Ever since breaking out in the late '90s with a string of critically-acclaimed performances, the actress quickly established herself as an international star. Between headlining hits like "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and directing passion projects like "In the Land of Blood and Honey," Jolie is perhaps the biggest Hollywood spokesperson of humanitarian efforts worldwide. This summer, however, Jolie can be seen taking a wicked turn in Disney's "Maleficent" -- a re-imagining of "Sleeping Beauty" from the villain's point-of-view.
From her Oscar-winning godfather to her curiosity with blood, here are 33 things you probably don't know about Angelina Jolie.
1. Jolie was born June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles to Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, both actors.
2. The actress was born Angelina Jolie Voight, but she legally dropped her surname "Voight" in 2002.
3. She is the goddaughter of actress Jacqueline Bisset and actor Maximilian Schell. Bisset starred opposite Frank Sinatra in "The Detective" (1968) and Steve McQueen in "Bullitt" (1968), while Schell won the Best Actor Oscar for "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961) -- only his second film role in Hollywood.
4. She has an Oscar closer to home, too. Her father, Jon Voight, has been nominated for four Oscars and took home Best Actor for "Coming Home" (1978). Meanwhile, her mother trained with the famous acting coach Lee Strasberg, though, acting took a backseat to motherhood. She had her first child at 23 and Angelina at 25.
5. Jolie's older sibling is actor James Haven, who appeared with his sister in "Gia," "Hell's Kitchen," and "Original Sin."
6. Her parents separated in 1976, and the children lived full time with their mother. Due to Voight's marital infidelity, Jolie has been estranged from her father on-and-off throughout the years, though, they reconciled in 2007 following the death of Jolie's mother -- ending a six-year estrangement.
7. Jolie insists her acting career was not influenced by Voight.
8. Beginning at the age of 11, Jolie began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. A proponent of method acting, Strasberg is arguably the highest regarded acting coach -- having trained James Dean, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman -- and is best known on screen for his role as gangster Hyman Roth in "The Godfather: Part II" (1974).
9. Jolie's confidence often waned at a young age, resulting in episodes of suicidal depression, drug use, and self-harm.
10. Despite her self-esteem issues, Jolie began modeling when she was 16 and soon appeared in videos for several huge bands and musicians, including The Lemonhead's "It's About Time" (1993) and Lenny Kravitz's "Stand by My Woman" (1991).
11. She even starred in Meat Loaf's music video, "Rock'N'Roll Dreams Come Through" (1993).
12. Jolie's first leading role was in the low-budget movie "Cyborg 2" (1993), where she played a seductive near-human robot. Yeah... it went straight-to-video.
13. Her big screen debut, however, came much earlier in life. When Jolie was just 7, she had a minor role in "Lookin' to Get Out" (1982), which was co-written by and starred Voight.
14. By 1997, the actress had co-starred in several Hollywood films, and established herself as more than just her father's daughter with a critically acclaimed performance in "George Wallace," a TNT TV movie that earned Jolie a Golden Globe win and an Emmy nomination.
15. That same year, she appeared as a stripper in The Rolling Stones music video "Anybody Seen My Baby?"
16. In 1998, Jolie won a Golden Globe for a second consecutive year for her critically-acclaimed portrayal of supermodel Gia Carangi in HBO's "Gia." The supermodel's glamorous life unraveled as a result of heroin addiction and, eventually, her death from AIDS in the mid-1980s.
17. Due to the actress's training as a method actor, she was reportedly very difficult on the "Gia" set and even told her then-husband, actor Jonny Lee Miller ("Trainspotting"), that she would not be calling him throughout the production.
18. Jolie and Miller co-starred in 1995's "Hackers" and married in 1996. Jolie wore black leather pants and a white shirt with Miller's name painted on it -- in her own blood.
19. She has said "I am still at heart -- and always will be -- just a punk kid with tattoos."
20. Soon after the "Gia" shoot, however, the couple called it quits and Jolie moved to New York to decompress from her intense role. She also announced she was done with acting, and began taking up filmmaking and writing classes. It didn't take long, however, until she was back in front of the camera.
21. Jolie's biggest Hollywood breakthrough came in 1999, when she played a sociopathic mental patient in "Girl, Interrupted." She took home her third Golden Globe and the Supporting Actress Oscar.
22. Following her separation from Miller, Jolie reportedly dated Oscar-winning actor Timothy Hutton ("Ordinary People") and has the letter "H" tattooed on her left wrist. The "H" is also reportedly a reference to her brother, James Haven.
23. Jolie married Billy Bob Thornton in 2000 after co-starring with him in "Pushing Tin" (1999).
24. After marrying, the couple moved into a Beverly Hills home previously owned by Slash, the Guns N' Roses guitarist.
25. Jolie and Thornton wore one another's blood in vials around their necks.
26. The couple's priorities soon drifted apart, however, as Thornton wished to focus on music and his film career and Jolie on her newly adopted son, Maddox. The two officially divorced in 2003 following three years of marriage.
27. Around this time, Jolie also began shooting "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" in Cambodia. The immense poverty in the country was eye-opening for the actress, who has since devoted much of her time and money towards humanitarian causes worldwide. She's been appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and donates one-third of her income to charity.
28. In 2002, she adopted her son Maddox, a Cambodian refugee. She later adopted an Ethiopian refugee girl, Zahara, in 2005, and a 3 year-old Vietnamese tot, Pax, in 2007.
29. During the production of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005), sparks flew between Jolie and co-star Brad Pitt. The actor was married to "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston at the time. However, Jolie and Pitt were reportedly not romantically involved until after Aniston and Pitt's divorce.
30. Jolie and Pitt announced their engagement in 2012, but have yet to marry.
31. Jolie and Pitt have six children together. The three oldest are adopted, while the three youngest are the couple's biological children.
32. In 2013, Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy. Breast cancer was extremely prevalent in her family (due to a defective BRCA1 gene) and Jolie had learned she had an 87% risk of developing the cancer if she did not take action.
33. The actress is currently wrapping up her third directorial effort, "Unbroken," which chronicles the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who became a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II.
Did we miss anything about Jolie? Put it in the comments below!
[Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb]
Article photo courtesy of Getty
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