Angelina Jolie Voight was born on June 4, 1975, to Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand. At age 11, four years after making her film debut opposite her father in Lookin' to Get Out, Angelina Jolie began studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.
Although her dream as a child was actually to become a funeral director, 16-year-old Angelina Jolie worked as a professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles.
Musical groups and singers such as the Rolling Stones, Lemonheads, Meatloaf, and Lenny Kravitz cast her in their music videos, and even her brother James Haven Voight directed her in his student films for the USC School of Cinema.
Wishing to get even closer to pursuing an acting career, Jolie studied at L.A.'s MET Theatre Company, which also counts Ed Harris and Holly Hunter among its alumni.
Angelina Jolie's first foray into film was of a sci-fi nature, with a supporting role in 1993's Cyborg 2, which didn't even make it to the big screen, and a lead role in Hackers (1995) where she met her future ex-husband, British actor Jonny Lee Miller of Trainspotting fame. They were separated within the year and filed for divorce in 1999.
Angelina Jolie's career as an actress, however, was flying high. She received critical acclaim for Without Evidence (1995) in which she portrayed a drug-addicted teen, as well as for her roles as a rebellious teen known as Legs in Foxfire (1996) and as an Italian girl in love with the son of her family's rival in Love Is All There Is (1996).In 1997, she had a supporting role in the box office bomb Playing God, starring David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton.
Angelina Jolie's television roles were what gained her the ultimate respect of critics. She was honored with a 1997 Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination for her role as Cornelia Wallace in the TV movie George Wallace, costarring Gary Sinise. But the best was yet to come for Angelina Jolie.
She won her second Golden Globe for her role as model Gia Carangi in HBO's biopic Gia. Her intense portrayal of the drug-addicted model who was diagnosed with AIDS was highly deserving of the Best Actress Golden Globe and Emmy nomination.
On the big screen, Angelina Jolie was well-received by audiences for her role in 1998's Playing By Heart with Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson and Ryan Phillippe. She also played Billy Bob Thornton's seductive wife in 1999's Pushing Tin and starred opposite big-leaguer Denzel Washington in the thriller The Bone Collector later that year.
However, it was her supporting role in 1999's Girl, Interrupted that showed audiences her dramatic skills, garnering her a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Angelina Jolie created controversy when she showed up at the Oscars with her brother James and kissed him as though he was her boyfriend. The two later denied rumors that they had in an incestuous relationship.
