Brad Pitt American Actor Known for Fight Club

Early life

William Bradley Pitt was born on 18 December 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. His father ran a trucking company and his mother worked as a school counselor. The family soon settled in Springfield, Missouri, where he grew up with a younger brother, Doug, and a younger sister, Julie. At Kickapoo High School he took part in golf, swimming and tennis, as well as debate, school musicals and several clubs.

In 1982 he enrolled at the University of Missouri to study journalism with a focus on advertising. About two weeks before finishing his coursework, he left for Los Angeles to pursue acting, took lessons and worked a series of odd jobs.

Career

Pitt's screen career began in 1987 with uncredited film parts and a television debut on the soap opera Another World. He then appeared on Dallas and in guest roles on series such as 21 Jump Street, and had his first leading film role in The Dark Side of the Sun (1988). Wider attention came with a supporting part in Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise (1991). He followed it with A River Runs Through It (1992), Kalifornia (1993) and a brief role in True Romance (1993).

During the mid-1990s he moved into leading roles with Interview with the Vampire (1994), Legends of the Fall (1994) and the thriller Seven (1995), in which he played a detective. His performance as Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys (1995) drew praise and his first Academy Award nomination. He went on to appear in The Devil's Own (1997), Seven Years in Tibet (1997) and Meet Joe Black (1998).

In 1999 he played Tyler Durden in David Fincher's Fight Club, and in 2000 he took the role of a boxer in Guy Ritchie's Snatch. A guest appearance on the television series Friends in 2001 earned him an Emmy nomination. He was Rusty Ryan in Ocean's Eleven (2001) and its two sequels in 2004 and 2007, played Achilles in Troy (2004) and starred in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Babel (2006) and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) followed, then The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Burn After Reading (2008) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), in which he played Lieutenant Aldo Raine. His later films include Moneyball (2011), The Tree of Life (2011), World War Z (2013), Fury (2014), The Big Short (2015), Ad Astra (2019), Bullet Train (2022), Babylon (2022) and F1 (2025).

Alongside acting, Pitt works as a producer through Plan B Entertainment, which he co-founded and whose first film was Troy. The company produced The Departed (2006), 12 Years a Slave (2013), in which he also took a small role, and The Big Short, among others. In 2021 he started a recording company with the French producer Damien Quintard, and Miraval Studios in southern France reopened under it the following year.

Recognition

For 12 Years a Slave, Pitt won the Academy Award for Best Picture as a producer. He also received producer nominations for Moneyball and The Big Short. As an actor, he was nominated for Oscars for 12 Monkeys, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Moneyball, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a stuntman, Cliff Booth, in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). The same performance brought him a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

His earlier Golden Globe came in 1996 for 12 Monkeys. He also won a BAFTA for Best Film as a producer of 12 Years a Slave, and a Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. His total includes two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Public roles

Pitt has been involved in several charitable and civic projects. In 2006 he founded the Make It Right Foundation, which set out to finance and build affordable, sustainable housing in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He is also among the founders of the organization Not On Our Watch and supports the ONE Campaign. He has a long-standing interest in architecture.

Personal life

Pitt married the actress Jennifer Aniston on 29 July 2000, and the couple divorced in 2005. He has children with the actress Angelina Jolie, among them Shiloh Jolie, Vivienne Jolie and Knox Jolie-Pitt. Pitt does not use social media.