Oscar-winning American film actor Brad Pitt, who could also be called "The Movie Star", turned sixty on Monday. His star has not faded in Hollywood for more than three decades and he has proven in many films that he is also an extremely talented actor in addition to his handsome image.
He was born William Bradley Pitt in Shawnee, Oklahoma. As a high school student, he played several sports, was a member of the school's self-education group and the drama group. He studied journalism at the University of Missouri, but his true desire remained filmmaking, and since he did not have the opportunity to do so in Missouri, he decided to travel to where the films are made. Two weeks before graduation, he dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles.
He covered the costs of his artistic studies by working a wide variety of jobs, transporting striptease dancers, working as a waiter, and advertising a chain of restaurants dressed as a giant chicken.
From the end of the 1980s, he appeared in TV series, and in 1987 he also appeared in Dallas. He got his first leading role in the American-Yugoslav co-production The Dark Side of the Day, but shortly before the end of filming, the war in Yugoslavia broke out. Most of the filmed material disappeared and was only found ten years later, when the film was shown.
His breakthrough came in 1991 as the charming hitchhiker in Thelma and Louise (the then-unknown William Baldwin and George Clooney were also competing for the role). His single scene made him a star, but he rebelled against the handsome boy category and took on two films that failed both with critics and at the box office. In 1992, he made his mark in the Robert Redford-directed drama The River Breaks in Two, followed by the mixed reception of Interview with the Vampire and Tempest of Passions in 1994, for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for the first time. He played a young detective in the crime thriller The Seventh, and a mental patient tormented by visions in Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, for which he received the Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Oscar.
He portrayed an Austrian mountaineer in the biographical drama Seven Years in Tibet, and in 1999 he starred in the cult film The Warriors Club.
The following year, he was voted the most attractive man in the world, but at that time no one disputed that a talented actor was hiding behind his attractive appearance.
He gave proof of this when he played Death in the romantic drama When Joe Black Comes (the most expensive film ever made without special effects), the film drama Babel and the film The Strange Life of Benjamin Button, for which he was nominated for a second time in 2008 for an Oscar.
He also feels in his element in comedies, such as The Mexican with Julia Roberts, the films of the Ocean's trilogy, Guy Ritchie's Bluff, and the light-hearted Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In 2009, Quentin Tarantino's Second World War film Dishonored Brigantyk was released in theaters, in which the actor, who until then was considered to be versatile, but still primarily romantic, showed a new side. Critics raved about his performances in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life and The Moneymaker, based on the book by Michael Lewis, for which he was again nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won the New York Film Critics Award in the Best Actor category.
In 2014, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for the television drama True Heart, and his first Oscar for 12 Years a Slave, both as a producer. These films were also followed by successful productions such as The Big Throw in 2015, The Allies in 2016 or Ad Astra in 2019. Also in 2019, Once Upon a Time… Hollywood, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, was released, in which he played a stuntman for Leonardo DiCaprio's character. He won the Oscar and his second Gloden Globe award for his performance as an actor, in the best supporting actor category.
He co-founded the production company Plan B Entertainment in 2001, and its first film in 2007 was the crime drama The Brick, which won four Oscars. He is committed to humanitarian causes, so he is an enthusiastic and generous supporter of the fight against AIDS and poverty, environmental protection movements, and he often makes his voice heard in social issues as well.
The actor, who made the hearts of millions of women beat, had countless relationships.
Brad Pitt's first fiancee was actress Jill Schoelen, with whom they fell in love on the set of the 1989 horror comedy The Executioner. They were engaged a few months ago, when the actress was shooting the film The Phantom of the Opera House in Budapest and called Brad Pitt in tears to come to Hungary. The actor did not hesitate, he reportedly had $800, of which he spent $600 on plane tickets. His heart was then broken in Budapest: Schoelen admitted that he had fallen in love with the film's director.
He divorced his first wife, actress Jennifer Aniston, known from the TV series Friends, in 2005 after five years of marriage. The world of film also brought him together with his second choice - he fell in love with his partner, Angelina Jolie, on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, with whom they married in 2014 after nine years together. The dream couple, called Brangelina by the press, was not together for long, Jolie filed for divorce in 2016. The marriage legally ended in 2019, and their mud-slinging and financial disputes have been an abundant topic for the tabloids ever since. The actor has three biological children with Jolie, three were adopted.
Brad Pitt has visited Budapest several times, in 2000 he shot the film Spy Game with Robert Redford, in 2011 the sci-fi film World War Z, and in 2019 he appeared in Eger as a producer on the Netflix historical drama Henry V.
Source: Civilek.info / MTI / hirado.hu
Cover image: MTI/EPA/Caroline Brehman
