Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the niece of Chip Taylor, sister of James Haven and the god-daughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's side, Jolie is of Czechoslovak and German descent, and on her mother's side she is French Canadian and is said to be part Iroquois. However, Voight has claimed Bertrand was "not seriously Iroquois", and they merely said it to enhance his ex-wife's exotic background. After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother were raised by their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions and moved with them to Palisades, New York.As a child, Jolie regularly saw movies with her mother and later explained that this had inspired her interest in acting; she had not been influenced by her father. When she was eleven years old, the family moved back to Los Angeles and Jolie decided she wanted to act and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions.At the age of 14, she dropped out of her acting classes and dreamed of becoming a funeral director. During this period, she wore black clothing, dyed her hair purple and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend. Two years later, after the relationship had ended, she rented an apartment above a garage a few blocks from her mother's home. She returned to theatre studies and graduated from high school, though in recent times she has referred to this period with the observation, "I am still at heart—and always will be—just a punk kid with tattoos".
She later recalled her time as a student at Beverly Hills High School (later Moreno High School), and her feeling of isolation among the children of some of the area's more affluent families. Jolie's mother survived on a more modest income, and Jolie often wore second-hand clothes. She was teased by other students who also targeted her for her distinctive features, for being extremely thin, and for wearing glasses and braces. Her self-esteem was further diminished when her initial attempts at modeling proved unsuccessful. She started to cut herself; later commenting, "I collected knives and always had certain things around. For some reason, the ritual of having cut myself and feeling the pain, maybe feeling alive, feeling some kind of release, it was somehow therapeutic to me."Jolie has been long estranged from her father. The two tried to reconcile and he appeared with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). In July 2002, Jolie filed a request to legally change her name to "Angelina Jolie", dropping Voight as her surname; the name change was made official on September 12, 2002. In August of the same year, Voight claimed that his daughter had "serious mental problems" on Access Hollywood. Jolie later indicated that she no longer wished to pursue a relationship with her father, and said, "My father and I don't speak. I don't hold any anger toward him. I don't believe that somebody's family becomes their blood. Because my son's adopted, and families are earned." She stated that she did not want to publicize her reasons for her estrangement from her father, but because she had adopted her son, she did not think it was healthy for her to associate with Voight.
Stunning, smart and slightly insane, this Hollywood icon is known for romancing her costars, kissing her brother at the Oscars, exotic tattoos and commendable humanitarian efforts. The daughter of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, she first garnered attention as a high-school computer wiz in the film Hackers after which she married costar Jonny Lee Miller. Their marriage died in 1999 just when Jolie's career was heating up. She appeared in three films that year including the seriocomic Pushing Tin which introduced her to hubby No. 2, Billy Bob Thornton, and the mental-institution drama Girl, Interrupted, which earned her an Oscar. Subsequently, Jolie made a series of blockbusters (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) and bombs (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), none of which made use of her considerable acting talents. After divorcing Thornton in 2003, Jolie devoted much of her time to working with refugees in impoverished countries and raising her adopted children. In 2005, around the time her action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith was released, rumors circulated that she and recently separated costar Brad Pitt were having an affair. Although they refused to confirm the relationship, they remained tabloid cover stars for months until Jolie finally admitted in early 2006 that she was pregnant with his child.
