BORN
William Bradley Pitt on December 18th 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
FAMILY
Brad’s mother Jane was a guidance councilor, and his father Bill was a trucking company manager. Together they have three children; Brad is the oldest, and his younger siblings are brother Doug and sister Jill.
EARLY CAREER
Brad attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in Journalism with a focus on advertising, occasionally acting in fraternity shows. He left college two credits shy of graduating to move to California, where he took a number of odd jobs to make a living (including driving strippers around in limos, moving refrigerators and dressing as a giant chicken) before his first real breakthrough role in 1991 as cowboy J.D. in the movie Thelma and Louise. In just 14 minutes of screen time, Brad proved his acting ability to Hollywood and set the stage for his first prominent lead role in 1992’s A River Runs Through It, breaking box offices and hearts across the globe – and cementing Brad in the Hollywood A-list.
HOLLYWOOD
Following another successful role in 1993’s Kalifornia, Brad starred alongside Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire. The casting was considered risky even by the writer of the original novel, Anne Rice, but all doubts were put to rest as Brad shone is his role as vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, which in addition to his lead role in Legends of the Fall, demonstrated the scope of his acting ability. Future castings set to test that scope further, as he was placed as a homicide detective in Se7en (alongside Morgan Freeman), a mental patient in Twelve Monkeys, an IRA terrorist in The Devil’s Own (alongside Harrison Ford), a angry disillusioned consumer in Fight Club and even a Pikey in Snatch!
FUTURE
Brad has two new projects in the pipeline – the blockbuster epic Troy, in which he plays Achilles and stars alongside Colin Farrell and is tipped to be the movie of the year for 2004; and Oceans Twelve, the sequel 2001’s hugely successful Oceans Eleven.
LOVE
Brad has had a string of high profile Hollywood romances - including dating Juliette Lewis after meeting on set of TV movie Too Young To Die? In 1990 and Geena Davis briefly after appearing together in Thelma & Louise – but his most prominent romance was his relationship and engagement to Gwyneth Paltrow in 1996. Women of the world rejoiced when Brad and Gwyneth ‘mutually agreed to split’ amidst a tabloid frenzy in 1997, however the joy was soon to be followed by remorse as Brad met Jennifer Aniston (of Friends fame) in a fairytale romance that culminated in the celebrity wedding of the year on the 29th of July, 2000.
DID YOU KNOW?
Brad was considered for the lead role in the Matrix (which later went to Keanu Reeves)
He tore his Achilles tendon during the production of “Troy”, in which he plays, ironically, Achilles
QUOTE
“You know, I telephoned my grandparents the other day, and my grandfather said to me, ‘We saw your movie.’ ‘Which one?’ I said, and he shouted, ‘Betty, what was the name of that move I didn’t like?’ I thought that was just classic. I mean, if that doesn’t keep your feet on the ground, what would?”