“Make bold choices and make mistakes. It's all those things that add up to the person you become.” Angelina Jolie is an Oscar-winning American actress and humanitarian who has starred in Hollywood blockbusters galore. Most known for her iconic roles in Laura Croft, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, A Mighty Heart, and The Changeling, Angelina has certainly earned her place among Hollywood's greats. Here are some facts you may not know about Angelina Jolie.
43. Runs in the Family
Angelina’s father is Jon Voight, who is also an actor. Jolie made her screen debut as a child alongside him in Lookin' to Get Out.
42. Cameras Flashing
Before she got into acting on a regular basis, her first on camera career was as a model starting from the age of 14.
41. Blondie
Angelina Jolie is naturally blonde, but her mother dyed it dark when she was young. She kept dying it darker ever since.
40. Creepy Fixation
When Angelina was very young, she was fascinated by death, and told everyone that she wanted to grow up to be a funeral director.
39. Cup Half Full
During an interview, she was asked about her obsession with death. Angelina explains that she believes that by thinking about death all of the time, she can appreciate her life so much more than most people probably do.
38. Reptilian
Growing up, Angelina's favorite kind of animal were reptiles. She even had a lizard and a few snakes.
36. A Hot Nerd
Her first major role was as the computer genius “Kate” in Hackers in 1995. This character achieved a small cult following. She was 20 years old at the time.
Hackers (1995), United Artists
35. Red Wedding
In 1996, she eloped with Hackers co-star Jonny Lee Miller. At the wedding, she wore black leather pants and a white shirt. On the back of the shirt, she wrote Jonny’s name in her own blood. When asked why she did that, she said, “I wanted to make it special.” Their marriage lasted for three years.
34. We’re Cool
Despite the fact that they got a divorce, Jonny and Angelina stayed good friends, and always have good things to say about one another.
33. Girls
After her divorce with Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie was in a movie called Foxfire with Jenny Shimizu, who just so happened to be a lesbian. Years later, during an interview with Barbara Walters, Angelina said that she felt shocked by how attracted she was to Jenny. They ended up dating, and Angelina Jolie came out as bisexual.
32. Fantasy
Years later, Angelina was quoted saying, “I only like to play girls I’d love to date.”
30. Accuracy
Jon Voight, her real-life-father, also played her father in Tomb Raider.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Paramount Pictures
29. Fire Power
She is left-handed. So, when she played Lara Croft, they needed to create custom-made guns with ambidextrous controls for her to use.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Paramount Pictures
28. Sky High
Angelina Jolie has had her pilot’s license since 2004, which allows her to fly small private planes. She has a Cirrus SR22 that she has been seen flying on occasion.
27. Hard Worker
After being in Hackers, she started getting parts in movies every single year. She even played up to 5 movies in a single year. She took a break in 2009, and continued to do one feature per year.
26. Identity Crisis
Many child actors struggle, and Angelina Jolie wasn’t any different. She was quoted saying, “I'm happy being myself, which I've never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn't have those things in mine.”
24. Body Issues
One tattoo on her stomach is a phrase in Latin. In English, it says, “What nourishes me also destroys me.” Considering that she must feel a huge amount of pressure to stay fit as an actress, that quote is very sad, but true.
23. A Little Too Close
Angelina Jolie has always had a very close relationship with her brother James. They didn’t have a good relationship with their dad, so they both made the decision to drop their last names and become “Jolie” and “Haven”. They have been photographed kissing on the lips and hanging all over one another in public. In the year 2000, she had to battle the press with rumors that she was having an affair with James.
22. Branded on Her Heart
Angelina Jolie has a history of getting tattoos for every serious relationship. When she was dating Billy Bob Thornton, she had his name tattooed on her shoulder.
21. Second Chance
In 2001, Angelina Jolie married Billy Bob Thornton. They famously wore necklaces with each other’s blood around their necks. They divorced two years later. Thornton also remained friends with her, and only has good things to say about her.
19. Hot Mama
She has been voted multiple times in magazines all over the world as being one of the most beautiful or sexy women on the planet, including Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive in 2004.
18. The Awards
Angelina Jolie has earned two Academy Awards in her career. She won Best Supporting Actress for her work in Girl, Interrupted in 2000 and won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2013. She was also nominated for Best Actress for her part in The Changeling.
17. Dream Girl
In 2003, Blockbuster Inc. did a survey, asking men if they could pick any woman in the world to go on a New Year's date with, who would it be? A whopping 35% of them mentioned Angelina Jolie, making her the #1 choice.
16. Sparks Fly
In 2005, Angelina Jolie co-starred in the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Brad Pitt. She claims that they fell in love on the set. She explained that they immediately motivated one another, and they drove each other crazy. (In a good way.)
14. The Brady Bunch
Angelina and Brad had a total of 6 kids together. Their oldest child Maddox was adopted when she was still married to Billy Bob Thornton. A total of three of them are adopted from around the world, and three are their biological children.
13. Global Family
Their first biological daughter, Shiloh, was born in the African country Namibia as that’s where Angelina was at the time. Technically, Shiloh’s birth certificate makes her an citizen of Namibia.
12. Giving Back
In 2006, the couple created the Jolie-Pitt Foundation to help children around the world. Their organization mostly helps orphaned children in third world countries, and contributes to medical organizations like Doctors Without Borders.
11. For a Good Cause
When she had twin babies in 2008, she allowed magazines to have access to family photos in exchange for payment. She put that money into the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.
9. The World is Your Oyster
After receiving the “Citizen of the World” award, Angelina traveled to 20 different countries in celebration.
8. Our Home is Your Home
In 2005, the King of Cambodia made her an official citizen of the country, because she does so much charity work there.
7. Moving On
When she began having and adopting children with Brad Pitt, she got tattoos in her kid’s honor. Their tattoos covered up the Billy Bob Thornton tattoo.
6. Stairway to Heaven
Her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, sadly passed away battling ovarian cancer in 2007.
4. Her Own Dreams
Angelina Jolie says that she didn’t realize until her 30’s that she only became an actress because her mother wanted her to act. She realized that her true passion was humanitarian work, and she also wants to write and direct.
3. Difficult Choices
In 2013, Angelina was told by doctors that she carried a gene that would almost guarantee that she would have breast cancer some day. She had a double mastectomy in order to make sure she would never have a chance of getting breast cancer.
2. Women’s Health
After her double mastectomy, her chances of getting cancer went from 87% down to 5%. She wrote an article about her experience in the New York Times, and became an advocate for Breast Cancer education.
1. Goodbye, My Love
Sadly, her and Brad Pitt got divorced in 2016. Through all the tough times, she has said that what gets her through it all is focusing on her children and knowing that they will always be a family.
