Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie, born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975, in Los Angeles, California, is an American actress famous for her tattoos and her acting ability. Jolie, which in French means pretty, was born to an Academy Award-winning actor, Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand with only one brother named James Haven. Just like any other children at her age, she also had a favorite cartoon character that she liked very much, which was the flying elephant Disney character "Dumbo." She said that she cried when he was able to fly. Meanwhile, unlike her friends in general, little Jolie had had her own "different" childhood dream, which was to be a funeral director. Hence, it's not surprising that she has an interest in mortuary science and that she also has lots of "weird collections," including her many tattoos and knives collection.

Since her age of 11, Jolie attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute before then at her 14 years age started modeling. Later on she was majored in film at New York University after she graduated from Beverly Hills High School at age 16. In the year of 1999, she starred in the film "Girl, Interrupted," which was both starred and produced by Winona Ryder, as Lisa Rowe, for which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Besides, she has also starred in five different movies, all of which directed by her brother James Haven, with whom she's extremely close to and protective of. Their close relationship has, in many times, provoked public rumors that the two had an incest love affair (2000), but Jolie denied the issue and stated the speculation was absolutely false. That being so the show must go on.

Despite all the media coverage on her relationship with her brother, Jolie has the letter "H" tattooed on the inside of her left wrist which is, for her, is a reference to two people she is close to who have this letter in their names: her brother James Haven, and Timothy Hutton. However, she says the H tattoo stands only for James for she has already broken up with Hutton. Any other tattoos she has in her body include the Japanese sign for death, two pointy black American Indian symbols, a dragon, and a large black cross.

The same holds true for her movie career big deal. Jolie, who is able to speak French, is known for her action in some famous movies. Some of her success movies are the "Bone Collector" (1999) and a 2000 action film "Gone in Sixty Seconds" which concerns a former car thief being forced to return to his former trade and steal 50 cars in only one night for a crime boss who is threatening to kill his brother. Mainly, Jolie is best known for her acting in a film based on the popular "Tomb Rider" (2001) video game series featuring her as its main character, Lara Croft. Then in 2003, she gained more success through the second film based on the same video game series entitled "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life". Besides being an actress, she also worked as a professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles.

Having Madonna, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, The Clash and Matchbox 20 as her favorite music, Jolie has appeared in numerous music videos, including those of Meat Loaf, Lenny Kravitz and The Rolling Stones. Not only Jolie is a beautiful and attractive woman, but this respected actress, who has 3 Golden Globes in her hand, is also known for her humanitarian endeavors. She once published "Notes from My Travels" (2003), a collection of journal entries chronicling her early work with U.N. after she actively been a Goodwill Ambassador for its High Commission for Refugees since 2001 that made her frequently traveling to far-flung countries to draw attention to the unfortunate people in Third World nations.

Unfortunately, Jolie's success as an actress and U.N. representative doesn't work in balance with her marriage as all her two marriages end in divorce. On March 28, 1996, she married British actor Jonny Lee Miller whom she co-starred with in the movie "Hackers" and for whom she attended her wedding in black leather trousers and a white shirt with his name painted in her blood on the back. Sadly, the marriage wasn't last long as they were divorced on February 3, 1999. After that she married to the American actor Billy Bob Thornton on May 5, 2000, with whom she adopted a son from Cambodia, Maddox Chivan Thornton Jolie, born on August 5, 2001. On May 27, 2003, both of them had legally separated with Jolie won Maddox custody.

In early 2005, along with public shock on the issue of her becoming one cause of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's "eternal marriage" end, Angelina Jolie denied public rumors she's dating Colin Farrell, citing the many similarities they have made them wanted to save their "mutual attraction" best for last. Still in the same year, it has later been revealed that all the tidings concerning this matter were true as Pitt's publicist openly stated by early January 2006 that the actor and Jolie were expecting a child together to at the end welcome the new addition to their family, a girl named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, on the night of May 27, 2006 in Namibia, Africa. Two girls with only one boy, the actress adds a son into her and Pitt's clan to make the family whole, adopted a Vietnam orphan Pax Thien from the Tam Binh orphanage outside Ho Chi Minh City in March 2007.

Back to her acting career, Jolie sure encountered no difficulties in continuing her path on the upper rank of show business as offers of roles kept coming heavily for her, like those for "Beyond Borders" (2003), "Taking Lives" (2004), and "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" (2004). Though slightly stumbled in the critically panned "Alexander" (2004), she wonderfully managed to bounce back in her next vehicle, the adventurous "Mr and Mrs Smith" (2005), when the Fox production scored a fantastic domestic gross of over $186 million in its run. Next seen in "The Good Shepherd" (2006) then "A Mighty Heart" (2007), she kept piling up stints into her resume, signing on as the star of "The Changeling", "Wanted", and "Atlas Shrugged," all slated to come up in 2008 while providing the voice of Grendel's mother in "Beowulf" (2007) and Tigress in "Kung Fu Panda" (2008).