Angelina Jolie Biography

Angelina Jolie Voight, daughter of Oscar winning actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand, used her middle name as her last name (French translation of beautiful), probably in order to succeed independently of her father's success as an actor. At age 11, Jolie began studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, six years after making her film debut in Lookin' to Get Out, starring her father.

Although her dream as a child was actually to become a funeral director, a 16 year-old Jolie worked as a professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles. Musical groups such as the Rolling Stones, Lemonheads, Meatloaf, Lenny Kravitz had her cast in their music videos, and even brother James Haven Voight directed Jolie in his student films for USC School of Cinema. Wanting to become closer to pursuing an acting career, Jolie studied at the Met Theatre Group in LA, whose alumni include Ed Harris and Holly Hunter.

Jolie's first foray into films were more of a sci-fi nature, with a supporting role in the 1993 Cyborg II: Glass Shadows, which didn't even make it to the big screen, and a lead role in Hackers, where she met her future husband, the British actor Jonny Lee Miller of Trainspotting fame. It should be noted that Jolie's performance was the only redeeming factor of the movie. Jolie and Miller's morbid wedding reception, where Jolie wore black and had Jonny's name written across the back of her shirt in blood, could have foreshadowed that their marriage would not live too long - they were separated within the year and filed for divorce in 1999.

Her marriage to Miller may be the only failure Jolie has yet to experience, since her career as an actress is flying high. She received critical acclaim in Without Evidence (1995) where she portrayed a drug-addicted teen; Foxfire, a 1996 Joyce Carol Oates adaptation, for her portrayal of a rebellious teen called "Legs"; as well as in Love is All There Is, for her role as an Italian girl with the son of her family's rival.

In 1997 she joined the ranks of more known cast members with a supporting role in the box-office bomb Playing God, starring The X-Files' David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton.

Jolie's television roles were what gained her ultimate respect among critics. She was honored with a 1997 Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination for her role as Cornelia Wallace in the TV movie George Wallace, co-starring Gary Sinise. The best was only yet to come for Jolie. She won her second Golden Globe for her role as model Gia Carangi in HBO's biopic Gia. Her intense role as the drug-addicted model that was diagnosed with AIDS was highly deserving of the Best Actress Golden Globe, Emmy nomination and critical acclaim it received.

On the big-screen, Jolie was well received by audiences for her role in 1998's Playing By Heart, with Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson and Ryan Phillippe. She also played Billy Bob Thornton's seductive wife in 1999's Pushing Tin, and starred opposite big-leaguer Denzel Washington in the thriller The Bone Collector later that same year.

It was her supporting role in this year's Girl, Interrupted where Jolie really showed audiences that she is a truly gifted actress, garnering her a Golden Globe nomination as well as an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Her gritty, bona fide performance of a patient in a psychiatric hospital showed that this girl's career is nowhere near being interrupted.

Jolie has recently married her Pushing Tin co-star Billy Bob Thornton and after this summer's Gone in 60 Seconds, with Nicolas Cage, Jolie will star in the upcoming movie version of Tomb Raider.