American actress, director, and philanthropist Angelina Jolie (joh-LEE; born June 4, 1975) is a stylistic attribute that describes her screen appearance. She has been called Hollywood's highest-paid actress on various occasions and has received countless awards, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.
With her father, Jon Voight, Jolie made her film debut in Lookin' to Get Out (1982) when she was a little girl. A decade later, in 1993, she had her big screen debut in Hackers, and a year later, she had her low-budget debut in Cyborg 2 (1995). In 1999, Jolie took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the movie Girl, Interrupted. Prior to that, she starred in the television dramas George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998). She became famous after playing the lead role in the 2001 Tomb Raider film Lara Croft. The action flicks Mr. & Mrs. Smith(2005), Wanted (2008), and Salt (2010), as well as the fantasy picture Maleficent (2014) and its 2019 sequel, were further additions to her resume of successful pictures. She voiced characters in the animated flicks Shark Tale (2004) and Kung Fu Panda (2008), while her dramatic turns in A Mighty Heart (2007), Changeling (2008)—for which she was nominated for an Oscar—and Maria (2024) garnered her recognition. Among Jolie's filmography are the war dramas In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), Unbroken (2014), Without Blood (2024), and First They Killed My Father (2017). She was also the producer of the Tony Award–winning musical The Outsiders (2024).
A lot of people know Jolie from her charity work. Conservation, education, and the empowerment of women are among the causes that she advocates for. As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' Special Envoy, she is well-known for her tireless fight for refugee rights. She has gone on trips to places like refugee camps and conflict zones all around the globe. Among Jolie's many accolades are the titles of honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. People in the know consider Angelina Jolie to be a major player in the US entertainment business. Numerous media outlets have featured her as their most stunning female model. Many people are curious in her private life, particularly her relationships and health. Jolie has ended her marriages to Brad Pitt, Billy Bob Thornton, and Jonny Lee Miller. Pitt and her have six children.
Los Angeles, California's Cedars-Sinai Hospital welcomed actress Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand's daughter, Angelina Jolie Voight, on June 4, 1975. She has Hollywood connections through her sister James Haven and nieces Chip Taylor (a singer-songwriter) and Barry Voight (a geologist and volcanologist). Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell are her godparents, the actresses. The German and Slovak ancestry of Jolie's father is her defining feature. Jolie has said that her French-Canadian mother gives her distant Indigenous (Iroquois) heritage. But her dad claims Bertrand and Jolie made up Jolie's Iroquois heritage so Bertrand would look more "exotic," and that Jolie is "not seriously Iroquois."
She and her brother lived with their mother after their parents separated in 1976. Their mother had given up acting aspirations to concentrate on raising their children. Jolie's mother instilled in her a strong Catholic faith, yet she never made her attend mass. Although she had a small role in Voight's Lookin' to Get Out (1982) when she was seven years old, her interest in acting was more sparked by her mother's many film viewings with her as a youngster than by her father's successful acting career. The family relocated to Palisades, New York, when Jolie was six years old, by Bertrand and her live-in lover, the director Bill Day; they went back to Los Angeles five years later. Jolie spent two years training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute after deciding she wanted to be an actress. During that time, she was in many theatrical performances.
When Jolie was a freshman at Beverly Hills High School, she felt out of place among the rich kids because her mother was on a lower salary. Other children picked on her extreme thinness and the fact that she had corrective lenses and braces, making her the object of their taunting. Despite her mother's prodding, her early forays into the modeling industry were a bust. Going out moshing, dressing all black, and playing knives with her live-in lover were some of her activities as a "punk outsider" at Moreno High School, an alternative school, where she transferred. She decided she didn't want to be an actress and instead wanted to be a funeral director, so she studied embalming at home. After breaking up the relationship when she was 16 years old, Jolie finished high school, moved out on her own, and eventually returned to theater school; yet, she reflected on this time in 2004 and said, "I am still at heart—and always will be—just a punk kid with tattoos."
During her teenage years, Jolie had a hard time forming emotional connections with others. As a result, she would self-harm, stating, "For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me." She also had trouble sleeping, had an eating disorder, and started using drugs. By the time she was 20, she had tried "just about every drug possible," with heroin being her favorite. At 19 years old, Jolie attempted suicide by hanging herself; at 22, she tried to hire a hitman to murder her again. She had a mental breakdown at the age of 24 and spent 72 hours in the psychiatric unit at UCLA Medical Center. According to Jolie, "I knew once I committed to Maddox, I would never be self-destructive again." This was two years after she adopted her first kid, and thereafter, she found stability.
Beginning with Voight's departure from the family when Jolie was less than a year old, her tumultuous connection with her father has persisted throughout her childhood. From that point on, she claims, their time together was unpredictable and frequently took place in front of the cameras. Their relationship again soured after their reunion in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), although they eventually reunited. For a long time, Jolie had adopted her middle name as a stage name; on September 12, 2002, the court officially removed her surname, Voight, in favor of her middle name. It was during an interview on Access Hollywood that Voight made public their split, accusing Jolie of having "serious mental problems." Her mother and brother subsequently severed ties with him as well. Following Bertrand's death on January 27, 2007, from ovarian cancer, Jolie and Voight mended their relationship and made their reconciliation public three years later; they had been silent for six and a half years before that.
Work History
Work done in the early years (1991–1997)
At 16, Jolie decided to pursue acting professionally. At first, she had a hard time passing auditions because people thought her personality was "too dark." She was in five of her brother's student films while he was at USC School of Cinema-Television, and she was in a number of music videos, including "Stand by My Woman" (1991) by Lenny Kravitz, "Alta Marea" (1991) by Antonello Venditti, "It's About Time" (1993) by The Lemonheads, and "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" (1993) by Meat Loaf. She made an appearance on the cover of Everyday, the 1993 album by Widespread Panic. After seeing her father's approach to people-watching, Jolie picked up some tips on how to emulate him. Upon Jolie's realization that they were both "drama queens," their relationship became less tense.
In 1993, Jolie made her big screen debut as a scientist-engineered android created for corporate espionage and assassination in the direct-to-video science-fiction sequel Cyborg 2. She didn't try out for any roles for a whole year after being so let down by the film. After appearing in Without Evidence (1995), an indie film, she made her big studio debut as the lead in Hackers (1995). Critic Janet Maslin of the New York Times praised Jolie's performance, writing, "stands out... because she scowls even more sourly than [her co-stars] and is that rare female hacker who sits intently at her keyboard in a see-through top." Although the film Hackers bombed at the box office, it gained a devoted fan base following its video release. According to many, Jolie broke through with her portrayal in Hackers.
Mojave Moon was Jolie's second film appearance after her 1996 lead in Love Is All There Is, a contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet. Playing the role of Legs, a wanderer who rallies four bullied high school students against their sexually harassing instructor, she starred in Foxfire (1996). According to Jack Mathews of the Los Angeles Times, Jolie—Jon Voight's stunning daughter—has the charisma to shatter stereotypes. Even though Maddy narrates the tale, Legs is the driving force and topic of the plot.
In the suspenseful 1997 film Playing God, which took place in the underbelly of Los Angeles, Jolie co-starred alongside David Duchovny. Critics were not kind to the film. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said that Jolie "finds a certain warmth in a kind of role that is usually hard and aggressive; she seems too nice to be [a mobster's] girlfriend, and maybe she is." Robert Strauss of The Philadelphia Inquirer called Jolie "horrid, a fourth-rate Scarlett O'Hara" who relies on "gnashed teeth and overly pouted lips." Jolie also appeared in the music video for the Rolling Stones's "Anybody Seen My Baby?" in which she left her strippering in the middle of her performance and wandered New York.
>Skyrocket to fame (1998–2000)
The 1997 TNT film George Wallace, which starred Gary Sinise as the segregationist Alabama governor and presidential contender George Wallace, garnered Jolie a Golden Globe Award, which boosted her professional possibilities. Lee Winfrey of The Philadelphia Inquirer praised Jolie's portrayal of Cornelia Wallace, Wallace's second wife, as the film's standout moment. Critics gave George Wallace good reviews, and Jolie's portrayal earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries.
Gia (1998), an HBO film starring Jolie, was about supermodel Gia Carangi. The heroin addiction, subsequent deterioration, and death from AIDS in the mid-1980s ravaged Carangi's life and career, as depicted in the television film. According to Vanessa Vance of Reel.com, who looked back on the film, "Jolie gained wide recognition for her role as the titular Gia, and it's easy to see why. Jolie is fierce in her portrayal—filling the part with nerve, charm, and desperation—and her role in this film is quite possibly the most beautiful train wreck ever filmed." Jolie won a Golden Globe and received an Emmy Award nomination for the second year in a row. Along with that, she took home her very first SAG trophy.
In several of her early films, Jolie opted to remain in character between scenes, following Lee Strasberg's method acting. As filming Gia progressed, she confided in her husband, Jonny Lee Miller, saying, "I'd tell him: 'I'm alone; I'm dying; I'm gay; I'm not going to see you for weeks.'" Following the completion of the film, she briefly considered quitting acting due to her feeling of having "nothing else to give." She later divorced Miller and relocated to New York, where she enrolled in night classes at New York University to minor in directing and screenwriting. Jolie got back into acting after winning a Golden Globe for George Wallace and receiving good reviews for Gia.
After starring in the mafia flick Hell's Kitchen (1998), Jolie made a triumphant comeback to the big screen in Playing by Heart (1998), with Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, and Ryan Phillippe. The majority of critics gave the picture good reviews, with Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle praising Jolie, saying, "Jolie, working through an overwritten part, is a sensation as the desperate club crawler learning truths about what she's willing to gamble." Jolie went on to win the National Board of Review's Breakthrough Performance Award.
Jolie co-starred with Cate Blanchett, John Cusack, and Billy Bob Thornton in the 1999 comedy-drama Pushing Tin. Criticism of the film was mixed, and Jolie's portrayal of Thornton's alluring wife was especially harsh. Desson Howe, writing for The Washington Post, called her "a completely ludicrous writer’s creation of a free-spirited woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of turquoise rings and gets real lonely when Russell spends entire nights away from home." Jolie later co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector (1999), playing a police officer who reluctantly helps Washington’s quadriplegic detective catch a serial killer. Despite receiving negative reviews, the picture managed to earn $151.5 million globally. The Detroit Free Press' Terry Lawson came to the conclusion that "Jolie, while always delicious to look at, is simply and woefully miscast."
Next, in Girl, Interrupted (1999), based on Susanna Kaysen's memoir from 1993, Jolie played a supporting part as Lisa, a psychiatric hospital resident who suffers from sociopathic tendencies. According to Variety's Emanuel Levy, Jolie was "excellent as the flamboyant, irresponsible girl who turns out to be far more instrumental than the doctors in Susanna's rehabilitation." The film earned Jolie three awards: the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
With an international revenue of $237.2 million, Jolie's 2000 summer smash Gone in 60 Seconds was her highest-grossing film up to that date. An article by Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post criticized Jolie, writing, "all she does in this movie is stand around, cooling down, modeling those fleshy, pulsating muscle-tubes that nest so provocatively around her teeth." Jolie later clarified that the film was a relief after her emotionally demanding role in Girl, Interrupted. She had a small role as the mechanic ex-girlfriend of Nicolas Cage's character, a car thief.
*Notoriety on a global scale (2001–2004)
Jolie became an international success in 2001 with the release of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, despite the fact that she had a history of having trouble finding films that had broad appeal despite the high accolades she had received for her acting. She had to train hard in martial arts and pick up an English accent for the role of archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft in the film, which was based on the hit computer games of the same name. The picture was a smashing success, grossing $274.7 million globally, and solidifying Jolie's position as a leading lady in the action film industry, despite the film's mixed critical reception. Newsday's John Anderson remarked, "Jolie makes the title character a virtual icon of female competence and coolth."
Original Sin (2001), in which Jolie co-starred with Antonio Banderas as Banderas's mail-order wife, was the first in a series of critically and commercially unsuccessful films. Elvis Mitchell, a writer for the New York Times, questioned Jolie's choice to follow her Oscar-winning performance with "soft-core nonsense." Jolie's unorthodox pick, the romantic comedy Life or Something Like It (2002), was equally unsuccessful. "Her performance 'doesn't get off the ground until a scene where she goes punk and leads a group of striking bus workers in singing 'Satisfaction'," said Salon magazine's Allen Barra of her ambitious newscaster character, who he saw as an unusual effort at portraying a typical women's role. Jolie continued to command a high salary as an actress even if her films bombed at the box office. She became one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses in 2002 and continued to make $10–15 million each picture for the following five years.
Although it earned $156.5 million worldwide, Jolie's 2003 sequel to Tomb Raider, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life was not quite as successful as the first. As an extra promotional piece for the sequel, she played the lead actress in Korn's "Did My Time" music video. Beyond Borders(2003) was her subsequent feature picture, and it featured Clive Owen as an aid worker who befriends a socialite she played. Despite the film's box office bomb, it is the first of Jolie's many passion projects that aim to raise awareness for humanitarian issues. Despite praising Jolie for "bringing electricity and believability to roles," Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan said that "the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world completely defeats her" in Beyond Borders, a disastrous film.
The year 2004 saw four cinematic appearances by Jolie. Taking Lives was her breakout role, in which she played an FBI profiler asked to assist in the hunt for a serial murderer in Montreal. Some critics were critical of the picture, with Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter writing, "Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour." Jolie has voiced her first family film, Shark Tale, an animated feature from DreamWorks, and she had a cameo in the science fiction adventure Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which was shot entirely on bluescreen. Many were critical of her portrayal as Queen Olympias in Oliver Stone's Alexander, a biopic of Alexander the Great, and many were quick to point out her noticeable Slavic accent. Stone said that the film's commercial failure in North America was due to the audience's dislike of the portrayal of bisexuality in Alexander, but the picture was a smashing success elsewhere, earning $167.3 million.
*Recognized performer from 2005 to 2010*
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, an action-comedy starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, was a huge financial hit in 2005. The film followed a boring married couple who discover they are also covert killers. Mr. & Mrs. Smith was the seventh-highest grossing picture of the year and remained Jolie's highest-grossing live-action film for the next decade. Critics were divided over the film, but praised the chemistry between the leads. Star Tribune critic Colin Covert said, "While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry." The film earned $478.2 million worldwide and was generally well-received.
In the documentary-style movie A Mighty Heart (2007), Jolie portrayed Mariane Pearl, after her supporting role as the mistreated wife of a CIA officer in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006). Daniel Pearl was a journalist for The Wall Street Journal; the film is based on her memoirs from 2003 and details the abduction and death of her husband in Pakistan. Racist comments and allegations of blackface surfaced due to the casting, despite the fact that the multiracial Pearl had hand-picked Jolie for the part. The outcome was a critically acclaimed performance that earned her nominations for two major acting awards: the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild. Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter characterized it as "well-measured and moving," portrayed "with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent." In the motion-capture epic Beowulf (2007), Jolie portrayed the role of Grendel's mother. With a global total of $196.4 million, the picture was a financial and critical success.
Jolie earned $15–$20 million per picture in 2008, making her the highest-paid actress of all time. Even though other actresses were taking pay cuts at the time, Jolie was able to seek as much as $20 million plus a percentage due to her projected box office appeal. On the big screen, she was in the 2008 action flick Wanted, which co-starred James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman and grossed $341.4 million globally. Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised Angelina Jolie, calling her "perfectly cast as a super-scary, seemingly amoral assassin," and going on to say, "she cuts the kind of disciplinarian figure who can bring boys of all ages to their knees or at least into their theater seats."
After that, in 2008, Jolie starred in Changeling, a Clint Eastwood drama. In his review for the Chicago Tribune, critic Michael Phillips said, "Jolie really shines in the calm before the storm, the scenes when one patronizing male authority figure after another belittles her at their peril." The film earned her nominations for several awards, including Best Actress at the Oscars, BAFTA, Silver Globe, and Screen Actors Guild. Jolie provided the voice of Tigress in the Kung Fu Panda films produced by DreamWorks.
Jolie reduced the number of films she acted in after her mother passed away in 2007, and she went on to say that her mother's acting dreams inspired her to follow in her footsteps. In the 2010 thriller Salt, her return to the big screen after a two-year hiatus, she played the role of a CIA operative who, facing accusations of being a KGB sleeper agent, goes on the run. The character of agent Salt was transposed from male to female when a Columbia Pictures executive proposed Angelina Jolie to play the role, as Cruise had been linked to the job before. Salt became a global phenomenon, raking approximately $293.5 million. Reviewers were mostly complimentary of the picture, praising Jolie's turn as the star. Writer William Thomas of Empire said, "When it comes to selling incredible, crazy, death-defying antics, Jolie has few peers in the action business."
In the 2010 thriller The Tourist, Jolie co-starred with Johnny Depp. The movie bombed at the box office. As Roger Ebert put it, Jolie "does her darndest" and "plays her femme fatale with flat-out, drop-dead sexuality." The picture may have bombed at the box office in the US, but it was a smashing success abroad, proving that Jolie's charisma was contagious. There was talk that she was awarded the Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture—Comedy or Musical just so she could be a celebrity at the event, even if she didn't win.
From 2011 until 2017, the focus shifted to directing.
Jolie directed her first feature film, In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), about a Serb soldier and a Bosniak prisoner during the 1992–1995, Bosnian War. Her previous work included the documentary A Place in Time (2007), which was distributed by the National Education Association. As a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, she visited Bosnia and Herzegovina twice; it was during these visits that the idea for the film came to her. She hoped it would bring renewed attention to the survivors. She cast only performers from the former Yugoslavia—including Goran Kosti—to make sure it was real. What about Zana Marjanovi?—and she developed her script on their experiences throughout the war. In spite of the mixed reviews the film got upon its release, critic Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Jolie deserves significant credit for creating such a powerfully oppressive atmosphere and staging the ghastly events so credibly, even if it is these very strengths that will make people not want to watch what's onscreen." The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Jolie was named an honorary citizen of Sarajevo for her work in bringing attention to the war.
In a live-action remake of Disney's 1959 animated Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent (2014) features Angelina Jolie, who had been away from film for 3.5 years. The Hollywood Reporter critic Sherri Linden praised Jolie's performance as the titular role, calling her the "heart and soul" of the film. Maleficent earned over $100 million worldwide and nearly $70 million in North America in its opening weekend, showcasing Jolie's ability to appeal to audiences of all demographics in action and fantasy films, generally played by male actors. The film became Jolie's highest-grossing film to date, earning $757.8 million worldwide and placing it as the fourth highest-grossing picture of the year.
After that, Jolie wrapped up her second feature film as director, Unbroken (2014), which is about Olympic track great and WWII soldier Louis Zamperini (1917–2014), who lived through an airplane disaster and two years in a Japanese prison camp. Under her Jolie Pas label, she was also a producer. The Coen brothers wrote the screenplay and Jack O'Connell played the lead role in the film, which was based on the book Unbroken: A Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, written by Laura Hillenbrand. Despite being rated one of the year's finest films by both the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review, Unbroken remained mostly unrecognized despite its promising early reaction and anticipation as a Best Picture and Best Director contender. Unbroken was a financial triumph at the box office globally, as Variety magazine's Justin Chang highlighted. The critic praised the film's "impeccable craftsmanship and sober restraint" but called it "an extraordinary story told in dutiful, unexceptional terms."
For their first joint project since 2005's Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie co-starred in the marital drama By the Sea (2015), which Jolie directed. The film was a labor of love for Jolie, who found inspiration in her mother's story for the screenplay. On the other hand, its detractors panned it, calling it a "vanity project" among other things. Stephanie Merry wrote about the film's lack of real emotion in her piece for The Washington Post, saying, "By the Sea is dazzlingly gorgeous, as are its stars. But peeling back layer upon layer of exquisite ennui reveals nothing but emptiness, sprinkled with stilted sentiments." The film was surprisingly undercut, despite featuring two A-list Hollywood actors.
Cinematic appearances by Jolie were few since she favored devoting herself to her charitable efforts. Her most recent drama, 2017's First They Killed My Father, takes place during the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia and once again allows her to merge her two passions. Her lifelong friend Loung Ung, whose memoirs detail the regime's use of child labor camps, not only directed the film but also co-wrote the screenplay. The film's direct production for Netflix enabled the employment of an all Khmer cast and storyline, with the primary audience being Cambodians. According to Rafer Guzmán of Newsday, who praised Jolie for "convincingly depict[ing] the illogical hell of the Khmer Rouge era," Jolie is a "skilled and sensitive filmmaker." Both the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Film Not Set in English were considered for this production.
Reactions from critics have been varied from 2019 forward.
Jolie returned to the character of Maleficent in the 2019 Disney fantasy sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which had mixed reviews from critics but did relatively well at the box office, grossing $490 million worldwide. In the fantasy picture Come Away, released the following year, she co-starred with David Oyelowo as the bereaved parents of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, respectively. In the action thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead, directed by Taylor Sheridan, Jolie played the role of a smokejumper. The picture had a lukewarm reception at its May 2021 release. Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent said the following: "bare-knuckled performance... easily outclasses the film that contains it": Jolie. Then, in the MCU superhero flick Eternals, Jolie portrayed the character of Thena, a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. After its November 2021 release, the picture received mixed reviews and reactions from moviegoers. Hollywood critic Ann Hornaday praised Angelina Jolie's performance, calling it a "touching naivete" in her Washington Post review.
After transferring to Broadway in 2024, Jolie was a producer on the Tony Award–winning musical The Outsiders. The 2024 war drama Without Blood, which featured Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir, was adapted from the novel by Alessandro Baricco, and she was responsible for writing, producing, and directing the film. Jolie made her acting debut at the 81st Venice International drama Festival in Pablo Larraín's biographical drama Maria, which chronicles the life and death of opera soprano Maria Callas. Tomris Laffly of RogerEbert.com praised Angelina Jolie's portrayal of Callas as a "career-best performance," writing, "In a queenly performance of poise and mystique, Angelina Jolie plays Callas with an ethereal presence, grasping the intense grief of the once-in-a-generation singer who's been losing her voice." Jolie landed another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her work.
The position of UNHCR ambassador
Jolie acknowledged her time spent filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) in war-torn Cambodia for broadening her worldview after she saw firsthand the consequences of a humanitarian disaster on set. Jolie sought out information on global hotspots from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) upon her return home. As a means of better understanding the situation there, she started going to refugee camps all around the globe. She embarked on her first field tour in February 2001, an 18-day journey to Tanzania and Sierra Leone; she later voiced her horror at what she had experienced.
In the months that followed, Jolie made history by becoming the biggest private donor to the UNHCR with a $1 million contribution in response to an international emergency appeal. She visited with Afghan refugees in Pakistan and returned to Cambodia for two weeks. During her trips, she paid for everything herself and lived in the same basic housing and working circumstances as the UNHCR field workers. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officially appointed Jolie as a Goodwill Ambassador on August 27, 2001, at its headquarters in Geneva.
She met with refugees and IDPs in over 30 countries throughout her forty field excursions that followed, spread out over the subsequent decade. Notes from My Travels, a chronicle of her field visits in 2001 and 2002, was published in October 2003 alongside her humanitarian drama Beyond Borders. In 2002, she said, "Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon." This was in line with her intentions.
What Jolie called "forgotten emergencies" were problems that the media had stopped covering. She planned to change that. In the midst of the Second Gulf War, she met privately with U.S. troops and other multinational forces; during the Darfur conflict in Sudan, she visited the Darfur region; and during the war in Afghanistan, she visited the Afghan capital Kabul, where three aid workers were killed while she was there for the first time. In2004, she began taking flying lessons to help with her trips; her goal was to transport humanitarian workers and food supplies all around the globe. In 2004, Jolie got her pilot's license. As of May 2014, she owns two planes: a Cessna 208 Caravan and a Cirrus SR22.
Jolie became the first UNHCR employee to hold the post of Special Envoy to High Commissioner António Guterres on April 17, 2012, following almost a decade of service as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. With her new responsibilities came the power to speak on behalf of Guterres and the UNHCR in diplomatic settings, particularly during times of extreme refugee crisis. She followed Guterres on a weeklong trip of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq to examine the condition of refugees from neighboring Syria. In the months following her elevation, she made her first visit as Special Envoy—her third overall—to Ecuador, where she met with Colombian refugees. Since then, Jolie has met with refugees and advocated on their behalf during more than a dozen field visits worldwide.
In December 2022, Jolie tendered her resignation as ambassador. She promised to keep fighting for refugee rights in her announcement.
Development of communities and preservation of natural resources
Buying a home in her adopted son's home nation of Cambodia was a way for Angelina Jolie to honor his ancestry in 2003. The ancestral dwelling occupied 39 acres in the province of Battambang in the country's northwest, right next to the Cardamom Mountains' Samlout national park—a place where poachers had invaded and endangered animals were at risk. The Maddox Jolie Project, a wildlife reserve named after her son, is located on the 60,000 hectares that she bought from the park.
In line with United Nations development goals, Jolie widened the project's scope in November 2006, rebranding it as the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP) and aiming to build the first Millennium Village in Asia. While attending the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2005 and 2006 as a speaker, she had a meeting with renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, who was the originator of Millennium Promise. This encounter motivated her. The Diary of Angelina Jolie & Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa, an MTV program from 2005, followed the two celebrities as they visited a Millennium Village in western Kenya. Midway through 2007, eight formerly isolated communities were home to almost 6,000 people, including 72 personnel (including some former poachers working as rangers) at MJP. A soy milk plant, roads, and schools are all part of the property that Jolie has sponsored. The MJP field headquarters is her home.
Jolie became a patron of the Harnas Wildlife Foundation, a medical center and orphanage for wildlife in the Kalahari Desert, after filming Beyond Borders (2003) in Namibia. While filming the scene where the foundation saves vultures, she made her first visit to the Harnas farm. The Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary is another Kalahari wildlife reserve that Jolie and Brad Pitt helped fund when they formed the Shiloh Jolie-Pitt Foundation in December 2010. They have built a school, housing, and a free health clinic for the San Bushmen village at Naankuse, as well as supported large-animal conservation programs in honor of their Namibian-born daughter. Established in September 2006, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation provides financial and in-kind assistance to various causes chosen by Jolie and Pitt.
Educational opportunities for immigrant children
Among Jolie's many legislative accomplishments is the "Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2005." Beginning in 2003, she lobbied for humanitarian causes in Washington, D.C., saying, "As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that's the way to move the ball." As of October 2008, Jolie co-chaired Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a group of prominent American law firms that offer free legal representation to unaccompanied minors undergoing immigration proceedings throughout the United States. By 2013, KIND had grown into the leading supplier of pro bono attorneys for children of immigrants, a nonprofit that Jolie and Microsoft had co-founded. Between 2005 and 2007, Jolie had already launched a comparable effort, the U.S. Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, which is part of the Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
Education for children is something that Jolie has also fought for. Having co-chaired the Education Partnership for Children of violence since its inception at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative annual conference, she ensures that initiatives serving children in areas impacted by violence receive both financial support and policy guidance. The partnership's initial year saw funding for educational initiatives that benefited a wide range of impacted populations, including females in rural Afghanistan, youngsters impacted by the Darfur crisis, and Iraqi refugee children. Notable economist Gene Sperling, who is also a co-chair of the partnership, helped found the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Universal Education. Together, they have advised the World Bank, UN agencies, and G8 development agencies on educational policy. Since its launch in April 2013, the Style of Jolie line of luxury jewelry has donated 100% of its sales to support the partnership's causes. At the 2013 Women in the World Summit, Jolie also gave over $200,000 to the Malala Fund, which was started by Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai. The fund is a grant system.
Beginning in 2005, Jolie sponsored a school and boarding facility for girls at the Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya. In eastern Afghanistan, she oversaw the opening of two primary schools for girls in the returnee settlements Tangi and Qalai Gudar in March 2010 and November 2012, respectively. As of 2005, Jolie has constructed eleven more schools in Cambodia, on top of the facilities in the Millennium Village she had founded. She inaugurated the Maddox Chivan Children's Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in February 2006, a healthcare and educational institution for children impacted by HIV. The Zahara Children's Center provides medical care and educational opportunities to children living with HIV/AIDS and TB in Sebeta, Ethiopia, the same town where her eldest daughter was born. The Global Health Committee oversees both facilities.
Jolie serves as the executive producer of the BBC show My World, which teaches teens to evaluate news stories for accuracy and critical thinking skills. She co-wrote the children's rights book Know Your Rights and Claim Them with Amnesty International, and it came out on September 2, 2021. Geraldine Van Bueren, a human rights lawyer from Britain, and she were co-authors of the book.
Equal rights for all people, including women
Jolie has been an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) since June 2007. She has organized a symposium at CFR headquarters on international law and justice and supported multiple CFR special reports, such as "Intervention to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities." In January 2011, she launched the Jolie Legal Fellowship, an organization that sponsors legal professionals to promote human rights advancement in their home countries. Jolie Legal Fellows, the group's attorney members, have helped with child protection initiatives in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and with the promotion of an inclusive democratic process in Libya after the 2011 revolution.
As part of its 2013 G8 presidency, the UK government prioritized ending sexual assault in crisis zones, and Jolie is at the forefront of their fight to do just that. Her 2011 Bosnian war play In the Land of Blood and Honey motivated Foreign Secretary William Hague to crusade against sexual violence, and the two of them co-founded the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) in May 2012. The purpose of PSVI's establishment was to increase international cooperation and awareness in addition to the broader activities of the UK government. In response to Jolie's remarks, the United Nations Security Council passed its most comprehensive resolution on the matter to that point, and the Group of Eight Foreign Ministers met to approve a historic statement. She co-chaired the four-day Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in June 2014. It was the largest gathering on the issue to that point, with 151 governments endorsing the protocol that came out of it.
Jolie met Hague's special aides on foreign policy, Chloe Dalton and Arminka Helic, through her work on the PSVI. Together, they established Jolie Pitt Dalton Helic in 2015, a partnership that fights for global justice and women's rights, among other things. Jolie followed up the introduction of a postgraduate degree program at the university's Centre for Women, Peace and Security (which she co-founded with Hague the year before) with an appointment as a visiting professor at the London School of Economics in May 2016. Jolie paid a visit to the nation's capital in February 2022 accompanied by her daughter Zahara. to support the reauthorization of the abuse Against Women Act in the Senate, a measure that aims to address and prevent sexual assault, stalking, domestic abuse, and dating violence. She collaborated extensively with those who championed the measure and its sponsors. Another cause she's passionate about is Kayden's Law, which aims to protect children from harm by instituting trauma-informed court procedures, legislation, and training for judges. The Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2022, which Jolie is fighting to have passed, would solve racial inequalities in wrongful convictions in the United States, end the backlog of rape kits, and improve the access of crime victims to evidence and agency reports as well as forensic science.
As a pair of young boys in London were holding a lemonade stand in September 2020 to collect money for the people of Yemen, who were about to face a humanitarian catastrophe due to the fighting between the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition, Jolie decided to help them out. A month after Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2022, Jolie paid a visit to the Ukrainian youngsters at the Bambino Gesù youngsters's Hospital at the Vatican. "I am praying for an end to the war. This is the only way to end the suffering and the flight from the conflict zone. It's terrifying to see children paying the price in lost lives, compromised health, and trauma." Jolie visited Lviv, Ukraine in May 2022 to meet with more displaced and hospitalized children, according to the clinic.
During the Israel-Hamas conflict of 2023, Jolie was a vocal critic of Israeli military activities in Gaza. As she put it, "the deliberate bombing of a trapped population" in the heavily populated Palestinian enclave was what Jolie denounced in an Instagram post. She called for a humanitarian truce and accused world leaders of "complicity in these crimes" for remaining silent.
Awards and commendation ===
The humanitarian work that Jolie has done has garnered her a lot of praise. Church World Service's Immigration and Refugee Program presented her with the first-ever Humanitarian Award in August 2002, and the United Nations Correspondents Association made her the first-ever Citizen of the World Awardee in October 2003. In October 2005, the UNA-USA presented her with the Global Humanitarian Award, and in November 2007, the International Rescue Committee presented her with the Freedom Award. In honor of Jolie's ten years of service as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres bestowed upon her the gold pin formerly designated for the most tenured staff members in October 2011.
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Jolie with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in November 2013, an honorary Oscar Award. Her contributions to British foreign policy and her fight against sexual abuse in conflict zones earned her the title of Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (DCMG) in June 2014. At a private ceremony in October of the following year, Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the honorary damehood insignia on Jolie.
="life outside of work"
Marriage and romantic partnerships
At the age of fourteen, Jolie began a two-year committed relationship with a man. It was a decision that Jolie would come to regret: she could have been careless out and about with her lover, or she might have stayed in her bedroom with her mom in the next room. As a result, they lived together in her mother's house. She took the decision, and as a result, I was able to safely pursue my first romantic connection while still attending school every morning. The emotional intensity of the relationship was comparable to that of a marriage, according to her, and the breakup inspired her to start acting seriously at the age of 16.
The 1995 film Hackers was the catalyst for Jolie's first romantic involvement since a connection she had in her early teens, with actor Jonny Lee Miller. After a long period of isolation following the completion of filming, they reconciled and tied the knot in March 1996. She wore black rubber leggings and a white T-shirt to her wedding, where she had scribbled the groom's name in her blood. The next year, Jolie broke off the relationship, citing her hectic work schedule as the reason they couldn't spend enough time together. "A solid man and a solid friend" is what Jolie continued to call Miller, with whom she maintained cordial relations. Jolie filed for a divorce from Brad in February 1999, and they formalized the split the following year, just before she tied the knot again.
On the production of Foxfire (1996), Jolie had an affair with actress and model Jenny Shimizu, which led to her marriage to Miller. "I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her." They were together for a time, and Jolie was still seeing other people during their relationship, which ended in 1997, according to Shimizu. When asked about her feelings about being a sex symbol to both sexes in a 1997 interview with the lesbian magazine Girlfriends, Jolie said, "It's great because I love men and women." In 2003, when asked if she was bisexual, Jolie said, "Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!"
On May 5, 2000, in Las Vegas, Jolie wed actor Billy Bob Thornton following a relationship that lasted two months. They crossed paths on the set of Pushing Tin (1999), but they didn't go on a date since Thornton was engaged to Laura Dern and Jolie was allegedly seeing her co-star from Playing God (1997), actor Timothy Hutton. Their public displays of devotion to one another—including, most infamously, the practice of wearing vials with the blood of the other person around their necks—made their marriage a hot subject in the entertainment industry. After Jolie and Thornton revealed in March 2002 that they were adopting a kid from Cambodia, they split up suddenly three months later. Their ways of life were too different, according to Thornton, who filed for a divorce. On May 27, 2003, they formalized their divorce. "It took me by surprise, too, because overnight, we totally changed. I think one day we just had nothing in common. And it's scary but... I think it can happen when you get involved and you don't know yourself yet." Jolie said in response to a question on the abrupt end of their marriage.
Accusations that Jolie was engaged in the October 2005 divorce of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston made her a key figure in the story. It wasn't until January 2006 that Jolie announced they were expecting their first child together that Pitt and Jolie publicly discussed their relationship. During Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) filming, she said she fell in love with Pitt, but she denied accusations of an affair, saying, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not look at myself in the morning if I did that."
For twelve years, the pair was the center of attention on a global scale, and the media even came up with the moniker "Brangelina" (a portmanteau). They rose to fame as one of the glitziest couples in Hollywood. They had six kids total, with three more brought into the family through adoption, when they announced their engagement in April 2012. Officially, Jolie and Pitt tied the knot on August 14, 2014, in a private ceremony at France's Château Miraval on August 23, 2014. She changed her name to "Angelina Jolie Pitt" after that. The pair divorced on September 15, 2016, following a marriage of two years. Jolie filed for divorce on September 19, stating that she and Brad have irreconcilable differences. As of April 12, 2019, they are no longer considered legally married. In 2016, Jolie countersued Pitt for allegedly abusing her and their children on a plane, after his lawsuit against her for selling a portion of their winery to a third party.
Half of Jolie's six children are biological, and the other three came from international adoption.
Maddox Chivan, who was seven months old when Jolie adopted him from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia, on March 10, 2002. He came into this world in a little town on August 5, 2001. Jolie and her then-husband Billy Bob Thornton returned to Cambodia in November 2001 after two visits for shooting Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and a UNHCR field trip. It was on their second visit that they met and later applied to adopt Maddox. In response to claims of child trafficking, the United States government stopped adoptions from Cambodia the next month, thereby ending the adoption process. Jolie was able to legally adopt Maddox despite the conviction of her adoption facilitator for visa fraud and money laundering. Upon completion of the procedure, she obtained custody of Maddox while filming Beyond Borders (2003) in Namibia. Although Jolie and Thornton made the adoption announcement jointly, she became a single mom three months later when she adopted Maddox on her own after her split from Thornton.
In 2005, on July 6, Jolie took six-month-old Zahara Marley from an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to be her second child. In Awasa, Zahara came into our world on January 8, 2005. Official evidence from Jolie's grandma led her to assume that Zahara was an AIDS orphan; but, once Zahara's biological mother came out in the public, Jolie changed her mind. She went on to say that she felt Jolie had adopted Zahara because she was "very fortunate" and that she had left her family when Zahara was unwell. When Jolie went to Ethiopia to claim Zahara as her own, she brought her then-partner Brad Pitt with her. They had visited Ethiopia earlier that year, and she subsequently revealed that they had decided to adopt from there. It was on January 19, 2006, that she petitioned to have her children's last name changed from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt, after Pitt revealed his desire to adopt them. Not long after that, Pitt took Maddox and Zahara in.
Jolie and Pitt went to Namibia to have their first biological child, hoping to escape the extraordinary media circus that had engulfed their relationship. Shiloh Nouvel was born to her in Swakopmund on May 27, 2006. As a tribute to the work of the French architect Jean Nouvel, Shiloh has a middle name. The morphine that Jolie had during birth caused her to have bursts of hysterical laughing. They didn't want the paparazzi to snap images of Shiloh, so they sold them through Getty Images to support a charity. Hey there, everybody! magazine set a record for celebrity photography at the time, donating all profits to UNICEF, when they paid $4.1 million for the North American rights and $3.5 million for the British rights.
Jolie took Pax Thien, a three-year-old girl from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, into her family on March 15, 2007. Born in HCMC on November 29, 2003, Pax was left for dead not long after coming into this world. Because Vietnam's adoption laws did not permit unmarried couples to co-adopt, Jolie registered for adoption as a single parent after her November 2006 orphanage visit with Pitt. She filed a petition to have Pax Thien's surname changed from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt when they got back to the US, and the court granted her request on May 31. After that, on February 21, 2008, Pitt adopted Pax.
Jolie announced her pregnancy with twins at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Reporters and photographers set up camp on the seafront outside the hospital while she was there for two weeks in Nice, France. Jolie-Pitt had twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline in July 2008. Nice, France is the place of their birth. People and Hello! were both sold the first twin photos. allegedly costing $14 million—the priciest celebrity portraits ever shot. The Jolie-Pitt Foundation was the beneficiary of all the earnings.
* Being a citizen of Cambodia
As a result of her deepening relationships with the country, Angelina Jolie is now a citizen of Cambodia. Recognizing the American actress's humanitarian activities in Cambodia, then-Prime Minister Hun Sen awarded her Cambodian citizenship in 2004. The birthplace of Jolie's adoptive son, Maddox Chivan, made Cambodia a very meaningful destination for her.
King Norodom Sihamoni awarded Jolie Cambodian citizenship by royal proclamation in 2005, completing the citizenship process. In an interview with Reuters, Toun Siphan—who was in charge of the government's foreign affairs department at the time—verified the information.
Beyond what one would expect from a celebrity, Jolie is making a difference in Cambodia. She is actively involved in projects that aim to preserve cultural heritage, improve rural areas, and protect the environment. The actress has made Cambodia a focal point of her humanitarian work due to the strong bond she has formed with the country.
As far as worldwide celebrities go, Jolie's citizenship from Cambodia is very unique. This award is a testament to Jolie's unwavering dedication to the betterment of Cambodia and the government's recognition of her achievements. Jolie has shown her unwavering commitment to the people and country of Cambodia by her continued involvement with them.
Treatment to prevent cancer
Jolie learned she had an 87% chance of getting breast cancer owing to a faulty BRCA1 gene on February 16, 2013, when she was 37 years old, therefore she had a preventative double mastectomy. Her mother's battle with breast cancer and subsequent death from ovarian cancer, as well as her grandmother's death from the same disease, prompted her to undergo genetic testing for BRCA mutations. Three months subsequent to Jolie's procedure, her aunt—who likewise possessed the BRCA1 defect—passed away from breast cancer. After her mastectomy, which reduced her risk of breast cancer to less than 5%, Jolie underwent reconstructive surgery using implants and allografts, which are donor transplants. Due to a 50% chance of getting ovarian cancer, she had a preventative salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of an ovary and its fallopian tube) in March 2015, two years after yearly test results suggested probable symptoms of early ovarian cancer. The procedure caused menopause to begin early, even with hormone replacement medication.
In an effort to empower other women to make educated decisions about their health, Jolie wrote op-eds for The New York Times after undergoing both a mastectomy and an oophorectomy. Her choice to have preventative surgery was a proactive step she took for the benefit of her six children, and she discussed her diagnosis, procedures, and personal experiences in great detail. The actress added: "On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity."
Jolie's mastectomy declaration sparked a national conversation about genetic testing and BRCA mutations. Numerous prominent personalities lauded her action, and health advocates were glad to see her bring attention to the resources accessible to women in danger. Aptly named "The Angelina Effect" by a Time cover story, Jolie's impact resulted in a "global and long-lasting" surge in BRCA gene testing. Referrals trebled in Australia, doubled in the UK, portions of Canada, and India, and saw substantial increases in other European and American nations. Canadian and British researchers discovered that the percentage of mutation carriers stayed the same despite the enormous rise, indicating that Jolie's message had reached the most vulnerable individuals. Despite the significant price reductions that followed a 2013 U.S. study, Jolie had previously called for more widespread access to BRCA gene testing in her first opinion piece. The Supreme Court's decision rendered Myriad Genetics' BRCA gene patents null and void.
At the reception,
Jolie began making public appearances at a young age due to her famous father, actor Jon Voight. Her "wild child" image helped propel her to stardom in the '90s and '00s when she was just starting out in her own career. Numerous celebrity biographies detailed her interest in sadomasochism and blood, as well as her drug use and fixation with blades. In 2000, when questioned about her candidness, she said: "I say things that other people might go through. That's what artists should do—throw things out there and not be perfect and not have answers for anything and see if people understand." Tabloid rumors of incest also played a role in her controversial image; they surfaced when Jolie kissed her brother on the lips and said, "I'm so in love with my brother right now." She denied the rumors, stating, "It was disappointing that something so beautiful and pure could be turned into a circus," and explained how she and James relied on each other for emotional support due to their parents' divorce.
After becoming a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees at the age of 26, Jolie began to experience a positive shift in her reputation. She later said, "In my early 20s I was fighting with myself. Now I take that punk in me to Washington, and I fight for something important." Jolie's Q Score, a marketing industry measure of celebrities' likability, nearly doubled to 25 between 2000 and 2006, thanks to her extensive activism. As a result, her fame increased; in 2006, 81% of Americans knew who she was, up from 31% in 2000. She gained fame for successfully manipulating her public perception through the media on her own, without the help of a publicist or agent. Even when she became a mixed-up public figure in 2005—accused of breaking up Brad Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston—her Q Score stayed above average. She had become a mother, sex icon, alleged home wreck, and philanthropist. Global surveys performed by YouGov in 2015 and 2016 indicated that Jolie was the most adored woman in the world.
There is plenty written about Jolie's money and overall power. Jolie and Pitt were named the most popular celebrity endorsers for businesses and goods globally in a 2006 ACNielsen global industry study that included 42 countries. From 2006 to 2008, Jolie represented St. John and Shiseido. A decade later, she became a spokesmodel for Guerlain. Reportedly at $10 million, her 2011 endorsement agreement with Louis Vuitton set a new record for a single advertising campaign. In 2006 and 2008, Jolie was included to Time's 100 list of the world's most important individuals. Forbes magazine's Celebrity 100 edition crowned her 2009 world's most powerful celebrity. From 2006–2008 and 2011–2013, she was also voted most powerful actress, albeit she placed lower overall. With a projected yearly salary of $27 million in 2009, $30 million in 2011, and $33 million in 2013, she was also named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes.
The way something looks
The public's opinion of Jolie is highly dependent on how attractive she is. Public polls frequently place Jolie far ahead of other celebrity women, and for good reason: she has been named the most beautiful woman in the world by numerous media outlets (e.g., Vogue, People, and Vanity Fair), and the sexiest woman alive by others (e.g., Esquire, FHM, and Empire). She is mainly known for her large lips—which the New York Times deemed as distinctive as Kirk Douglas' chin or Bette Davis' eyes—and her many tattoos. The Latin proverb quod me nutrit me destruit ("what nourishes me destroys me"), a 12-inch tiger, four Buddhist Sanskrit prayers of protection, a quote by Tennessee Williams, the coordinates of the place she first met her adopted children, and an estimated twenty tattoos are among her possessions. "Billy Bob," the name of her second husband, is one of the tattoos that she has covered or laser-ed throughout the years.
The fact that Jolie is a sex symbol has been both a boon and a bane for her career. Empire claims that her "pneumatic figure," "feline eyes," and "bee-stung lips" have substantially boosted her popularity, and that this is especially true of her most financially successful films, such as Beowulf (2007) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Contrarily, critics and Salon writer Allen Barra both agreed that Jolie's "dark and intense sexuality" has limited her acting options and made her unconvincing in traditional female roles. Clint Eastwood, who directed Jolie's Oscar-nominated performance in Changeling (2008), said that having "the most beautiful face on the planet" could hurt her dramatic credibility with audiences.
Many in the public eye attribute Jolie's impact on pop culture to her mere presence. Warn, founder of AfterEllen, noted in 2002 that "there are many beautiful women in Hollywood, and few generate the same kind of overwhelming interest across genders and sexual orientations that she does" in reference to the widespread public displays of admiration for Jolie by women of various sexual orientations. Warn saw this as a groundbreaking trend in American popular culture. Western women flocked to Jolie for cosmetic procedures; she had already become "the gold standard of beauty" by 2007, and her large lips were still the most replicated celebrity feature in the 2010s. Elizabeth Angell acknowledged that society has "branched out beyond the Barbie-doll ideal and embraced something quite different" after a 2011 repeat poll by Allure revealed that Jolie best embodied the American beauty standard, surpassing model Christie Brinkley in 1991. According to Time's Jeffrey Kluger (2013), who acknowledged that Jolie has been a symbol of femininity for a long time, the actress's candor about her double mastectomy redefined beauty.
When it comes to celebrity style, Jolie is a trailblazer. At the tender age of 10, she made her debut on the red carpet. She began a long-lasting collaboration with Versace in the '90s. The gothic and leather "coquette" fashions that she popularized in her early film roles were dark, seductive, dramatic, and a trademark of her career. Many considered her 1999 Golden Globes gown by Randolph Duke, which included sequins, to be her fashion debut. Critics gushed over Jolie's white satin Marc Bouwer gown at the 76th Academy Awards, drawing analogies to the styles of other legendary cinema actresses. Her style evolved into something more akin to Old Hollywood glamour as she moved into directing and humanitarian work; it became more refined, understated, and elegant. Jolie sported Grecian-style dresses, diamond jewels, and satin during the 2010s. Jolie wore a black Versace gown to the 84th Academy Awards; the dress is now considered a cultural touchstone, and memes featuring her posing have gone viral online. In the 2020s, Jolie embraced a more eco-friendly style of clothing.
From 1982 forward, Jolie has made appearances in more than 30 films. Playing by Heart (1998), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), Alexander (2004), Beowulf (2007), A Mighty Heart (2007), Changeling (2008), Kung Fu Panda (2008), Wanted (2008), Salt (2010), The Tourist (2010), Maleficent (2014), and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) are her most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. Among her many film and television ventures are the 1997 miniseries True Women, the 1997 feature George Wallace, and the 1998 picture Gia.
Unbroken (2014), By the Sea (2015), Without Blood (2024), In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), and First They Killed My Father (2017) are among Jolie's many films. First They Killed My Father(2017), Maleficent: Mistress of Evil(2019), Without Blood(2024), In the Land of Blood and Honey(2011), Unbroken(2014), and Maleficent (2014) are among her producing and executive producing credits. In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), By the Sea (2015), First They Killed My Father (2017), and Without Blood (2024) were all films in which she was a screenwriter.
A Tony Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, an Academy Award, three Golden Globes, two Primetime Emmy nominations, and two British Academy Film Awards are among Jolie's many accolades. Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, bestowed upon her in 2013, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.