William Bradley “Brad” Pitt[1] (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer, who first achieved stardom in several successful films in the mid-1990s. He has been cited as one of the world’s most attractive men and his off-screen life is widely reported.[2][3] Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and won one Golden Globe Award out of four nominations.
Pitt began his acting career in television guest spots, including a recurring role on the CBS soap opera Dallas in 1987. He gained recognition as the cowboy hitchhiker who seduces Geena Davis’ character in 1991’s Thelma & Louise. Pitt’s first leading role in a major film was in 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. The following year came two contrasting, widely acclaimed starring roles, in the crime thriller Seven (1995) and the science fiction Twelve Monkeys (1995), in which he won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. Pitt received worldwide attention in the 1999 film Fight Club, for his role as Tyler Durden. Following the success of Fight Club, he was cast as Rusty Ryan in the 2001 film Ocean’s Eleven, and its sequels Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). He has had his biggest commercial successes with Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Spy Game (2001), Troy (2004), the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).
Following a high profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and marriage to Jennifer Aniston, as of 2009, Pitt lives with actress Angelina Jolie, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention.[4] 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. Since his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues, both in the United States and internationally.
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.[5] Along with his siblings Doug (born 1966) and Julie Neal (born 1969),[6] he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. Growing up, he was raised as a conservative Southern Baptist, singing in the church choir.[5]
Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he excelled; he was a member of the golf, tennis and swimming teams, as well as the Key and Forensics clubs.[5] He also participated in school debates and musicals.[5] Following his graduation, Pitt attended the University of Missouri in 1982, where he belonged to the Sigma Chi fraternity,[1] where he frequently acted in several fraternity shows.[5] He majored in journalism, with a focus on advertising.[7] In 1985, two weeks prior to earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, California to take acting lessons.[1] 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.”[8]
Career
Early work
While struggling in Los Angeles, he took a number of odd jobs, ranging from chauffeuring,[9] being a delivery man,[5] and dressing up as an El Pollo Loco chicken, to pay for his acting classes, in which he began studying with late renowned acting coach Roy London.[1][7]
In December 1987, Pitt began his acting career in television guest spots, including a recurring role on the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas playing Randy, the boyfriend of Shalane McCall’s character, Charlie Wade.[1] Pitt described the character as “an idiot boyfriend who gets caught in the hay”.[10] During an interview with People magazine, he revealed, while questioned about his scenes with McCall, “It was real sweaty-palms time for me. It was kind of wild, because I’d never even met her before.”[1] His character spent five weeks in the show. In 1990 he co-starred in the short-lived television drama Glory Days.[1]
In 1988, Pitt made his feature film debut in the drama 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 1988.[11] He was then cast in the television movie Too Young to Die?, about an abused teenager given the death penalty for murder. Pitt played the part of a drug addict, Billy Canton, who took advantage of a runaway young woman, played by Juliette Lewis.[11][12] Entertainment Weekly wrote: “Pitt is a magnificent slimeball as her hoody boyfriend; looking and sounding like a malevolent John Cougar Mellencamp, he’s really scary.”[12]
Pitt’s next film role was as Joe Maloney in Across the Tracks (1991), which he played a high school runner with a difficult criminal brother played by Ricky Schroder.[13] He attracted broader public attention from a supporting role in the 1991 film Thelma & Louise, where he played J.D., a small-time criminal drifter who befriends Thelma (Geena Davis). His love scene with Davis, which showed Pitt shirtless and wearing a cowboy hat, has been often cited as the moment that defined Pitt as a “sex symbol”.[1]
After the success of Thelma & Louise, Pitt starred alongside Catherine Keener and Nick Cave in the low budget, Tom DiCillo-directed 1991 movie Johnny Suede, as an awkward dreamer who aspired to be a rock star.[11] After appearing in Cool World (1992),[11] Pitt starred in Robert Redford’s biographical 1992 film A River Runs Through It,[14] in which his performance was described as “career-making”.[15] In discussion of the film, Pitt said: “I felt a bit of pressure”.[16] He also added that it was one of his “weakest performances”,[16] and concluded with, “It’s so weird that it ended up being the one that I got the most attention for.”[16] When asked about working alongside Redford, Pitt said: “It’s like tennis: When you play with somebody better than you, your game gets better.”[15]
The following year he re-united with his Too Young to Die? co-star Juliette Lewis, in which they appeared in Kalifornia, a road movie in which he played a scruffy serial killer and Lewis playing Pitt’s ex-girlfriend.[11] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone in his review of the film, noted that Pitt’s performance was “outstanding”.[17] That same year he won a ShoWest Award for Male Star of Tomorrow.[18]
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