Bolex is a Swiss company (Bolex International S.A. of Yverdon) that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky (a.k.a. Jacques Bolsey or Bolsky) in 1927. Bolex is derived from his name. He had previously designed cameras for Alpa. Bolex cameras were particularly important for early television news, nature films, documentaries and the avant garde, and are still favoured by many animators today. Whilst some later models are electrically powered, the majority of those manufactured since the 1930s use a spring-wound clockwork. The 16 mm spring-wound Bolex is a popular introductory camera in film schools.

Today, the Bolex factory in Switzerland continues to produce new 16mm and Super 16 film cameras and also can convert Bolex H16 reflex models to super 16mm.

See also

List of photographic equipment makers

References

External links

Bolex company website

Documentary on the inventor of the Bolex

Bolex Operating Manuals

Bolex Manuals and Catalogs

A history of Bolex cameras with serial numbers & years of manufacture

Bolex Collector 8mm and 16mm Bolex cameras and projectors

Category:Film and video technology Category:Companies of Switzerland Category:Movie cameras

de:Paillard-Bolex es:Bolex fr:Bolex International S.A ko:볼렉스 it:Bolex Paillard ja:ボレックス

Coordinates	16°48′″N96°09′″N
alt	A Caucasian with light brown hair, blue eyes and a short brown beard, in front of a turquoise background. He is wearing a white shirt and white hat.
birth name	William Bradley Pitt
occupation	Actor, producer
birth date	December 18, 1963
birth place	Shawnee, Oklahoma, U.S.
years active	1987–present
spouse	Jennifer Aniston (2000–2005; divorced)
partner	Angelina Jolie (2005–present)
children	6
alma mater	University of Missouri }}

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one. He has been described as one of the world's most attractive men, a label for which he has received substantial media attention.

Pitt began his acting career with television guest appearances, including a role on the CBS prime-time soap opera ''Dallas'' in 1987. He later gained recognition as the cowboy hitchhiker who seduces Geena Davis's character in the 1991 road movie ''Thelma & Louise''. Pitt's first leading roles in big-budget productions came with ''A River Runs Through It'' (1992) and ''Interview with the Vampire'' (1994). He was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 drama ''Legends of the Fall'', which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. In 1995 he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller ''Seven'' and the science fiction film ''12 Monkeys'', the latter securing him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Four years later, in 1999, Pitt starred in the cult hit ''Fight Club''. He then starred in the major international hit as Rusty Ryan in ''Ocean's Eleven'' (2001) and its sequels, ''Ocean's Twelve'' (2004) and ''Ocean's Thirteen'' (2007). His greatest commercial successes have been ''Troy'' (2004) and ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (2005). Pitt received his second Academy Award nomination for his title role performance in the 2008 film ''The Curious Case of Benjamin Button''.

Following a high-profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt was married to actress Jennifer Aniston for five years. Pitt lives with actress Angelina Jolie in a relationship that has generated wide publicity. He and Jolie have six children—Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Since beginning his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues both in the United States and internationally. Pitt owns a production company named Plan B Entertainment, whose productions include the 2007 Academy Award winning Best Picture, ''The Departed''.

Early life

The son of Jane Etta (née Hillhouse), a high school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company owner, Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Along with his siblings Doug (born 1966) and Julie Neal (born 1969), he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. He was raised as a conservative Southern Baptist.

Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he was a member of the golf, tennis and swimming teams. He participated in the school's Key and Forensics clubs, in school debates, and in musicals. Following his graduation from high school, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri in 1982, majoring in journalism, with a focus on advertising. As a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, he acted in several fraternity shows. As graduation approached, Pitt saw his friends getting jobs but did not feel ready to settle down himself. He loved films—"a portal into different worlds for me"—and, since films were not made in Missouri, he decided he would go to where they were made. Two weeks before earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles where he took acting lessons and worked odd jobs.

Career

Early work

While struggling to establish himself in Los Angeles, Pitt took lessons from acting coach Roy London. He took on various occasional jobs, spending some time as a chauffeur and dressing up as an El Pollo Loco chicken to pay for acting lessons.

Pitt's onscreen career began in 1987, with uncredited parts in the films ''No Way Out'', ''No Man's Land'' and ''Less Than Zero''. His television debut came in November of the same year with a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom ''Growing Pains''. He appeared in four episodes of the CBS primetime soap opera ''Dallas'' between December 1987 and February 1988 as Randy, the boyfriend of Charlie Wade (played by Shalane McCall). Pitt described his character as "an idiot boyfriend who gets caught in the hay." Speaking of his scenes with McCall, Pitt later said "It was kind of wild, because I'd never even met her before." Later in 1988, Pitt made a guest appearance on the Fox police drama ''21 Jump Street''.

In the same year, the Yugoslavian–U.S. co-production ''The Dark Side of the Sun'' (1988) gave Pitt his first leading film role, as a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic to find a remedy for a skin condition. However, the film was shelved on the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence, and was released only in 1997. Pitt made two motion picture appearances in 1989: the first in a supporting role in the comedy ''Happy Together''; the second a featured role in the horror film ''Cutting Class'', the first of Pitt's films to reach theaters. He made guest appearances on television series ''Head of the Class'', ''Freddy's Nightmares'', ''Thirtysomething'', and (for a second time) ''Growing Pains''.

Pitt was cast as Billy Canton, a drug addict who takes advantage of a young runaway (played by Juliette Lewis) in the 1990 NBC television movie ''Too Young to Die?'', the story of an abused teenager sentenced to death for a murder. Ken Tucker, television reviewer for ''Entertainment Weekly'' wrote: "Pitt is a magnificent slimeball as her hoody boyfriend; looking and sounding like a malevolent John Cougar Mellencamp, he's really scary." The same year, Pitt co-starred in six episodes of the short-lived Fox drama ''Glory Days'', and took a supporting role in the HBO television movie ''The Image''. His next appearance came in the 1991 film ''Across the Tracks''; Pitt portrayed Joe Maloney, a high school runner with a criminal brother, played by Ricky Schroder.

After years of supporting roles in movies and frequent television guest appearances, broader public recognition came for Pitt with his supporting role in the 1991 road film ''Thelma & Louise''. He played J.D., a small-time criminal who befriends Thelma (Geena Davis). His love scene with Davis has been cited as the moment that defined Pitt as a sex symbol.

After ''Thelma & Louise'', Pitt starred in the 1991 film ''Johnny Suede'', a low-budget picture about an aspiring rock star, and the 1992 film ''Cool World'', although neither furthered his career in light of their poor reviews and box office performance. Pitt took the role of Paul Maclean in the 1992 biographical film ''A River Runs Through It'', directed by Robert Redford. His portrayal of the character has been described as a career-making performance, proving that Pitt could be more than a "cowboy-hatted hunk", although he admitted that he felt under pressure when making the film. Pitt added that he considered it one of his "weakest performances ... It's so weird that it ended up being the one that I got the most attention for." Pitt believed that he benefited from working with such a talented cast and crew, going on to compare working with Redford to playing tennis, saying "when you play with somebody better than you, your game gets better."

In 1993, Pitt reunited with Juliette Lewis, co-star from ''Too Young to Die?'', for the road film ''Kalifornia''. He played Early Grayce, a serial killer and the boyfriend of Lewis's character in a performance Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' described as "outstanding, all boyish charm and then a snort that exudes pure menace". Pitt also garnered attention for a brief appearance in the cult hit ''True Romance'' as a stoner named Floyd, providing much needed comic relief to the action film. He capped the year by winning a ShoWest Award for Male Star of Tomorrow.

Critical success

1994 marked a significant turning point in Pitt's career. Starring as vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the feature film ''Interview with the Vampire'', based on Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater, and Antonio Banderas. Despite winning two MTV Movie Awards at the 1995 ceremony, his performance was poorly received. According to the ''Dallas Observer'', "Brad Pitt ... is a large part of the problem [in the film]. When directors play up his cocky, hunkish, folksy side ... he's a joy to watch. But there's nothing about him that suggests inner torment or even self-awareness, which makes him a boring Louis."

Following the release of ''Interview with the Vampire'', Pitt starred in ''Legends of the Fall'' (1994), a film set during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Pitt portrayed Tristan Ludlow, son of Colonel William Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins) a Cornish immigrant, and received his first Golden Globe Award nomination, in the Best Actor category. Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas co-starred as Pitt's brothers. Although the film's reception was mixed, many film critics complimented Pitt's performance. Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' said, "Pitt's diffident mix of acting and attitude works to such heartthrob perfection it's a shame the film's superficiality gets in his way" while the ''Deseret News'' predicted that ''Legends of the Fall'' would solidify Pitt's reputation as a lead actor.

In 1995, Pitt starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow in the crime thriller ''Seven'', playing a detective on the trail of a serial killer (played by Kevin Spacey). Pitt called the film a great movie and declared the part would expand his acting horizons, expressing a desire to move on from "this 'pretty boy' thing [...] and play someone with flaws". His performance was critically well-received, with ''Variety'' saying that it was screen acting at its best, further remarking on Pitt's ability to turn in a "determined, energetic, creditable job" as the detective. ''Seven'' earned $327 million at the international box office.

Following the success of ''Seven'', Pitt took a supporting role as Jeffrey Goines in Terry Gilliam's 1995 science-fiction film ''12 Monkeys''. The movie received predominantly positive reviews, with Pitt praised in particular. Janet Maslin of the ''New York Times'' called ''Twelve Monkeys'' "fierce and disturbing" and remarked on Pitt's "startlingly frenzied performance", concluding that he "electrifies Jeffrey with a weird magnetism that becomes important later in the film." He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film and received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The following year he had a role in the legal drama ''Sleepers'' (1996), based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel of the same name. The film received mixed reviews. In the 1997 movie ''The Devil's Own'' Pitt starred, opposite Harrison Ford, as the Irish Republican Army terrorist Rory Devany, a role for which he was required to learn an Irish accent. Critical opinion was divided on his approximation of the accent; "Pitt finds the right tone of moral ambiguity, but at times his Irish brogue is too convincing – it's hard to understand what he's saying", wrote the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' while a contributor from ''The Charleston Gazette'' opined that it had favored Pitt's accent over the movie. ''The Devil's Own'' grossed $140 million worldwide, but was a critical failure. Later that year he led as Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in the Jean-Jacques Annaud film ''Seven Years in Tibet''. Pitt trained for months for the role, which demanded significant mountain climbing and trekking practice including rock climbing in California and the European Alps with his co-star David Thewlis. The film received mostly negative reviews, and was generally considered a disappointment.

Pitt then had the lead role in 1998's ''Meet Joe Black''. He portrayed a personification of death inhabiting the body of a young man to learn what it is like to be human. The film received mixed reviews, and many were critical of Pitt's performance. According to Mick LaSalle of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', Pitt was unable to "to make an audience believe that he knows all the mysteries of death and eternity."

From 1999 to 2003

In 1999, Pitt portrayed Tyler Durden, an uncompromising and charismatic individual, in ''Fight Club'', a film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name, directed by David Fincher. Pitt prepared for the part with lessons in boxing, taekwondo, and grappling. To look the part, Pitt consented to the removal of pieces of his front teeth which were restored when filming ended. While promoting ''Fight Club'', Pitt said that the purpose of the film was not necessarily to take one's aggressions out on someone else but rather to "have an experience, take a punch more" and see how you come out on the other end." ''Fight Club'' premiered at the 1999 Venice International Film Festival and, despite divided critical opinion on the film as a whole, Pitt's performance was broadly praised. Paul Clinton of CNN noted the risky yet successful nature of the film while ''Variety'' remarked upon Pitt's ability to be "cool, charismatic and more dynamically physical, perhaps than [...] his breakthrough role in ''Thelma and Louise''". In spite of a worse-than-expected box office performance, ''Fight Club'' became a cult classic after its DVD release in 2000.

Following ''Fight Club'', Pitt was cast as an Irish Gypsy boxer with a barely intelligible accent in Guy Ritchie's 2000 gangster film ''Snatch''. Several reviewers were critical of ''Snatch'', however most praised Pitt. Mick LaSalle of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' said Pitt was "ideally cast as an Irishman whose accent is so thick even Brits can't understand him", going on to say that, before ''Snatch'', Pitt had been "shackled by roles that called for brooding introspection, but recently he has found his calling in black comic outrageousness and flashy extroversion;" while Amy Taubin of ''The Village Voice'' claimed that "Pitt gets maximum comic mileage out of a one-joke role".

The following year Pitt starred opposite Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy ''The Mexican'', a film that garnered a broad range of reviews but enjoyed box office success. Pitt's next role, in 2001's $143 million-grossing Cold War thriller ''Spy Game'', was as Tom Bishop, an operative of the CIA's Special Activities Division, mentored by Robert Redford's character. Salon.com enjoyed the film, though noting that neither Pitt nor Redford provided "much of an emotional connection for the audience". On November 22, 2001, Pitt made a guest appearance in the eighth season of the television series ''Friends'', playing a man with a grudge against Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Aniston, to whom Pitt was married at the time. For this performance he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. In December 2001, Pitt had the role of Rusty Ryan in the heist film ''Ocean's Eleven'', a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack original. He joined an ensemble cast including George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy García, and Julia Roberts. Well-received by critics, ''Ocean's Eleven'' was successful at the box office, earning $450 million worldwide.

Pitt appeared in two episodes of MTV's reality series ''Jackass'' in February 2002, first running through the streets of Los Angeles with several cast members in gorilla suits, and participating in his own staged abduction in another episode. In the same year, Pitt had a cameo role in George Clooney's directorial debut ''Confessions of a Dangerous Mind''. He took on his first voice-acting roles in 2003, lending his voice to the titular character of the DreamWorks animated film ''Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas'' and playing Boomhauer's brother, Patch, in an episode of the animated television series ''King of the Hill''.

After 2003

Pitt had two major film roles in 2004, starring as Achilles in ''Troy'', and making a second appearance as Rusty Ryan, in the sequel ''Ocean's Twelve''. He spent six months sword training before the filming of ''Troy'', based on the ''Iliad''. An on-set injury to his Achilles tendon delayed production on the picture for several weeks. With a total worldwide gross of $497 million, ''Troy'' remains Pitt's most commercially successful picture to date. The film earned $364 million outside the U.S. and $133 million domestically. Stephen Hunter of ''The Washington Times'' stated that Pitt excelled at such a demanding role. ''Ocean's Twelve'' earned $362 million worldwide, and Pitt and Clooney's dynamic was described (by CNN's Paul Clinton) as "the best male chemistry since Paul Newman and Robert Redford".

In 2005, Pitt starred in the Doug Liman-directed action comedy ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'', in which a bored married couple discover that each is an assassin sent to kill the other. The feature received reasonable reviews but was generally lauded for the chemistry between Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who played his character's wife Jane Smith. The ''Star Tribune'' noted that "while the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry." ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' earned $478 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest hits of 2005.

For his next feature film, Pitt starred opposite Cate Blanchett in Alejandro González Iñárritu's multi-narrative drama ''Babel'' (2006). Pitt's performance was critically well-received, and the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' believed that he was credible and gave the film visibility. Pitt later said he regarded taking the part as one of the best decisions of his career. The film was screened at a special presentation at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was later featured at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. ''Babel'' received seven Academy and Golden Globe award nominations, wining the Best Drama Golden Globe, and earned Pitt a nomination for the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe.

Reprising his role as Rusty Ryan in a third picture, Pitt starred in 2007's ''Ocean's Thirteen''. While less lucrative than the first two films, this sequel earned $311 million at the international box office. Pitt's next film role was as American outlaw Jesse James in the 2007 Western drama ''The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'', adapted from Ron Hansen's 1983 novel of the same name. Directed by Andrew Dominik and produced by Pitt's company Plan B, the film premiered at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, with Pitt playing a "scary and charismatic" role, according to Lewis Beale of ''Film Journal International'', and earning Pitt the Volpi Cup award for Best Actor at the 64th Venice International Film Festival. Although Pitt attended the festival to promote the film, he left early after being attacked by a fan who pushed through his bodyguards. He eventually collected the award one year later at the 2008 festival.

Pitt's next appearance was in the 2008 black comedy ''Burn After Reading'', his first collaboration with the Coen brothers. The film received a positive reception from critics, with ''The Guardian'' calling it "a tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy", noting that Pitt's performance was one of the funniest. He was later cast as Benjamin Button, the lead in David Fincher's 2008 film ''The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'', a loosely adapted version of a 1921 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story follows a man who is born an octogenarian and ages in reverse, with Pitt's "sensitive" performance making ''Benjamin Button'' a "timeless masterpiece," according to Michael Sragow of ''The Baltimore Sun''. The performance earned Pitt his first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as well as a fourth Golden Globe and second Academy Award nomination, all in the category for Best Actor. The film itself received thirteen Academy Award nominations in total, and grossed $329 million at the box office worldwide.

Since 2008, Pitt's work has included a leading role in Quentin Tarantino's ''Inglourious Basterds'', released in August 2009 at a special presentation at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Pitt played Lieutenant Aldo Raine, an American resistance fighter battling Nazis in German-occupied France. The film was a box office hit, taking $311 million worldwide, and garnered generally favorable reviews. The film received multiple awards and nominations, including eight Academy Award nominations and seven MTV Movie Award nominations, including Best Male Performance for Pitt. He voiced the superhero character Metro Man in the 2010 animated feature ''Megamind''. Pitt appeared in Terrence Malick's drama ''The Tree of Life'', co-starring Sean Penn, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. He has signed on to appear as a British explorer searching for a mysterious Amazonian civilization in ''The Lost City of Z'', based on David Grann's 2009 book of the same name, and portrayed Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane in the drama ''Moneyball'', which is based on the 2003 book of the same name written by Michael Lewis.

Other projects

Film and television work

Along with Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures, Pitt founded the film production company Plan B Entertainment in 2002, although Aniston and Grey withdrew in 2005. The company has produced several films, including ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' starring Johnny Depp in 2005, as well as 2007's ''The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'' and ''A Mighty Heart'', starring Angelina Jolie. Plan B was also involved in producing ''The Departed'', the winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Picture. Pitt was credited onscreen as a producer; however, only Graham King was ruled eligible for the Oscar win. Pitt has been reluctant to discuss the production company in interviews.

Pitt has appeared in several television commercials: one for the U.S. market, a Heineken commercial aired during the 2005 Super Bowl; it was directed by David Fincher, who had directed Pitt in ''Seven'', ''Fight Club'' and ''The Curious Case of Benjamin Button''. Other commercial appearances came in television spots designed for Asian markets, advertising such products as the Acura Integra, in which he was featured opposite Russian model Tatiana Sorokko, as well as SoftBank and Edwin Jeans.

Humanitarian causes

Pitt supports the ONE Campaign, an organization aimed at combating AIDS and poverty in the developing world. He narrated the 2005 PBS public television series ''Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge'', which discusses current global health issues and traveled to Pakistan in November 2005 with Angelina Jolie to see the impact of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. The following year Pitt and Jolie flew to Haiti, where they visited a school supported by Yéle Haïti, a charity founded by Haitian-born hip hop musician Wyclef Jean. In May 2007, Pitt and Jolie donated $1 million to three organizations in Chad and Sudan dedicated to those affected by the crisis in the Darfur region. Along with Clooney, Damon, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub, Pitt is one of the founders of "Not On Our Watch", an organization that tries to focus global attention and resources to stop and prevent genocides such as that in Darfur.

Pitt has a sustained interest in architecture and has narrated ''Design e2'', a PBS television series focused on worldwide efforts to build environmentally friendly structures through sustainable architecture and design. He founded the Make It Right Foundation in 2006, organizing housing professionals in New Orleans to finance and construct 150 sustainable, affordable new houses in New Orleans's Ninth Ward following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The project involves 13 architectural firms and the environmental organization Global Green USA, with several of the firms donating their services. Pitt and philanthropist Steve Bing have each committed $5 million in donations. The first six homes were completed in October 2008, and in September 2009 Pitt received an award in recognition of the project from the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit trade organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built and operated. Pitt met with U.S. President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in March 2009 to promote his concept of ''green housing'' as a national model and to discuss federal funding possibilities.

In September 2006, Pitt and Jolie established a charitable organization, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to aid humanitarian causes around the world. The foundation made initial donations of $1 million each to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders, followed by an October 2006 donation of $100,000 to the Daniel Pearl Foundation, an organization created in memory of the late American journalist Daniel Pearl. According to federal filings, Pitt and Jolie invested $8.5 million into the foundation in 2006; it gave away $2.4 million in 2006 and $3.4 million in 2007. In June 2009 the Jolie-Pitt Foundation donated $1 million to a U.N. refugee agency to help Pakistanis displaced by fighting between troops and Taliban militants. In January 2010 the foundation donated $1 million to Doctors Without Borders for emergency medical assistance to help victims of the Haiti earthquake.

In the media

Pitt's sex appeal has been picked up by many sources including ''Empire'', who named him one of the 25 sexiest stars in film history in 1995. The same year, Pitt won ''People'''s Sexiest Man Alive, an accolade he won again in 2000. Pitt appeared on ''Forbes'''s annual Celebrity 100 list of the 100 most powerful celebrities in 2006, 2007, and 2008, at No. 20, No. 5, and No. 10 respectively. In 2007 he was listed among the Time 100, a compilation of the 100 most influential people in the world, as selected annually by ''TIME''. The magazine credited Pitt with using "his star power to get people to look [to where] cameras don't usually catch". Pitt was again included in the Time 100 in 2009, this time in the Builders and Titans list.

Pitt visited the University of Missouri campus in October 2004 to encourage students to vote in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, in which he supported John Kerry. Later in October he publicly supported the principle of public funding for embryonic stem-cell research. "We have to make sure that we open up these avenues so that our best and our brightest can go find these cures that they believe they will find," he said. In support of this he endorsed Proposition 71, a California ballot initiative intended to provide federal government funding for stem-cell research.

Starting in 2005, Pitt's relationship with Angelina Jolie became one of the most reported celebrity stories worldwide. After confirming that Jolie was pregnant in early 2006, the unprecedented media hype surrounding the couple reached what Reuters, in a story titled "The Brangelina fever," called "the point of insanity". To avoid media attention the couple flew to Namibia for the birth of their daughter Shiloh, "the most anticipated baby since Jesus Christ." Similarly intense media interest greeted the announcement two years later of Jolie's second pregnancy; for the two weeks Jolie spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, reporters and photographers camped outside on the promenade to report on the birth.

In September 2008 Pitt donated $100,000 to the campaign against California's 2008 ballot proposition Proposition 8, an initiative to overturn the state Supreme Court decision that had legalized same-sex marriage. Pitt stated his reasons for the stance: "Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8."

Personal life

Relationships

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Pitt was involved in successive relationships with several of his co-stars, including Robin Givens (''Head of the Class''), Jill Schoelen (''Cutting Class''), and Juliette Lewis (''Too Young to Die?'' and ''Kalifornia''), who, at the age of 16, was ten years his junior when they started dating. In addition, Pitt had a much-publicized romance and engagement to his ''Seven'' co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, whom he dated from 1994 to 1997.

Pitt met ''Friends'' actress Jennifer Aniston in 1998 and married her in a private wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000. For years their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success; however, in January 2005, Pitt and Aniston announced that they had decided formally to separate after seven years together. Two months later Aniston filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Pitt and Aniston's divorce was finalized by the Los Angeles Superior Court on October 2, 2005, legally ending their marriage. Despite media reports that Pitt and Aniston have an acrimonious relationship, Pitt said in a February 2009 interview that he and Aniston "check in with each other", adding that they were both big parts of each others' lives.

During Pitt's divorce from Aniston, his involvement with his ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' co-star Angelina Jolie attracted vigorous media attention. While Pitt denied claims of adultery, he admitted that he "fell in love" with Jolie on the set. In April 2005, one month after Aniston filed for divorce, a set of paparazzi photographs emerged showing Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in Kenya; the pictures were construed in the press as evidence of a relationship between Pitt and Jolie. During the summer of 2005, the two were seen together with increasing frequency, and the entertainment media dubbed the couple "Brangelina". On January 11, 2006, Jolie confirmed to ''People'' that she was pregnant with Pitt's child, thereby publicly acknowledging their relationship for the first time.

In an October 2006 interview with ''Esquire'', Pitt said that he and Jolie would marry when everyone in America is legally able to marry. He reaffirmed his stance to ''Parade'' in August 2009, and again to ''People'' in July 2011. In February 2010, Pitt and Jolie succesfully sued British tabloid ''News of the World'' for falsely reporting that they were separating, a story that had been widely picked up by credible media outlets.

Children

In July 2005, Pitt accompanied Jolie to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she adopted her second child, six-month-old Zahara Marley, a decision which Jolie later stated she and Pitt had made together. Pitt's publicist announced in December 2005 that Pitt was seeking to legally adopt Jolie's two children, Zahara and Cambodia-born Maddox Chivan. On January 19, 2006, a California judge granted Jolie's request to change the children's surnames from "Jolie" to "Jolie-Pitt". The adoptions were finalized soon after.

Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh Nouvel in Swakopmund, Namibia, on May 27, 2006. Pitt confirmed that their newborn daughter would have a Namibian passport. The couple sold the first pictures of Shiloh through the distributor Getty Images; the North American rights were purchased by ''People'' for over $4.1 million, while ''Hello!'' obtained the British rights for approximately $3.5 million. The proceeds from the sale were donated to charities serving African children. Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; it marked the first time an infant was recreated in wax by Madame Tussauds.

On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted three-year-old Pax Thien from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Since Vietnam does not allow unmarried couples to adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent. In April 2007, Jolie filed a request to legally change her son's surname from "Jolie" to "Jolie-Pitt", which was approved on May 31, 2007. The rights for the first post-adoption images of Pax were sold to ''People'' for a reported $2 million, as well as to ''Hello!'' for an undisclosed amount. Pitt adopted Pax in the United States on February 21, 2008.

At the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008, Jolie confirmed that she was expecting twins. She gave birth to son Knox Léon and daughter Vivienne Marcheline on July 12, 2008 in Nice, France. The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to ''People'' and ''Hello!'' for $14 million—the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The couple donated the proceeds to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

Religion

In an October 2007 interview, Pitt revealed that he is no longer a Christian and does not believe in an afterlife. "There's peace in understanding that I have only one life, here and now, and I'm responsible." In a July 2009 interview he said that he did not believe in God, and that he was "probably 20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic."

Filmography

+ Actor
! Year	! Film	! Role	Notes
1987		Officer at party
1987		Waiter
1987		Partygoer
1987	''Growing Pains''	Jeff	Episodes: "List of Growing Pains episodes#Season 3: 1987-1988
1987–88		Randy	4 episodes
1988	''[[21 Jump Street''	Peter	Episode: "Best Years of Your Life"
1987		Brian
1987	''Cutting Class''	Dwight Ingalls
1987	''Head of the Class''	Chuck	Episode: "Partners"
1987	''Freddy's Nightmares''	Rick Austin	Episode: "Black Tickets"
1990	''''	Cameraman	TV movie
1990	''Too Young to Die?''	Billy Canton	TV movie
1990	''Glory Days''	Walker Lovejoy	6 episodes
1991	''Across the Tracks''	Joe Maloney
1991	''Thelma & Louise''	J.D.
1991	''Johnny Suede''	Johnny Suede
1992	''Contact''	Cox
1992	''Cool World''	Detective Frank Harris
1992	''''	Paul Maclean
1993	''Kalifornia''	Early Grayce
1993	''True Romance''	Floyd
1994	''''	Elliott Fowler
1994		Louis de Pointe du Lac	MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - MaleMTV Movie Award for Most Desirable MaleNominated–MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo shared with Tom CruiseNominated–Saturn Award for Best Actor
1994	''Legends of the Fall''	Tristan Ludlow	Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1995		David Mills	MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable MaleNominated–MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo shared with Morgan FreemanNominated–MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Male
1995	''12 Monkeys''	Jeffrey Goines
1996		Michael Sullivan
1997	''''	Francis "Frankie" Austin McQuire/Rory Devaney
1997		Heinrich Harrer
1997	''''	Rick
1998	''Meet Joe Black''	Joe Black/Man in the Coffee Shop
1999
1999	''Being John Malkovich''	Himself	Cameo
2000		Mickey O'Neil	Nominated–Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
2001	''''	Jerry Welbach
2001	''Spy Game''	Tom Bishop
2001	''''	Rusty Ryan
2001	''Friends''	Will Colbert
2002		Himself
2002	''Confessions of a Dangerous Mind''	Brad, Bachelor No.1
2003	''Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas''	Sinbad	Voice
2003		Himself	Cameo
2004		Achilles
2004	''''	Rusty Ryan	Nominated–Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2005		John Smith	MTV Movie Award for Best Fight shared with Angelina JolieNominated–MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss shared with Angelina Jolie
2006		Richard
2007	''''	Rusty Ryan
2007	''''	Jesse James
2008	''Burn After Reading''	Chad Feldheimer	Nominated–BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting RoleNominated–Detroit Film Critics Society
2008	''''	Benjamin Button
2009	''[[Inglourious Basterds''	Lt. Aldo Raine
2010	''Megamind''	Metro Man	Voice
2011	''''	Mr. O'Brien
2011		Billy Beane
2011	''Happy Feet Two''	Will the Krill
2012	''Cogan's Trade''	Jack Cogan	Post-production
2012		Gerry Lane	Post-production

+ Producer
! Year	! Film	Notes
2006	''God Grew Tired of Us''	Executive producer
2006	''''	Academy Award for Best PictureNominated–BAFTA Award for Best Film
2006
2007	''''	Executive producer
2007		Executive producer
2007	''''	Nominated–Independent Spirit Award for Best Film
2007	''''
2008	''Pretty/Handsome''	Executive producer (TV)
2009	''''	Executive producer
2009	''''	Executive producer
2010
2010	''Eat Pray Love''
2011	''''	Palme d'Or
2012	''Cogan's Trade''
2012

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Not On Our Watch – Founded by: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Jerry Weintraub

Category:1963 births Category:People from Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma Category:Actors from Oklahoma Category:University of Missouri alumni Category:American agnostics Category:Former Baptists Category:American vegans Category:American television actors Category:American film actors Category:American film producers Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:Living people Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States

af:Brad Pitt ar:براد بيت an:Brad Pitt ast:Brad Pitt az:Bred Pitt bn:ব্র্যাড পিট be:Брэд Піт bg:Брад Пит bo:པ་རའི་པི་ཏ། bs:Brad Pitt br:Brad Pitt ca:Brad Pitt cs:Brad Pitt cy:Brad Pitt da:Brad Pitt de:Brad Pitt et:Brad Pitt el:Μπραντ Πιτ es:Brad Pitt eo:Brad Pitt eu:Brad Pitt fa:برد پیت fr:Brad Pitt ga:Brad Pitt gv:Brad Pitt gd:Brad Pitt gl:Brad Pitt ko:브래드 피트 hy:Բրեդ Փիթ hi:ब्रैड पिट hr:Brad Pitt id:Brad Pitt is:Brad Pitt it:Brad Pitt he:בראד פיט jv:Brad Pitt kn:ಬ್ರ್ಯಾಡ್‌ ಪಿಟ್‌ ka:ბრედ პიტი kk:Брэд Питт la:Brad Pitt lv:Breds Pits lb:Brad Pitt lt:Brad Pitt li:Brad Pitt hu:Brad Pitt mk:Бред Пит ml:ബ്രാഡ് പിറ്റ് mr:ब्रॅड पिट ms:Brad Pitt mn:Брэд Питт nah:Brad Pitt nl:Brad Pitt ja:ブラッド・ピット pih:Brad Pitt no:Brad Pitt nn:Brad Pitt uz:Brad Pitt ps:براډ پېت pl:Brad Pitt pt:Brad Pitt ro:Brad Pitt ru:Питт, Брэд sq:Brad Pitt simple:Brad Pitt sk:Brad Pitt sl:Brad Pitt sr:Бред Пит sh:Brad Pitt su:Brad Pitt fi:Brad Pitt sv:Brad Pitt tl:Brad Pitt ta:பிராட் பிட் tt:Брэд Питт te:బ్రాడ్ పిట్ th:แบรด พิตต์ tr:Brad Pitt uk:Бред Пітт vi:Brad Pitt wuu:孛拉特 皮此 yi:ברעד פיט zh:畢·彼特