Angelina Jolie facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Angelina Jolie
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Jolie in 2024
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Angelina Jolie Voight
June 4, 1975 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Other names | Angelina Jolie Pitt |
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| Years active | 1982–present |
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Full list |
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| Children | 6 |
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| Awards | Full list |
| Special Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |
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| In office April 17, 2012 – December 17, 2022 |
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| High Commissioner |
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| Preceded by | Office established |
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Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975) is a famous American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. She has won many important awards, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. She has also been one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood many times.
Jolie first appeared on screen as a child with her father, Jon Voight, in the movie Lookin' to Get Out (1982). Her acting career really started about ten years later. She got her first main role in Hackers (1995). After starring in TV movies like George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), Jolie won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999).
She became a huge star when she played Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Her success continued with roles in action films like Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Wanted (2008), and Salt (2010). She also starred in the fantasy movie Maleficent (2014) and its sequel in 2019. Jolie also lent her voice to animated films like Shark Tale (2004) and the Kung Fu Panda series (2008–2016). She was also praised for her serious acting in A Mighty Heart (2007), Changeling (2008), and Maria (2024).
As a filmmaker, Jolie has directed and written several war dramas. These include In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), Unbroken (2014), First They Killed My Father (2017), and Without Blood (2024). She also produced the musical The Outsiders (2024), which won a Tony Award for Best Musical.
Jolie is also very well known for her work helping people around the world. She supports causes like protecting nature, education, and women's rights. She has been a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), helping refugees. She has visited refugee camps and war zones all over the world. She has received many honors for her humanitarian work, including an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. Angelina Jolie is seen as one of the most powerful and important people in the entertainment industry. Her personal life, including her relationships and health, has often been in the news. Jolie has been married and divorced three times, to actors Jonny Lee Miller, Billy Bob Thornton, and Brad Pitt. She has six children with Brad Pitt.
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Early Life and Family Background
Angelina Jolie Voight was born on June 4, 1975, in Los Angeles, California. Her parents were actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She has a brother named James Haven. Her godparents are actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell.
After her parents separated in 1976, Angelina and her brother lived with their mother. Her mother stopped acting to focus on raising her children. Angelina's mother raised her as a Catholic, but did not make her go to church. As a child, Angelina often watched movies with her mother. This is what made her interested in acting, not her father's famous career. She had a small part in her father's movie Lookin' to Get Out (1982) when she was seven.
When Jolie was six, her mother and her partner, filmmaker Bill Day, moved the family to Palisades, New York. They moved back to Los Angeles five years later. Jolie then decided she wanted to act. She joined the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and trained there for two years. She also appeared in several plays.
Jolie first went to Beverly Hills High School. She felt different from the wealthy students there because her mother had less money. Other students teased her for being very thin and for wearing glasses and braces. Her early attempts at modeling, which her mother encouraged, were not successful. She then moved to Moreno High School, an alternative school. There, she became a "punk outsider," wearing all black clothes and enjoying unusual hobbies. She stopped her acting classes and thought about becoming a funeral director. She even took home courses on embalming. At 16, after a relationship ended, Jolie finished high school and rented her own apartment. She then went back to studying theater. In 2004, she said, "I am still at heart—and always will be—just a punk kid with tattoos."
Jolie had a difficult relationship with her father, Jon Voight. It started when he left the family when she was very young. She said their time together was rare and often happened in front of the press. They got along better when they worked together in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). However, their relationship became difficult again. Jolie asked the court to legally remove her father's last name, Voight, and use her middle name, Jolie, which she had used as her stage name for a long time. The name change was approved in 2002. Her father then spoke publicly about their problems. At that point, her mother and brother also stopped talking to him. Jolie and Voight did not speak for six and a half years. They eventually became close again after her mother passed away in 2007. They both shared publicly that they had reconciled three years later.
Acting Career
Early Roles (1991–1997)
Jolie decided to become a professional actress at 16. At first, it was hard for her to get roles because people said her style was "too dark." She appeared in five student films made by her brother. She also appeared in several music videos, including Lenny Kravitz's "Stand by My Woman" (1991) and Meat Loaf's "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" (1993). In 1993, she was on the cover of the Widespread Panic album Everyday. She started learning from her father, watching how he studied people to play different characters. Their relationship was less strained during this time.
Jolie's professional film career began in 1993. She played her first main role in the science-fiction movie Cyborg 2. She was so unhappy with this film that she did not try out for any more roles for a year. After a small role in Without Evidence (1995), she starred in her first big studio film, Hackers (1995). A critic from The New York Times said Jolie's character stood out. Hackers did not make much money in theaters, but it became popular after it was released on video. This role is considered Jolie's first big success.
After starring in Love Is All There Is (1996), a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, Jolie appeared in the movie Mojave Moon (1996). In 1997, Jolie starred with David Duchovny in the thriller Playing God. This film was not well-liked by critics. Her next work, a TV miniseries called True Women (1997), was even less successful.
Becoming Famous (1998–2000)
Jolie's career started to get better after she won a Golden Globe Award for her role in TNT's George Wallace (1997). This movie was about the life of Alabama Governor George Wallace. Jolie played Wallace's second wife, Cornelia. Critics really liked George Wallace, and it won many awards. Jolie also received a nomination for an Primetime Emmy Award for her performance.
Jolie then played supermodel Gia Carangi in HBO's Gia (1998). For the second year in a row, Jolie won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award. She also won her first Screen Actors Guild Award.
Jolie liked to stay in character between scenes for many of her early films. After Gia finished filming, she briefly stopped acting because she felt she had "nothing else to give." She moved to New York and took night classes at New York University to study directing and writing. Because of her Golden Globe win for George Wallace and the good reviews for Gia, Jolie decided to continue her acting career.
After the film Hell's Kitchen (1998), Jolie returned to the screen in Playing by Heart (1998). She was part of a cast that included Sean Connery and Gillian Anderson. The film received mostly good reviews, and Jolie was especially praised. She won the Breakthrough Performance Award from the National Board of Review.
In 1999, Jolie starred in the comedy-drama Pushing Tin, alongside John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. The film earned $151.5 million worldwide.
Jolie then took on a supporting role as Lisa, a patient in a psychiatric hospital, in Girl, Interrupted (1999). This movie was based on Susanna Kaysen's book. Jolie won her third Golden Globe Award, her second Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2000. Critics noted that Jolie was excellent as the lively girl who helps the main character.
In 2000, Jolie appeared in her first big summer movie, Gone in 60 Seconds. This became her highest-earning film at that time, making $237.2 million around the world. She had a small role as the ex-girlfriend of a car thief played by Nicolas Cage. Jolie later said that this film was a nice break after her very emotional role in Girl, Interrupted.
Global Stardom (2001–2004)
Even though she was praised for her acting, Jolie had not often starred in movies that many people watched. But in 2001, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider made her a global superstar. This movie was based on the popular Tomb Raider video games. For the role, she had to learn an English accent and train a lot in martial arts to play the adventurer Lara Croft. Even though the movie got mostly negative reviews, Jolie was generally praised for her physical performance. The film was a worldwide hit, earning $274.7 million, and made her known as a female action star.
Jolie next starred with Antonio Banderas in Original Sin (2001). This was the first of several films that were not well-liked by critics or audiences. The romantic comedy Life or Something Like It (2002) was also not successful. Despite her movies not always doing well at the box office, Jolie was still in high demand as an actress. By 2002, she was among Hollywood's highest-paid actresses, earning $10–15 million per film for the next five years.
Jolie played Lara Croft again in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003). This movie did not make as much money as the first one, earning $156.5 million worldwide. She also appeared in the music video for Korn's "Did My Time" to promote the sequel. Her next film was Beyond Borders (2003). In this movie, she played a socialite who joins an aid worker. Even though audiences did not like it, this film was important because it was the first of several projects Jolie made to bring attention to humanitarian causes.
In 2004, Jolie appeared in four films. She had a small role as a fighter pilot in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. She also voiced her first family film, the DreamWorks animation Shark Tale. Her supporting role as Queen Olympias in Oliver Stone's Alexander received mixed reactions. The film did not do well in North America, but it was successful internationally, making $167.3 million.
Becoming an Established Actress (2005–2010)
In 2005, Jolie had a big box office success with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. She starred with Brad Pitt as a married couple who discover they are both secret assassins. The film received mixed reviews, but people loved the chemistry between Jolie and Pitt. Mr. & Mrs. Smith earned $478.2 million worldwide. It was the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year and remained Jolie's highest-grossing live-action film for ten years.
After a supporting role in The Good Shepherd (2006), Jolie starred as Mariane Pearl in the drama A Mighty Heart (2007). This film was based on Pearl's book. Jolie's performance was widely praised. She received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Jolie also played Grendel's mother in the epic film Beowulf (2007), which was made using motion capture. The film was well-received and earned $196.4 million worldwide.
In 2008, Jolie was the highest-paid actress, earning $15–$20 million per film. She starred with James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in the action film Wanted (2008), which was a global success, earning $341.4 million. The film received mostly good reviews, and Jolie was praised for her role as a skilled assassin.
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Jolie then took the main role in Clint Eastwood's drama Changeling (2008). She received nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA Award, and an Academy Award for Best Actress. Jolie also voiced Tigress in the DreamWorks animation Kung Fu Panda (2008). This was the first movie in a major family series. She voiced Tigress again in the sequels Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) and Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016).
After her mother passed away in 2007, Jolie appeared in fewer films. Her first film in two years was the 2010 thriller Salt. In this movie, she played a CIA agent who is accused of being a KGB sleeper agent. The role was originally written for a male actor, but it was changed for Jolie. Salt became a global success, earning $293.5 million. The film received generally positive reviews, and Jolie's performance was especially praised.
Jolie starred with Johnny Depp in the thriller The Tourist (2010). The film was not well-received by critics. Even though it did not do well in the US, it was successful internationally, showing Jolie's appeal to audiences around the world.
Directing and New Roles (2011–Present)
After directing the documentary A Place in Time (2007), Jolie made her first feature film as a director with In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011). This was a love story set during the 1992–95 Bosnian War. She wanted to make the film to bring attention to the survivors of the war. To make it feel real, she cast only actors from the former Yugoslavia. The film received mixed reviews. It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Jolie was also made an honorary citizen of Sarajevo for raising awareness about the war.
After not appearing in movies for three and a half years, Jolie starred in Maleficent (2014). This was a live-action version of Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty. Critics had mixed feelings about the film, but Jolie's performance as the main character was highly praised. Maleficent earned nearly $70 million in North America and over $100 million in other countries during its first weekend. The film went on to make $757.8 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year and Jolie's highest-grossing film ever.
Jolie then directed her second film, Unbroken (2014). This movie was about Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic runner and World War II soldier who survived a plane crash and spent two years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Jolie also produced the film. Based on Laura Hillenbrand's book, the film was written by the Coen brothers and starred Jack O'Connell. Unbroken was successful at the box office worldwide.
Jolie's next directing project was the drama By the Sea (2015). She starred in it with her then-husband, Brad Pitt. This was their first time working together since Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2005. The film was a very personal project for Jolie, inspired by her own mother's life. However, critics did not like it much.
Because Jolie wanted to focus on her humanitarian work, she made fewer movies. First They Killed My Father (2017) was a drama set during Cambodia's Khmer Rouge era. This film allowed her to combine her interests in filmmaking and helping people. She directed the film and co-wrote the script with her friend Loung Ung. The film was made for Netflix and used only Cambodian actors and language. Critics praised Jolie as a "skilled and sensitive filmmaker." It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award.
Jolie played Maleficent again in the Disney fantasy sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). The film received mixed reviews but did well financially, earning $490 million globally. The next year, she appeared in Come Away as a grieving parent. Jolie then starred as a smokejumper in the action thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021). Critics noted that Jolie's performance was very strong. Jolie also played Thena, a warrior with post-traumatic stress disorder, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Eternals (2021).
In 2024, Jolie was a producer for the musical The Outsiders on Broadway, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical. She also wrote, produced, and directed the 2024 war drama Without Blood. Jolie also starred in Pablo Larraín's movie about opera singer Maria Callas, called Maria. This film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. Critics called it a "career-best performance" for Jolie. She received another Golden Globe nomination for her role.
Humanitarian Work
UNHCR Ambassador
Jolie first saw the effects of a humanitarian crisis when she was filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) in Cambodia. This experience helped her understand the world better. When she returned home, Jolie contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to learn about troubled areas. To understand the conditions, she started visiting refugee camps around the world. In February 2001, she went on her first trip to Sierra Leone and Tanzania. She was shocked by what she saw.
In the following months, Jolie went back to Cambodia and met with Afghan refugees in Pakistan. She donated $1 million to a UNHCR emergency appeal. This was the largest donation UNHCR had ever received from a private person. She paid for all her travel costs and lived in the same basic conditions as UNHCR staff. Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in Geneva on August 27, 2001.
Over the next ten years, she went on more than 40 trips, meeting with refugees and internally displaced persons in over 30 countries. In 2002, she said she wanted to raise "Awareness of the plight of these people." Her visits from 2001–02 were written about in her book Notes from My Travels, published in 2003.
Jolie aimed to visit "forgotten emergencies," which were crises that the media had stopped paying attention to. She became known for traveling to war zones, like Sudan's Darfur region and the Syrian-Iraqi border during the Second Gulf War. She also visited the Afghan capital Kabul during the war in Afghanistan. To help with her travels, she started taking flying lessons in 2004. She wanted to fly aid workers and food supplies around the world. Jolie got her pilot's license in 2004.
On April 17, 2012, after more than ten years as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie was promoted to Special Envoy to High Commissioner António Guterres. This was a new position within the organization. In this role, she could represent Guterres and UNHCR at a diplomatic level, focusing on major refugee crises. Since then, Jolie has been on many more trips around the world to meet with refugees and speak up for them.
Jolie stepped down from her ambassadorship in December 2022. She said she would continue to speak out for refugees.
Conservation and Community Development
To help her adopted son, Maddox, connect with his Cambodian heritage, Jolie bought a house in Cambodia in 2003. The house was on 39 hectares next to Samlout national park. This park had problems with poachers who threatened endangered animals. She bought 60,000 hectares of the park and turned it into a wildlife reserve named the Maddox Jolie Project.
In November 2006, Jolie expanded the project, renaming it the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP). She wanted to create Asia's first Millennium Village, following UN development goals. She was inspired by meeting economist Jeffrey Sachs at the World Economic Forum in Davos. By mid-2007, about 6,000 villagers and 72 employees, including former poachers working as rangers, lived and worked at MJP. The area includes schools, roads, and a soy milk factory, all paid for by Jolie. Her home there serves as the MJP headquarters.
After filming Beyond Borders (2003) in Namibia, Jolie became a supporter of the Harnas Wildlife Foundation. This is a wildlife orphanage and medical center in the Kalahari Desert. In December 2010, Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, started the Shiloh Jolie-Pitt Foundation. This foundation supports conservation work by the Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary, also in the Kalahari. In the name of their daughter, Shiloh, they have funded projects to protect large animals. They also funded a free health clinic, housing, and a school for the San Bushmen community at Naankuse. Jolie and Pitt support other causes through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, started in September 2006.
Child Immigration and Education
Jolie has worked to create laws that help child immigrants and other vulnerable children in the U.S. and developing countries. She lobbied for humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital from 2003 onwards. Since October 2008, she has helped lead Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). This is a group of U.S. law firms that provide free legal help to children who are alone in immigration processes across the U.S. KIND was started by Jolie and Microsoft Corporation. By 2013, KIND was the main provider of free lawyers for immigrant children.
Jolie has also supported children's education. Since its start in 2007, she has co-chaired the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict. This group provides support for education programs for children in areas affected by conflict. In its first year, the partnership helped Iraqi refugee children, youth affected by the Darfur conflict, and girls in rural Afghanistan. Since April 2013, all money from Jolie's jewelry collection, Style of Jolie, has gone to this partnership. Jolie also helped launch the Malala Fund, a grant system started by Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai. Jolie personally gave over $200,000 to this cause.
Jolie has funded a school and boarding facility for girls at Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, which opened in 2005. She also funded two primary schools for girls in Afghanistan, which opened in 2010 and 2012. In addition to the facilities at the Millennium Village she started in Cambodia, Jolie had built at least ten other schools in the country by 2005. In February 2006, she opened the Maddox Chivan Children's Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This center helps children affected by HIV. In Sebeta, Ethiopia, she funds a similar center, the Zahara Children's Center. This center treats and educates children with HIV or tuberculosis.
Jolie is the executive producer of the BBC program My World. This program teaches teenagers how to think carefully about what they read and how to tell good journalism from bad. She and Amnesty International released a children's rights book called Know Your Rights and Claim Them in September 2021. She co-wrote the book with human rights lawyer Geraldine Van Bueren.
Human Rights and Women's Rights
After Jolie joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in June 2007, she hosted a meeting on international law and justice. She also funded several CFR reports, including one on stopping genocide. In January 2011, she started the Jolie Legal Fellowship. This is a group of lawyers who work to improve human rights in their countries. These lawyers have helped protect children in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. They also helped promote democracy in Libya after the 2011 revolution.
Through her activism, Jolie met foreign policy experts Chloe Dalton and Arminka Helic. In 2015, they started Jolie Pitt Dalton Helic, a group dedicated to women's rights and international justice. In May 2016, Jolie was appointed a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. She contributes to a postgraduate program there. She also supports Kayden's Law, which focuses on court processes and training to protect children.
In September 2020, Jolie donated to two boys running a lemonade stand in London. They were raising money for the people of Yemen, who were facing a humanitarian crisis. In March 2022, Jolie visited Ukrainian children at the Vatican Children's Hospital. She said, "I am praying for an end to the war. This is the only way to end the suffering." In May 2022, Jolie visited Lviv, Ukraine, to meet with more displaced and hospitalized children.
Recognition and Honors
Jolie has received many awards for her humanitarian work. In August 2002, she received the first Humanitarian Award from the Church World Service. In October 2003, she was the first person to receive the Citizen of the World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association. She was given the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA in October 2005. She also received the Freedom Award from the International Rescue Committee in November 2007. In October 2011, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres gave Jolie a special gold pin. This was to recognize her ten years as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
In November 2013, Jolie received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This award is given for outstanding humanitarian contributions. Queen Elizabeth II gave Jolie an honorary damehood in October 2014.
Personal Life
Relationships and Marriages
Jolie had a serious boyfriend for two years when she was 14. She said the breakup made her focus on her acting career at age 16.
While filming Hackers (1995), Jolie started a relationship with actor Jonny Lee Miller. They married in March 1996. She wore black rubber pants and a white T-shirt to her wedding, with his name written on it in her blood. The relationship ended the next year. Jolie said her busy work schedule kept them apart too often. They remained good friends. Their divorce was finalized in 1999.
Jolie married actor Billy Bob Thornton on May 5, 2000. They had met on the set of Pushing Tin (1999). Their marriage became famous for their public displays of affection, like wearing each other's blood in vials around their necks. Jolie and Thornton announced they were adopting a child from Cambodia in March 2002. However, they separated suddenly three months later. Thornton filed for divorce, saying their lifestyles were too different. Their divorce was finalized in May 2003. Jolie said the sudden end of their marriage surprised her.
Jolie was accused of causing the divorce of actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston in October 2005. Jolie said she fell in love with Pitt while filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Neither Jolie nor Pitt spoke publicly about their relationship until January 2006. At that time, she confirmed they were expecting their first child together.
During their 12-year relationship, the couple was called "Brangelina" by the media. They became one of Hollywood's most famous couples. Their family grew to include six children, three of whom were adopted. They announced their engagement in April 2012. Jolie and Pitt were legally married on August 14, 2014, in a private ceremony in France. She then used the name "Angelina Jolie Pitt." After two years of marriage, they separated on September 15, 2016. Jolie filed for divorce on September 19. They were declared legally single on April 12, 2019.
Children
Jolie has six children: three adopted from other countries and three biological children.
On March 10, 2002, Jolie adopted her first child, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan, from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia. He was born on August 5, 2001. Jolie had visited Cambodia while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and on a UNHCR trip. She returned in November 2001 with her then-husband, Billy Bob Thornton, and they decided to adopt Maddox. Jolie adopted Maddox alone and became a single parent after separating from Thornton.
Jolie adopted her second child, six-month-old Zahara Marley, from an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 6, 2005. Zahara was born on January 8, 2005. Jolie was with her then-partner, Brad Pitt, when she traveled to Ethiopia to adopt Zahara. After Pitt said he wanted to adopt her children, she asked the court to change their last name from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt. This was approved in January 2006. Pitt adopted Maddox and Zahara soon after.
To avoid a huge media frenzy, Jolie and Pitt traveled to Namibia for the birth of their first biological child. On May 27, 2006, she gave birth to Shiloh Nouvel in Swakopmund. They sold the first pictures of Shiloh to benefit charity. People and Hello! magazines bought the rights to the images for $4.1 and $3.5 million, respectively. All the money was donated to UNICEF.
On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted her fourth child, three-year-old Pax Thien, from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Pax was born on November 29, 2003. Jolie visited the orphanage with Pitt in November 2006. She applied for adoption as a single parent because Vietnam's rules did not allow unmarried couples to adopt together. After returning to the U.S., she asked the court to change Pax Thien's last name to Jolie-Pitt, which was approved in May. Pitt later adopted Pax in February 2008.
At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Jolie confirmed she was expecting twins. She gave birth in July 2008 to Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt in Nice, France. The first pictures of the twins were sold to People and Hello! for $14 million. This was the most expensive celebrity photograph ever taken at that time. All the money was donated to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.
Cambodian Nationality
Angelina Jolie has strong ties to Cambodia. In 2004, the then-Prime Minister Hun Sen offered her Cambodian nationality. This was to recognize her humanitarian work in the country. Cambodia was special to Jolie because it was the birthplace of her adopted son, Maddox.
The citizenship process was completed in 2005 when King Norodom Sihamoni granted Jolie Cambodian citizenship through a royal decree. Jolie's work in Cambodia goes beyond typical celebrity involvement. She works on environmental conservation, rural development, and cultural preservation. She has a deep connection with Cambodia, making it a main focus of her charitable activities.
Giving Cambodian citizenship to Jolie is unusual for an international celebrity. It shows that the Cambodian government appreciates her contributions. It also shows Jolie's long-term commitment to the country's progress. Jolie continues her involvement with Cambodia today.
Health and Prevention
On February 16, 2013, when she was 37, Jolie had a preventive double mastectomy. This was because she learned she had a high risk (87%) of developing breast cancer due to a faulty BRCA1 gene. Her mother had breast cancer and passed away from ovarian cancer. Her grandmother also passed away from ovarian cancer. Her aunt, who had the same gene defect, passed away from breast cancer three months after Jolie's operation. After the mastectomy, which lowered her risk of breast cancer to under five percent, Jolie had reconstructive surgery.
After each operation, Jolie wrote about her experiences in articles published by The New York Times. She wanted to help other women make informed health choices. She shared details about her diagnosis and surgeries. She described her decision to have preventive surgery as a proactive step for her six children. Jolie also wrote: "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 announcement about her mastectomy received a lot of attention. It led to widespread discussion about BRCA gene mutations and genetic testing. Her decision was praised by many public figures. Health campaigners welcomed her efforts to raise awareness about options for women at risk. This effect was called "The Angelina Effect" by a Time magazine cover story. It led to a "global and long-lasting" increase in BRCA gene testing. In her first article, Jolie had advocated for easier access to BRCA gene testing. She also noted the high costs, which were greatly reduced after a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Film Credits and Awards
Jolie has appeared in over thirty films since 1982. According to the review sites Rotten Tomatoes and Screen Rant, her most praised and successful films include Playing by Heart (1998), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), A Mighty Heart (2007), Changeling (2008), Kung Fu Panda (2008), Wanted (2008), Salt (2010), and Maleficent (2014). Her television projects include True Women (1997), George Wallace (1997), and Gia (1998).
Jolie has directed several films, such as In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), Unbroken (2014), By the Sea (2015), First They Killed My Father (2017), and Without Blood (2024). She has also produced or executive produced many films, including Maleficent (2014) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019). She wrote the screenplays for In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), By the Sea (2015), First They Killed My Father (2017), and Without Blood (2024).
Jolie has received many awards, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award. She has also been nominated for two British Academy Film Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored her with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2013 for her humanitarian work.
Images for kids
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Jolie in 2024
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Jolie's father, actor Jon Voight, at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988
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Jolie at the German premiere of Alexander in 2004
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Jolie with her then-partner Brad Pitt at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009
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Jolie in character as Christine Collins on the set of Changeling in 2007
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Jolie and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a UNHCR celebration of World Refugee Day in June 2005
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Jolie visiting war-affected Jaffna in Northern Province, Sri Lanka as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2003.
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Jolie at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in January 2005
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Jolie on the cover of Ms. magazine in 2015, discussing child marriage
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Jolie at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
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Jolie promoting Eternals at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con International
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A pregnant Jolie attending the premiere of Changeling with director Clint Eastwood at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
See also
In Spanish: Angelina Jolie para niños
- Aptostichus angelinajolieae
- List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
- White Marc Bouwer dress of Angelina Jolie
