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| Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt |
Tattooed rebel, red carpet queen, goodwill
ambassador and anti-cancer warrior: Angelina Jolie is a silver screen beauty
with convictions to match, and a record of taking tough decisions without
looking back. After a decade in the Hollywood spotlight as one half of the
“Brangelina” celebrity couple, the 41-year-old filed this week for divorce from
Brad Pitt, it emerged Tuesday.
Jolie And Pitt Jolie And Pitt The
split opens a new chapter for the thrice-married mother of six — whose
roller-coaster life has taken her from movie star glory to refugee camps in
Africa, to a role as an outspoken champion of women’s health.
Jolie was propelled to stardom with
her role in 1999’s “Girl, Interrupted,” taking home a best supporting actress
Oscar for her portrayal of a rebellious woman in a mental institution. She went
on to play everything from a fairy tale villain (“Maleficent”) to a sexy video
game heroine (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”) to the widow of murdered American
journalist Daniel Pearl (“A Mighty Heart”).
Jolie once flaunted a decidedly punk
sensibility, scandalizing the public with declarations of bisexuality and
quirky behavior such as wearing a vial of actor Billy Bob Thornton’s blood
around her neck during their 2000-2003 marriage.
Her relationship with Pitt became the stuff of
speculation in 2004 after they were seen looking cozy on the set of “Mr. &
Mrs. Smith.” Pitt announced his split from “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston the
following year — and “Brangelina” was born.
The megastars married in France in
August 2014 after living together for several years, and have six children
together, three of whom are adopted. But Jolie is now better known for her
humanitarian work than her tabloid-ready comments.
For several years she served as a goodwill ambassador
for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2012, she was
promoted to special envoy and has visited refugees around the world, from Syria
to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
Made an honorary dame by Queen
Elizabeth II, she has been a vocal advocate for victims of sexual violence in
war zones, co-hosting a global summit on conflict rape in London. Jolie is also
one of the world’s most visible advocates in the battle against cancer, having
undergone a double mastectomy and removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes to
prevent an aggressive form of the disease that killed her mother, grandmother
and aunt.
– Decision to go public –
In both
cases, Jolie publicized her surgeries, triggering a global discussion about the
pros and cons of the procedures as a preventative measure. Jolie said she made
the decision to go public so that other women could learn from her story. It
was with her children in mind that Jolie decided to undergo the surgeries.
“I can tell my children they don’t need to
fear they will lose me to breast cancer,” the actress wrote in the Times after
her mastectomy in 2013.
“They know that I love them and will do
anything to be with them as long as I can.” Her father is Oscar winner Jon
Voight, hailed as one of the finest actors of his generation, who rose to fame
after bravura performances in now classic movies like “Midnight Cowboy,”
“Deliverance” and the Vietnam drama “Coming Home,” for which he won his Academy
Award.
Her mother was an actress who
appeared in US television series, but abandoned her film career to raise her
two children.
On the other side of the camera lens, Jolie made
her directorial debut in 2011 with “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” an
unflinching drama about rape as a weapon in wartime Bosnia, saying she hoped to
use cinema as a force for reconciliation. Jolie was married twice before, to
actors Jonny Lee Miller and Thornton.
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