom Cruise in the adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire.
Pitt’s subsequent endeavours cemented his status as a Hollywood mainstay; yet, some reviewers perceived his parts as devoid of depth. Pitt portrayed Tristan in the 1994 epic family melodrama Legends of the Fall. Tristan is a classic romantic hero with long, golden hair and an eye for actions that are simultaneously self-serving and self-sacrificing. Pitt’s role as a detective pursuing a serial murderer in David Fincher’s gruesome and unsettling thriller Seven, however, quickly changed that narrative.
Pitt played a mentally sick prisoner in Terry Gilliam’s psychological thriller Twelve Monkeys in 1995. For the role, he received a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor and his first Oscar nomination. After directing Alan J. Pakula’s Devil’s Own, starring Harrison Ford, and another suspenseful thriller, Sleepers (1996), he went to Argentina to shoot Seven Years in Tibet, an ambitious $70 million movie that received mixed reviews. In his subsequent movie, Meet Joe Black, which lasted three hours and costarred Anthony Hopkins, Pitt portrayed death in a very attractive way; the picture did not receive positive reviews.
Following a short break from the Hollywood scene, Pitt rejoined director Fincher of Seven to work on Fight Club in 1999. The post-apocalyptic movie, which also stars Edward Norton, has an unglamorous Pitt in a sinister character as the head of “fight club,” a violent hangout for young, successful men. Pitt’s next project was the Guy Ritchie-directed British criminal thriller Snatch (2000), which also starred Benicio Del Toro.
Gaining Sustained Fame in Hollywood:
The next year, Pitt costarred with Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy The Mexican, returned to work with Redford in the thriller Spy Game, and appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s version of the Rat Pack heist caper Ocean’s Eleven alongside Roberts, George Clooney, and Matt Damon. Afterwards, Pitt portrayed the Greek warrior Achilles in the epic Warner Bros. film Troy in 2004. The actor starred in Ocean’s Twelve in the same year.
Pitt costarred with Angelina Jolie in the successful action movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith in 2005. The film, which starred a married couple who are also covert agents, made over $478 million globally. The actors went on to date in real life.
Pitt received another Golden Globe nomination for the critically acclaimed 2006 picture Babel, which was his following project. The actor reprised his part as Rusty Ryan from Ocean’s Thirteen (2007), a less sombre character. Pitt costarred alongside Joel and Ethan Coen in the 2008 comedy thriller Burn After Reading, which was an FBI case. The movie brought in over $60 million at the box office and was nominated for two Golden Globes.
In the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, Pitt played a more remarkable starring part. Pitt portrays the lead role in this Fincher-directed film, who is born as a 70-year-old man who matures backwards. Pitt was nominated for a third Oscar for the picture, which took home three awards.
Pitt played in two films directed by Quentin Tarantino: 2009’s Inglourious Basterds and 2011’s The Tree of Life, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and starred alongside Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn.
In the baseball drama Moneyball, which chronicles Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s struggles and attempts to rebuild his team, he also played the primary role. Six Oscar nominations were received for the movie, with Brad Pitt receiving awards for best picture and lead actor.
Recent Years:
Pitt received praise in 2013 for his role as Gerry Lane in Marc Forster’s zombie-apocalyptic thriller World War Z. Later that year, Pitt had an appearance in The Counselor as a supporting role. He was highly praised for his work on 12 Years a Slave as well. Steve McQueen’s film narrates the actual story of Solomon Northup, a free African American musician, who is abducted and sold into slavery.
Solomon Northup is portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Featuring a cast that includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Fassbender, and Quvenzhané Wallis, Pitt portrays a Canadian carpenter who provides Northup with significant assistance.
Pitt starred in the WWII action movie Fury that same year as an army sergeant. Then, in the 2015 art house film By the Sea, which Jolie wrote and directed, Pitt costarred with her. He also starred in the movie The Big Short, which centres on a group of men who foresaw the upheaval that led to the 2008 financial crash and the housing market bubble. Drawing inspiration from Michael Lewis’s nonfiction book, the project garnered several nominations for awards.
Pitt then starred in the satirical War Machine (2017), playing a figure based on former US General Stanley McChrystal, and the WWII love thriller Allied (2016), costarring Marion Cotillard.
He co-starred with Leonardo DiCaprio in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood in 2019, which brought him his first Oscar for best supporting actor and his second Golden Globe. He also starred in the sci-fi adventure Ad Astra.
In 2022, Pitt starred in David Leitch’s Bullet Train and made a comeback with co-star Margot Robbie from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. It was announced in September 2021 that he will reunite with George Clooney in Jon Watts’ suspense thriller.
Personal Life:
Following his split from Juliette Lewis, Pitt dated Gwyneth Paltrow, his Seven co-star, from 1994 until 1997. Their relationship was well reported at the time.
Actress Jennifer Aniston and actor Brad Pitt got married in a secret ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000. Pitt first met Aniston in 1998. Pitt and Aniston declared their separation in January of 2005.
The media took notice of Pitt’s relationship with Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie during the divorce process. Jolie and Pitt said there was no cheating and that they fell in love on the shoot.The two were called “Brangelina” by the entertainment industry as they became more and more visible together in 2005.
When Jolie revealed to People on January 11, 2006, that she was expecting Pitt’s kid, she made the first public admission of their relationship. After dating for seven years, Pitt and Jolie confirmed their engagement in April 2012. On August 14, 2014, they were officially wed, and on August 23, 2014, they held a private wedding at Château Miraval in France. Citing irreconcilable differences, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt on September 19, 2016.
The couple’s daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, was born in May 2006. Pitt and Jolie welcomed twins in July 2008: Vivienne Marcheline, a girl, and Knox Leon, a boy. Zahara, Pax Thien, Maddox, and Maddox are their three adoptive children.
