- Title: PEOPLE-JOLIE/40TH BIRTHDAY Angelina Jolie turns 40 years old
- Date: 4th June 2015
- Summary: VARIOUS LOCATIONS (FILE) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF BRAD PITT WITH CHILDREN AT THE DECEMBER 2014 PREMIERE OF "UNBROKEN." JOLIE DID NOT ATTEND DUE TO ILLNESS
- Embargoed: 19th June 2015 13:00
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- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA1FAWA8FYWZ1PJUV7XXZ7RG5UF
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- Story Text: Angelina Jolie turns 40 years old on Thursday (June 4th).
The actress and filmmaker has lived an extraordinary life in her first four decades. Born to Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight and his then wife, Marcheline Bertrand, on June 4th, 1975, Jolie was primed for a life in Hollywood. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and she grew up alternately in New York State and Beverly Hills. She later described her teenage years as a period of turmoil, during which she would self-mutilate and use drugs.
Growing into a remarkably beautiful young woman, her Hollywood breakout role came in the 1995 film "Hackers." After becoming Tinseltown's "it" girl, she picked up roles in several films, including "Playing by Heart," "Pushing Tin," and the HBO film "Gia," a biopic of supermodel Gia Carangi. Her celebrity was cemented with her win for the best supporting actress Oscar for "Girl, Interrupted" (1999), and made waves when she wore all black to the Academy Awards ceremony, kissing her brother, James Haven on the lips.
In the decade that followed her Oscar win, she starred in several box office hits, including the title role in "Gone in 60 Seconds," "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," "Alexander," "Salt," "Wanted," and "Maleficent."
Her personal life has been equally as entertaining as her films, with an early marriage to English actor Jonny Lee Miller (1996-1999), a second marriage to Billy Bob Thornton (2000-2003) during which time they reportedly wore vials of each others blood around their necks, and her third and current marriage to actor Brad Pitt.
She also starred in the 2005 film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," which was notable for marking the start of her relationship with Pitt, who was married to actress Jennifer Aniston during production, fueling rumors of an affair. Pitt and Jolie, dubbed "Brangelina" have been going strong for nearly a decade, becoming engaged in 2012 and marrying in France in August 2014. Together, the pair have six children, three of whom are adopted: Maddox (born in Cambodia in 2001, and adopted by Jolie in 2002), Zahara (born in Ethiopia in 2005, adopted by Jolie), Pax Thien Jolie Pitt (born in Vietnam in 2003, adopted by Jolie in 2007), as well as three biological children: Shiloh (born 2006), and twins in 2008, son Knox Leon and daughter, Vivienne Marcheline.
Jolie's career has also taken a new direction with her work behind the camera, having directed the 2011 film "In the Land of Milk and Honey," about the Bosnian war, and 2014's "Unbroken," a biopic about the life of decorated WWII fighter pilot and Olympian Louis Zamperini. She has also raised awareness for various humanitarian causes, becoming a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Jolie has also had her share of trials and tribulations, including health scares. In 2013, she wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times describing her decision to get a preventative double mastectomy to avoid breast cancer. In March of 2015, she wrote another piece in the Times announcing that she had undergone preventative surgery remove her ovaries after blood tests revealed a risk of ovarian cancer, a disease which killed her mother at age 56. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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