Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie (/dÊ'oʊˈliː/ joh-LEE; DCMG born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, director, writer, and producer. She has won an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and has been cited as Hollywood's highest-paid actress. In addition to her film career, she promotes humanitarian causes, and is noted for her work with refugees as a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Her activism has received wide recognition, among which an honorary Academy Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and an honorary damehood of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG).

Jolie made her screen debut as a child alongside her father, Jon Voight, in Lookin' to Get Out (1982). Her film career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993), followed by her first leading role in a major film, the cyber-thriller Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical television films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Her starring role as the video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) established her as a leading Hollywood actress.

Jolie continued her successful action-star career with Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Wanted (2008), and Salt (2010), and received critical acclaim for her performances in the dramas A Mighty Heart (2007) and Changeling (2008), which earned her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She expanded her film career by directing and producing the wartime dramas In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011) and Unbroken (2014). Her biggest commercial success came with the Disney fantasy Maleficent (2014).

Jolie has been named the world's "most beautiful" woman by various media outlets, a title for which she has received substantial publicity, and her personal life is the subject of wide media attention. Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, she is now married to actor Brad Pitt. They have six children together, three of whom were adopted internationally. As a supercouple, they are called "Brangelina" by the entertainment media.

Early life and family

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. Her brother is actor James Haven and their paternal uncles are singer-songwriter Chip Taylor and volcanologist Barry Voight. Her godparents are actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's side, she is of German and Slovak descent, and on her mother's side, she is of primarily French-Canadian, Dutch, and German ancestry. Like Bertrand, Jolie has stated that she is part Iroquois, although her only known indigenous ancestors were 17th-century Hurons.

After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother lived with their mother, who had abandoned her acting ambitions to focus on raising her children. As a child, she often watched films with her mother and it was this, rather than her father's successful career, that inspired her interest in acting, though at age five she had a bit part in Voight's Lookin' to Get Out (1982). When Jolie was six years old, Bertrand and her live-in partner, filmmaker Bill Day, moved the family to Palisades, New York; they returned to Los Angeles five years later. She then decided she wanted to act and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions.

Jolie first attended Beverly Hills High School, where she felt isolated among the children of some of the area's affluent families, because her mother survived on a more modest income. She was teased by other students, who targeted her for being extremely thin and for wearing glasses and braces. At her mother's urging, Jolie briefly worked as a fashion model, which proved largely unsuccessful. She then chose to transfer to Moreno High School, an alternative school, where she became a self-described "punk outsider," wearing all-black clothing, going out moshing, and experimenting with knife play with her live-in boyfriend. She dropped out of her acting classes and aspired to become a funeral director, taking at-home courses to study embalming. At age 16, after the relationship had ended, Jolie graduated from high school and rented an apartment a few blocks from her mother's home, before returning to theater studies. In 2004, she referred to this period with the observation, "I am still at heartâ€"and always will beâ€"just a punk kid with tattoos."

Jolie suffered episodes of depression throughout her teens and early 20s. As a teenager, she found it difficult to emotionally connect with other people, and as a result she self-harmed, later commenting, "For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me." She also struggled with insomnia and an eating disorder, and began experimenting with drugs; by age 20, Jolie had tried "just about every drug possible," particularly heroin. She twice planned to commit suicideâ€"at age 19 and again at 22, when she attempted to hire a hitman to kill her, and she suffered a nervous breakdown when she was 24, during which she was sectioned for 72 hours at UCLA Medical Center's psychiatric ward. Two years later, after adopting her first child, she found stability in her life, stating, "I knew once I committed to Maddox, I would never be self-destructive again."

Jolie has had a lifelong dysfunctional relationship with her father, which began when Voight left the family when his daughter was less than a year old. She has said that from then on their time together was sporadic and usually carried out in front of the press. They briefly reconciled when they appeared together in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), but their relationship again deteriorated. Jolie petitioned the court to legally remove her surname "Voight" in favor of her middle name, which she had long used as a stage name; the name change was granted on September 12, 2002. Voight then went public with their estrangement during an appearance on Access Hollywood, in which he claimed Jolie had "serious mental problems." In response, she released a statement saying she no longer wished to pursue a relationship with her father. Her mother and brother also broke off contact with Voight. They did not speak for six-and-a-half years, but began rebuilding their relationship in the wake of Bertrand's death from ovarian cancer on January 27, 2007, before going public with their reconciliation three years later.

Career

1991â€"97: Early work

Jolie committed to acting professionally at the age of 16, but initially found it difficult to pass auditions, often being told that her demeanor was "too dark." She appeared in five of her brother's student films, made while he attended the USC School of Cinema-Television, as well as in several music videos, namely Lenny Kravitz's "Stand by My Woman" (1991), Antonello Venditti's "Alta Marea" (1991), The Lemonheads's "It's About Time" (1993), and Meat Loaf's "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" (1993). She began to learn from her father, as she noticed his method of observing people to become like them. Their relationship during this time was less strained, with Jolie realizing that they were both "drama queens."

Jolie began her professional film career in 1993, when she played her first leading role in the straight-to-video science-fiction sequel Cyborg 2, as a near-human robot designed for corporate espionage and assassination. She was so disappointed with the film that she did not audition again for a year. Following a supporting role in the independent film Without Evidence (1995), she starred in her first Hollywood picture, Hackers (1995). The New York Times wrote, "Kate (Angelina Jolie) stands out. That's because she scowls even more sourly than [her co-stars] and is that rare female hacker who sits intently at her keyboard in a see-through top. Despite her sullen posturing, which is all this role requires, Ms. Jolie has the sweetly cherubic looks of her father, Jon Voight." Hackers failed to make a profit at the box office, but developed a cult following after its video release.

In 1996, Jolie starred in the comedy Love Is All There Is, a modern-day loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in The Bronx. It was followed by an appearance in the road movie Mojave Moon (1996), of which The Hollywood Reporter noted, "Jolie, an actress whom the camera truly adores, reveals a comic flair and the kind of blatant sexuality that makes it entirely credible that [Danny] Aiello's character would drop everything just for the chance of being with her." She also starred in Foxfire (1996) as a young drifter who unites four teenage girls against a teacher who has sexually harassed them. The Los Angeles Times wrote of her performance, "It took a lot of hogwash to develop this character, but Jolie, Jon Voight's knockout daughter, has the presence to overcome the stereotype. Though the story is narrated by Maddy, Legs is the subject and the catalyst."

Jolie starred with David Duchovny in the 1997 thriller Playing God, set in the Los Angeles underworld. The film was not well received by critics; Roger Ebert noted that Jolie "finds a certain warmth in a kind of role that is usually hard and aggressive; she seems too nice to be [a mobster's] girlfriend, and maybe she is." She then appeared in the poorly-received CBS miniseries True Women (1997), a historical romantic drama set in the American West and based on the novel of the same name by Janice Woods Windle. She also played a stripper in the music video for "Anybody Seen My Baby?" by the Rolling Stones.

1997â€"2000: Breakthrough

Jolie's career prospects began to improve after she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in TNT's George Wallace (1997), about the life of the segregationist Alabama Governor and presidential candidate George Wallace, played by Gary Sinise. Jolie portrayed Wallace's second wife, Cornelia, a performance The Philadelphia Inquirer described as a highlight of the film. George Wallace was very well received by critics and won, among other awards, the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film. Jolie also received a nomination for an Emmy Award for her performance.

In 1998, Jolie starred in HBO's Gia, portraying supermodel Gia Carangi. The film chronicles the destruction of Carangi's life and career as a result of her addiction to heroin, and her decline and death from AIDS in the mid-1980s. Reel.com noted, "Angelina Jolie gained wide recognition for her role as the titular Gia, and it's easy to see why. Jolie is fierce in her portrayalâ€"filling the part with nerve, charm, and desperationâ€"and her role in this film is quite possibly the most beautiful train wreck ever filmed." For the second consecutive year, she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also won her first Screen Actors Guild Award.

In accordance with Lee Strasberg's method acting, Jolie preferred to stay in character in between scenes during many of her early films, and as a result had gained a reputation for being difficult to deal with. While shooting Gia, she told her husband Jonny Lee Miller that she would not be able to phone him: "I'd tell him: 'I'm alone; I'm dying; I'm gay; I'm not going to see you for weeks.'" After Gia wrapped, she briefly gave up acting, because she felt that she had "nothing else to give." She separated from Miller and moved to New York, where she took night classes at New York University to study directing and screenwriting; she later described it as "just good for me to collect myself." Encouraged by her Golden Globe Award win for George Wallace and the positive critical reception of Gia, she resumed her career.

Jolie returned to the screen in the 1998 gangster film Hell's Kitchen. Later that year, she appeared in Playing by Heart, part of an ensemble cast that included Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, and Ryan Phillippe. The film received predominantly positive reviews, and Jolie was praised in particular. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Jolie, working through an overwritten part, is a sensation as the desperate club crawler learning truths about what she's willing to gamble." She won the Breakthrough Performance Award from the National Board of Review.

In 1999, Jolie starred in the comedy-drama Pushing Tin, alongside John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film met with mixed reception from critics, and Jolie's characterâ€"Thornton's seductive wifeâ€"was particularly criticized. The Washington Post dismissed her as "a completely ludicrous writer's creation of a free-spirited woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of turquoise rings and gets real lonely when Russell spends entire nights away from home." She then co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector (1999), an adaptation of the crime novel of the same name by Jeffery Deaver. She played a police officer who reluctantly helps Washington's paraplegic detective track down a serial killer. The film grossed $151 million worldwide, but was a critical failure. The Detroit Free Press concluded, "Jolie, while always delicious to look at, is simply and woefully miscast."

Jolie next took the supporting role of a sociopathic mental patient in Girl, Interrupted (1999), an adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's memoir of the same name. While Winona Ryder played the main character in what was hoped to be a comeback for her, the film instead marked Jolie's final breakthrough in Hollywood. She won her third Golden Globe Award, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Variety noted, "Jolie is excellent as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental than the doctors in Susanna's rehabilitation."

In 2000, Jolie appeared in her first summer blockbuster, Gone in 60 Seconds, in which she portrayed the mechanic ex-girlfriend of a car thief played by Nicolas Cage. The role was small, and The Washington Post criticized that "all she does in this movie is stand around, cooling down, modeling those fleshy, pulsating muscle-tubes that nest so provocatively around her teeth." She later explained that the film had been a welcome relief after her emotionally heavy role in Girl, Interrupted. Gone in 60 Seconds became her highest-grossing film to that point, earning $237 million internationally.

2001â€"04: International success

Although Jolie was highly regarded for her acting abilities, her previous films had often not appealed to a wide audience. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), however, made her an international superstar. An adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider videogame, the film required her to learn an English accent and undergo extensive martial arts training to play the title role of Lara Croft. She was generally praised for her physical performance, but the movie generated mostly negative reviews. Slant commented, "Angelina Jolie was born to play Lara Croft but [director] Simon West makes her journey into a game of Frogger." The film was an international success nonetheless, earning $275 million worldwide, and launched her global reputation as a female action star.

Jolie then starred opposite Antonio Banderas as his mail-order bride in Original Sin (2001), a thriller based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. The film was a major critical failure, with The New York Times noting, "The story plunges more precipitously than Ms. Jolie's neckline." In 2002, she starred in Life or Something Like It as an ambitious television reporter who is told that she will die in a week. The film was poorly received by critics, though Jolie's performance received positive reviews. CNN's Paul Clinton wrote, "Jolie is excellent in her role. Despite some of the ludicrous plot points in the middle of the film, this Academy Award-winning actress is exceedingly believable in her journey towards self-discovery and the true meaning of fulfilling life."

Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), which established her among Hollywood's highest-paid actresses, earning $10â€"$15 million per film for the next five years. The sequel was not as lucrative as the original, earning $156 million at the international box office. She also appeared in the music video for Korn's "Did My Time", which was used to promote the film. She next starred opposite Clive Owen in Beyond Borders (2003) as a socialite who joins aid workers in Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Chechnya, which reflected her real-life interest in promoting humanitarian relief. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful; the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Jolie, as she did in her Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, can bring electricity and believability to roles that have a reality she can understand. She can also, witness the Lara Croft films, do acknowledged cartoons. But the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world, completely defeats her."

In 2004, Jolie starred alongside Ethan Hawke in the thriller Taking Lives, as an FBI profiler summoned to help Montreal law enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The film received mixed reviews, and The Hollywood Reporter concluded, "Angelina Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour." She also provided the voice of a gold-digging lionfish in the DreamWorks animated film Shark Tale (2004), which earned $367 million worldwide, and made a brief appearance as a fighter pilot in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), a science fiction adventure film shot entirely with actors in front of a bluescreen. That same year, she portrayed Queen Olympias in Alexander, about the life of Alexander the Great. The film failed in North America, which director Oliver Stone attributed to disapproval of the depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but it succeeded internationally, for a total revenue of $167 million.

2005â€"11

Jolie then starred opposite Brad Pitt in the 2005 action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which tells the story of a bored married couple who find out that they are both secret assassins. The film received mixed reviews, but was generally lauded for the chemistry between Jolie and Pitt; the Star Tribune noted, "While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry." Mr. & Mrs. Smith was the seventh-highest grossing picture of the year, earning $478 million worldwide, and remained Jolie's highest-grossing live-action film for the next decade.

Jolie next appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006), which depicts the early history of the CIA as seen through the eyes of an officer based on James Jesus Angleton and portrayed by Matt Damon. She played the supporting role of his neglected wife. According to the Chicago Tribune, "Jolie ages convincingly throughout, and is blithely unconcerned with how her brittle character is coming off in terms of audience sympathy."

In 2007, she starred as Mariane Pearl in the documentary-style drama A Mighty Heart. Based on Pearl's memoir of the same name, the film chronicles the kidnapping and murder of her husband, The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan. Although the biracial Pearl had personally chosen Jolie for the role, the casting attracted some racial criticism, drawing accusations of "modern blackface." The resulting performance was widely praised; The Hollywood Reporter described it as "well-measured and moving," played "with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent," while Newsweek called it "the most delicate, powerful and human-scale performance of her career." She received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Jolie made her directorial debut with the documentary A Place in Time (2007), which captured the same three-minute span in 27 locations around the world. The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, and was intended for distribution to high schools through the National Education Association. She next played a shape-shifting seductress, Grendel's mother, in the animated epic Beowulf (2007), which was created through motion capture. It was critically well received and commercially successful, taking in revenues of $196 million worldwide. By then, her pay demands had risen to $15â€"$20 million per film. While other actresses were forced to take salary cuts, Jolie's perceived box office appeal led The Hollywood Reporter to cite her as "the one actress still commanding top dollar."

Jolie starred alongside James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the 2008 action film Wanted, an adaptation of Mark Millar's graphic novel of the same name. The film received predominately favorable reviews and proved an international success, earning $341 million worldwide. She also provided the voice of a kung fu master in the DreamWorks animated film Kung Fu Panda (2008), which grossed $632 million internationally. That same year, she took on the lead role in Clint Eastwood's drama Changeling. Based in part on the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, the film centers on Christine Collins, who is reunited with her kidnapped son in 1928 Los Angelesâ€"only to realize the boy is an imposter. The Chicago Tribune noted, "Jolie really shines in the calm before the storm, the scenes when one patronizing male authority figure after another belittles her at their peril." She received nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA Award, and an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Jolie next appeared in the 2010 thriller Salt, her first film in two years. She starred alongside Liev Schreiber as a CIA agent who goes on the run after she is accused of being a KGB sleeper agent. Originally written as a male character with Tom Cruise attached to star, agent Salt underwent a gender change after a Columbia Pictures executive suggested Jolie for the role to director Phillip Noyce. Salt was an international success with revenues of $293 million. It received generally positive reviews, with Jolie's performance earning praise; Empire remarked, "When it comes to selling incredible, crazy, death-defying antics, Jolie has few peers in the action business."

Jolie also starred opposite Johnny Depp in The Tourist (2010), which was critically unsuccessful. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers called it the worst film of the year, writing, "Depp and Jolie hit career lows, producing the chemistry of high-fashion zombies." Roger Ebert defended Jolie, stating she "does her darndest" and "plays her femme fatale with flat-out, drop-dead sexuality." Despite the poor reception, after a slow start at the North American box office, the film went on to gross a respectable $278 million worldwide, cementing her appeal to international audiences. She received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance, which gave rise to speculation that it had been given merely to ensure her high-profile presence at the awards ceremony. She next reprised her voice role in the DreamWorks sequel Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), which earned $666 million at the international box office.

2011â€"present: Professional expansion

In 2011, Jolie made her directorial feature debut with In the Land of Blood and Honey, a love story between a Serb soldier and a Bosniak prisoner of war, set during the 1992â€"95 Bosnian War. After twice visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina in her role as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie decided to make the film to rekindle attention for the survivors of a war that took place in recent history. To ensure a sense of authenticity, she cast only actors from the former Yugoslavia, most of whom lived through the warâ€"including stars Goran Kostić and Zana Marjanovićâ€"and incorporated their experiences into her screenplay. The resulting film was released in U.S. theaters entirely in the Bosnian language.

In the Land of Blood and Honey received mixed reviews. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times concluded, "Aside from 'Blood and Honey's' contrived plot points, first-time director Angelina Jolie accomplishes much in such a difficult area as the Bosnian war." It won the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America, which honors films that highlight provocative social issues, and received a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film attracted both praise and criticism in the Balkans; the response from Bosniak war-victims advocacy organizations was "overwhelmingly positive," while a Serb war prisoners group condemned the film for its alleged anti-Serb bias. Sarajevo's regional government named Jolie an honorary citizen of the capital for raising awareness of the war.

After a three-and-a-half-year absence from the screen, Jolie starred in Maleficent (2014), a live-action re-imagining of Disney's animated feature Sleeping Beauty. She portrayed the witch Maleficent, the main antagonist of the 1959 classic. The film received mixed reviews but Jolie's performance was singled out for praise; The Hollywood Reporter found her to be the "heart and soul" of the film, adding that she "doesn't chew the estimable scenery in Maleficentâ€"she infuses it, wielding a magnetic and effortless power." In its opening weekend, Maleficent earned nearly $70 million at the North American box office and over $100 million in other markets, which led Time to cite Jolie as "the one actress who can open big movies to big numbers," noting her ability to consistently appeal to audiences of all demographics in action and fantasy films, genres usually dominated by male actors. The film went on to gross $758 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest grossing film of the year and Jolie's highest-grossing film ever.

Jolie next completed her second directorial venture, Unbroken (2014), about World War II hero Louis Zamperini (1917â€"2014), a former Olympic track star who survived a plane crash over sea and spent two years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. An adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling biography of the same name, the film was scripted by Joel and Ethan Coen and stars Jack O'Connell as Zamperini and, in his acting debut, Miyavi as the sadistic camp commander The Bird. After a positive early reception, Unbroken was considered a likely Best Picture and Best Director contender. However, it ultimately received mixed reviews and little award recognition, though it was nominated for three Academy Awards in technical categories. In a typical review, Variety noted Jolie's "impeccable craftsmanship and sober restraint" as a filmmaker, but found the film "an extraordinary story told in dutiful, unexceptional terms." Unbroken earned over $140 million worldwide, and was named one of the most outstanding films of the year by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.

Scheduled for a 2015 release, Jolie's third directorial effort, By the Sea, is a romantic drama about a marriage in crisis, based on her screenplay. She stars opposite her husband, Brad Pitt, in their first collaboration since 2005's Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Jolie is next expected to direct Africa, about Kenyan conservationist Richard Leakey's fight against the illegal ivory trade.

Humanitarian work

UNHCR ambassadorship

Jolie first personally encountered the effects of a humanitarian crisis while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) in war-torn Cambodia, an experience she later credited with having brought her a greater understanding of the world. Upon her return home, she contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for information on international trouble spots. To learn more about the conditions in these areas, she began visiting refugee camps around the world. In February 2001, she went on her first field visit, an 18-day mission to Sierra Leone and Tanzania; she later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed.

In the following months, Jolie returned to Cambodia for two weeks and met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where she donated $1 million in response to an international UNHCR emergency appeal, the largest donation UNHCR had ever received from a private individual. She covered all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field staff on all of her visits. Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on August 27, 2001.

Over the next decade, she went on more than 40 field missions, meeting with refugees and internally displaced persons in over 30 countries. In 2002, when asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, "Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon." To that end, her 2001-02 field visits were chronicled in her book Notes from My Travels, which was published in October 2003 in conjunction with the release of her humanitarian drama Beyond Borders.

Jolie aimed to visit what she termed "forgotten emergencies," crises that media attention had shifted away from. She became noted for travelling to war zones, such as Sudan's Darfur region during the Darfur conflict, the Syrian-Iraqi border during the Second Gulf War, where she met privately with U.S. troops and other multi-national forces, and the Afghan capital Kabul during the war in Afghanistan, where three aid workers were murdered in the midst of her first visit. To aid her travels, she began taking flying lessons in 2004 with the aim of ferrying aid workers and food supplies around the world; she now holds a private pilot license with instrument rating and owns a Cirrus SR22 single-engine aircraft.

On April 17, 2012, after more than a decade of service as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie was promoted to the rank of Special Envoy to High Commissioner António Guterres, the first to take on such a position within the organization. In her expanded role, she represents Guterres and UNHCR at the diplomatic level, with a focus on major refugee crises. Since her promotion, she has continued to go on field missions around the world to meet with refugees and undertake advocacy on their behalf. In the months following the announcement, Jolie made her first visit as Special Envoyâ€"her third over allâ€"to Ecuador, where she met with Colombian refugees, and she accompanied Guterres on a week-long tour of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq, to assess the situation of refugees from neighboring Syria.

Conservation and community development

In an effort to connect her Cambodian-born son with his heritage, Jolie purchased a house in his country of birth in 2003. The traditional home sat on 39 hectares in the northwestern province Battambang, adjacent to Samlout national park in the Cardamom mountains, which had become infiltrated with poachers who threatened endangered species. She purchased the park's 60,000 hectares and turned the area into a wildlife reserve named for her son, the Maddox Jolie Project. In recognition of her conservation efforts, King Norodom Sihamoni awarded her Cambodian citizenship on July 31, 2005.

In 2006, Jolie expanded the scope of the projectâ€"renamed the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP)â€"to create Asia's first Millennium Village, in accordance with UN development goals. She was inspired by a meeting with the founder of Millennium Promise, noted economist Jeffrey Sachs, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where she was an invited speaker in 2005 and 2006. Together they filmed a 2005 MTV special, The Diary of Angelina Jolie & Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa, which followed them on a trip to a Millennium Village in western Kenya. By 2007, some 6000 villagers and 72 employeesâ€"some of them former poachers employed as rangersâ€"lived and worked at MJP, in ten villages previously isolated from one another. The compound includes schools, roads, and a soy milk factory, all funded by Jolie. Her home functions as the MJP field headquarters.

After filming Beyond Borders (2003) in Namibia, Jolie became patron of the Harnas Wildlife Foundation, a wildlife orphanage and medical center in the Kalahari desert. She first visited the Harnas farm during production of the film, which features vultures rescued by the foundation. Since 2010, she has also funded large-animal conservation projects as well as a free health clinic, housing, and a school for the San Bushmen community at Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary, a nature reserve also located in the Kalahari. Naankuse is supported through a partnership with the Shiloh Jolie-Pitt Foundation, named for her Namibian-born biological daughter. Jolie and her husband, Brad Pitt, support other causes through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, established in September 2006.

Child immigration and education

Jolie has successfully pushed for legislation to aid child immigrants and other vulnerable children in both the U.S. and developing nations. She began lobbying humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital from 2003 onwards, explaining, "As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that's the way to move the ball." Since October 2008, she has co-chaired Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), which provides free legal aid to unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings across the U.S. She founded KIND in a collaboration with the Microsoft Corporation and 25 leading U.S. law firms. She had previously, from 2005 to 2007, funded the launch of a similar initiative, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants' National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children.

Jolie is also an advocate for children's education. In addition to the facilities at the Millenium Village she established in Cambodia, she had built at least ten other schools in the country by 2005, and in 2006, she opened the Maddox Chivan Children's Center, a medical and educational facility for children affected by HIV, in the capital Phnom Penh. In Sebeta, Ethiopia, the birthplace of her eldest daughter, she funds a sister facility, the Zahara Children's Center, which is expected to open in 2015 and will treat and educate children suffering from HIV or tuberculosis. Both centers are run by the Global Health Committee. She has funded a school and a boarding facility for girls at Kakuma refugee camp in north-western Kenya, which opened in 2005, and two primary schools for girls in the returnee settlements Tangi and Qalai Gudar in eastern Afghanistan, which opened in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

Since its founding at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in September 2007, Jolie has co-chaired the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which provides policy and funding to education programs for children in conflict-affected regions. In its first year, the partnership supported education projects for Iraqi refugee children, youth affected by the Darfur conflict, and girls in rural Afghanistan, among other affected groups. The partnership has worked closely with the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Universal Education â€" founded by the partnership's co-chair, noted economist Gene Sperlingâ€"to establish education policies, which resulted in recommendations made to UN agencies, G8 development agencies, and the World Bank.

Other initiatives

After Jolie joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in June 2007, she hosted a symposium on international law and justice at CFR headquarters and funded several CFR special reports, including "Intervention to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities." In January 2011, she established the Jolie Legal Fellowship, a network of lawyers and attorneys who are sponsored to advocate the development of human rights in their countries. Its member attorneys, called Jolie Legal Fellows, have facilitated child protection efforts in Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake and promoted the development of an inclusive democratic process in Libya following the 2011 revolution.

Jolie has fronted a campaign against sexual violence in military conflict zones by the UK government, which made the issue a priority of its 2013 G8 presidency. In May 2012, she launched the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) with Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was inspired to campaign on the issue by her Bosnian war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011). PSVI complements wider UK government work by raising awareness and promoting international co-operation. Jolie spoke on the subject at the G8 foreign ministers meeting, where the attending nations adopted a historic declaration, and before the UN security council, which responded by adopting its broadest resolution on the issue to date. In 2014, she co-hosted the three-day Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, the largest-ever meeting on the subject, attended by 123 nations.

Recognition and honors

Jolie has received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. In August 2002, she received the inaugural Humanitarian Award from the Church World Service's Immigration and Refugee Program, and in October 2003, she was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association. She was awarded the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA in October 2005, and she received the Freedom Award from the International Rescue Committee in November 2007. In October 2011, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres presented Jolie with a gold pin reserved for the most long-serving staff, in recognition of her decade as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.

In November 2013, Jolie received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award, from the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In June 2014, she was appointed an Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) for her services to the UK's foreign policy and campaigning to end sexual violence in war zones. Queen Elizabeth II presented Jolie with the insignia of her honorary damehood during a private ceremony the following October.

Personal life

Relationships and marriages

Jolie had a serious boyfriend for two years from the age of 14. Her mother allowed them to live together in her home, of which Jolie later said, "I was either going to be reckless on the streets with my boyfriend or he was going to be with me in my bedroom with my mom in the next room. She made the choice, and because of it, I continued to go to school every morning and explored my first relationship in a safe way." She has compared the relationship to a marriage in its emotional intensity, and said that the breakup compelled her to dedicate herself to her acting career at the age of 16.

During filming of Hackers (1995), Jolie had a romance with British actor Jonny Lee Miller, her first lover since the relationship in her early teens. They were not in touch for many months after production ended, but eventually reconnected and married soon after on March 28, 1996. She attended her wedding in black rubber pants and a white T-shirt, upon which she had written the groom's name in her blood. Jolie and Miller separated in September 1997 and divorced on February 3, 1999. They remained on good terms, and Jolie later explained, "It comes down to timing. I think he's the greatest husband a girl could ask for. I'll always love him, we were simply too young."

Jolie began a relationship with model-actress Jenny Shimizu on the set of Foxfire (1996). She later said, "I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her." According to Shimizu, their relationship lasted many years and continued even while Jolie was romantically involved with other people, though it had ended by 2005. In 2003, when asked if she was bisexual, Jolie responded, "Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!"

After a two-month courtship, Jolie married actor Billy Bob Thornton on May 5, 2000, in Las Vegas. They met on the set of Pushing Tin (1999), but did not pursue a relationship at that time as Thornton was engaged to actress Laura Dern and Jolie was reportedly dating actor Timothy Hutton. As a result of their frequent public declarations of passion and gestures of loveâ€"most famously wearing one another's blood in vials around their necksâ€"their marriage became a favorite topic of the entertainment media. Jolie and Thornton announced the adoption of a child from Cambodia in March 2002, but abruptly separated three months later. Their divorce was finalized on May 27, 2003. Asked about the sudden dissolution of their marriage, Jolie stated, "It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we had just nothing in common. And it's scary but... I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet."

In early 2005, Jolie was involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal when she was accused of being the reason for the divorce of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. She and Pitt were alleged to have started an affair during filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Jolie stated on several occasions that this was not true, but later said that they "fell in love" on the set. She explained in 2005, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that. I wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife." Jolie and Pitt did not publicly comment on the nature of their relationship until January 2006, when Jolie confirmed that she was pregnant with Pitt's child. They announced their engagement in April 2012, after seven years together, and married on August 23, 2014, at their estate Château Miraval in Correns, France. As a couple, they are dubbed "Brangelina" by the entertainment media, and are the subject of worldwide media coverage.

Children

On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan, from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia. He was born as Rath Vibol on August 5, 2001, in a local village. After twice visiting Cambodia, while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and on a UNHCR field mission, Jolie returned in November 2001 with her husband Billy Bob Thornton, when they met Maddox and subsequently applied to adopt him. The adoption process was halted the following December when the U.S. government banned adoptions from Cambodia amid allegations of child trafficking, including against Jolie's private adoption facilitator, who was later convicted of visa fraud and money laundering. However, Jolie's adoption of Maddox was deemed lawful, and once the process was finalized, she took custody of him in Namibia, where she was filming Beyond Borders (2003). Although Jolie and Thornton announced the adoption together, she adopted Maddox alone, and raised him as a single parent following their separation three months later.

Jolie adopted a daughter, six-month-old Zahara Marley, from an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 6, 2005. Zahara was born as Yemsrach on January 8, 2005, in Awasa. Jolie initially believed Zahara to be an AIDS orphan, based on official testimony from her grandmother. However, her birth mother later came forward in the media, explaining she had abandoned her family when Zahara became sick, and said she thought Zahara was "very fortunate" to have been adopted by Jolie. Jolie was accompanied by her partner Brad Pitt when she traveled to Ethiopia to take custody of Zahara, and she later indicated that they had together made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia, having first visited the country earlier that year. After Pitt announced his intention to adopt her children, she filed a petition to legally change their surname from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was granted on January 19, 2006. Pitt adopted Maddox and Zahara soon after.

In an attempt to avoid the media frenzy surrounding their relationship, Jolie and Pitt traveled to Namibia for the birth of their first biological child. On May 27, 2006, she gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, in Swakopmund. They sold the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images with the aim of benefiting charity, rather than allowing paparazzi to make these valuable photographs. People and Hello! purchased the North American and British rights to the images for $4.1 and $3.5 million respectively, a record in celebrity photojournalism at that time, with all proceeds donated to UNICEF.

On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a son, three-year-old Pax Thien, from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He was born as Pham Quang Sang on November 29, 2003, in HCMC, where he was abandoned by his biological mother soon after birth. Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent, because Vietnam's adoption regulations do not allow unmarried couples to co-adopt. After their return to the U.S., she petitioned the court to change her son's surname from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, which was approved on May 31. Pitt subsequently adopted Pax on February 21, 2008.

At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008, Jolie confirmed that she was expecting twins. For the two weeks she spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, France, reporters and photographers camped outside on the promenade. She gave birth to a son, Knox Léon, and a daughter, Vivienne Marcheline, on July 12, 2008. The first pictures of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for a reported $14 millionâ€"the most expensive celebrity photographs ever taken. All proceeds were donated to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

Cancer prevention treatment

On February 16, 2013, at age 37, Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning she had an 87% risk of developing breast cancer due to a defective BRCA1 gene. Her maternal family history warranted genetic testing for BRCA mutations: her mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, had breast cancer and died from ovarian cancer, while her grandmother had ovarian cancer. Her aunt, who had the same BRCA1 defect, died from breast cancer three months after Jolie's operation. Following the mastectomy, which lowered her chances of developing breast cancer to under 5 percent, Jolie had reconstructive surgery involving implants and allografts. She reportedly intends to undergo a preventive oophorectomy, as she still has a 50% risk of developing ovarian cancer due to the same genetic anomaly.

Jolie kept her diagnosis and procedures private until she had completed the three-month process. On May 14, The New York Times published an op-ed by Jolie titled "My Medical Choice," in which she wrote about her decision to undergo a preventive mastectomy, describing it as a proactive measure for the sake of her children. She further wrote, "On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity." Jolie detailed her experience and three operations, with the aim of helping other women make informed health choices. To that end, her treatment regimen was posted on the website of the Pink Lotus Breast Center, where she was treated.

Jolie's announcement attracted widespread publicity and discussion on BRCA mutations and genetic testing. Her decision was met with praise from various public figures, while health campaigners welcomed her raising awareness of the options available to at-risk women. Dubbed "The Angelina Effect" by a Time cover story, the number of referrals for BRCA gene testing tripled in Australia and doubled in the UK and parts of Canada, as well as significantly increased in other parts of Europe. Researchers found that despite the large increase, the percentage of mutation carriers remained the same, meaning Jolie's message had reached those most at risk. In her Times piece, she advocated wider accessibility of BRCA gene testing and acknowledged the high costs, which were partly the result of BRCA gene patents held by Myriad Genetics. A month later, Myriad's control of the U.S. market ended when the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated its patents, and other companies subsequently began to offer BRCA gene testing at a much lower cost.

In the media

Public profile

As the daughter of actor Jon Voight, Jolie appeared in the media from an early age. After embarking on her own career, she earned a reputation as a "wild child," which contributed to her early success in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Celebrity profiles routinely covered her fascination with blood and knives, experiences with drugs, and her sex life, particularly her bisexuality and interest in sadomasochism. In 2001, when asked about her outspokenness, she stated, "I don't see the point of if you're going to do interviews, if you're going to share your life, and you're not going to discuss your own personal experiences. If you close off, if you create some idea of who you are, it's damaging to you." Another contributing factor of her controversial image were tabloid rumors of incest that started when Jolie, upon winning her Oscar, kissed her brother on the lips and said, "I'm so in love with my brother right now." She dismissed the rumors, saying, "It was disappointing that something so beautiful and pure could be turned into a circus," and explained that, as children of divorce, she and James relied on one another for emotional support.

Jolie's reputation began to change positively after she, at age 26, became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; later commenting, "In my early 20s I was fighting with myself. Now I take that punk in me to Washington, and I fight for something important." Owing to her extensive activism, her Q Scoreâ€"the industry's measure of celebrities' likabilityâ€"nearly doubled between 2000 and 2006. Her recognizability grew accordingly; by 2006, she was familiar to 81% of Americans, compared to 31% in 2000. She became noted for her ability to positively influence her public image through the media, without employing a publicist or an agent. Her Q Score remained above average even when, in 2005, she was accused of ending Brad Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston, at which point her public persona became an unlikely combination of alleged homewrecker, mother, sex symbol, and humanitarian. It peaked at 29 and has since remained in the 20s, compared to an average score of 15.

Jolie's general influence and wealth are extensively documented. In a 2006 global industry survey by ACNielsen in 42 international markets, Jolie, together with Pitt, was found to be the favorite celebrity endorser for brands and products worldwide. She was the face of St. John and Shiseido from 2006â€"08, and in 2011 had an endorsement deal with Louis Vuitton reportedly worth $10 millionâ€"a record for a single advertising campaign. She was among the Time 100, a list of the most influential people in the world as assembled by Time, in 2006 and 2008. Forbes ranked her atop its Celebrity 100, an annual list of the world's most powerful celebrities, in 2009, and named her Hollywood's highest-paid actress in 2009, 2011, and 2013, with estimated annual earnings of $27 million, $30 million, and $33 million respectively.

Appearance

Jolie's public image is strongly tied to her perceived beauty and sex appeal. Many media outlets, including Vogue, People, and Vanity Fair, have cited her as the world's most beautiful woman, while others such as Esquire, FHM, and Empire have named her the sexiest woman alive; both titles have often been based on public polls in which Jolie places far ahead of other celebrity women. Her most recognizable physical features are her many tattoos, eyes, and in particular her full lips, which The New York Times considered as defining a feature as Kirk Douglas's chin or Bette Davis's eyes. Among her estimated 17 tattoos are the Latin proverb "quod me nutrit me destruit" (what nourishes me destroys me), the Tennessee Williams quote "A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages," a Buddhist prayer of protection, a twelve-inch tiger, and geographical coordinates indicating the birthplaces of her children. Over time, she has covered or lasered several of her tattoos, including "Billy Bob", the name of her second husband.

Professionally, Jolie's status as a sex symbol has been considered both an asset and a hindrance. Some of her most commercially successful films, including Tomb Raider (2001) and Beowulf (2007), overtly relied at least in part on her sex appeal, with Empire stating that her "pneumatic figure," "feline eyes," and "bee-stung lips" have greatly contributed to her appeal to cinema audiences. Conversely, Salon agreed with critics who suggested that Jolie's "dark and intense sexuality" has limited her in the types of roles she can be cast in, rendering her unconvincing in many conventional women's roles, while Clint Eastwood, who directed her Oscar-nominated performance in Changeling (2008), opined that having "the most beautiful face on the planet" sometimes harmed her dramatic credibility with audiences.

Beyond her career, Jolie's appearance has been credited with influencing popular culture at large. In 2002, AfterEllen observed that many women of all sexual orientations had publicly expressed their attraction to Jolie, which it considered a new development in American culture, adding that "there are many beautiful women in Hollywood, and few generate the same kind of overwhelming interest across genders and sexual orientations that she does." Jolie's physical attributes became highly sought-after among Western women seeking cosmetic surgery; by 2007, she was considered "the gold standard of beauty," with her full lips remaining the most imitated feature well into the 2010s. After a 2011 repeat survey by Allure found that Jolie most represented the American physical ideal, compared to model Christie Brinkley in 1991, the magazine credited society with having "branched out beyond the Barbie-doll ideal and embraced something quite different." In 2013, Time agreed that Jolie has for many years symbolized the feminine ideal, and opined that her frank discussion of her double mastectomy redefined beauty.

Filmography

Awards and nominations