In her earliest years Angelina began absorbing the acting craft from her parents at home. Her father was the Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, and her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, had studied acting with Lee Strasberg. At age 11 Angelina began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She undertook some film studies courses at New York University and later joined the renowned Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles. At age 16 she took up a career in modeling and appeared in some music videos. Her exotic good looks may derive from her mixed ancestry, which is Czech, French-Canadian, Iroquois and English.
After appearing as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film “Lookin' to Get Out,” Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low budget production “Cyborg 2” (1993) and she played her first leading role in a major film in “Hackers” (1995). She appeared in the critically acclaimed biographical 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). She achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of videogame heroine Lara Croft in “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” (2001), and since then has established herself as one of the best known and highest paid actresses in Hollywood. She had her biggest commercial success with the action-comedy “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (2005).
Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have two adopted children, Maddox and Zahara, and a biological child, Shiloh. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR.
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