>> Brad Pitt
He's the ultimate object of envy and fantasy the world over. Ben Gavan looks at the career of Hollywood's blue-eyed boy.
If an actor was granted three wishes, then chances are the following requests would be made: to have the timeless cool factor of James Dean, to have the good looks of a young brooding Brando, and to have the screen presence of Steve McQueen. Whether or not Brad Pitt ever met that genie, it's safe to say those wishes came true with Brad becoming a screen icon from the moment he hitched a ride with Thelma and Louise.
Born in 1963 in Oklahoma, USA, William Bradley Pitt and his family moved to Springfield, Missouri where young Brad went to school and eventually enrolled at the University of Missouri. When only two credits shy of graduating in Journalism, Brad heard the call of Hollywood, packing up his belongings into his car named Run-around Sue' and heading for California, or as Brad fans would call it, Kalifornia.
Early acting jobs were not quite what Pitt is used to today, and in between delivering refrigerators and chauffeuring strippers, Brad found himself dressed up in a chicken outfit to promote a local restaurant. He didn't have to flap those wings for long, as television work came his way with appearances on Growing Pains and Dallas. However, as sure as Sue Ellen liked a drink, Brad needed to be in the movies. After a memorable appearance in a made for TV movie, Too Young to Die (co-starring one time girlfriend Juliette Lewis), Brad managed to use 19 minutes of screen time to create a smouldering impression in Thelma & Louise. Playing a young cowboy drifter, he gives Geena Davis a sizzling one-night stand that took the sting out of any canyon dives later on.
With Brad's good looks and million-dollar smile, the press was soon hailing him as a new Redford. The Sundance Kid soon came calling, directing Brad in A River Runs Through It, the tale of two young brothers who are brought together by the mystic magic of fly-fishing. Brad soon exchanged his fishing rod for a gun, playing a bearded hillbilly serial killer with the kind of social skills that would make even the banjo players in Deliverance grab their canoes and paddle upstream. Entitled Kalifornia, Brad starred alongside David Duchovny and Juliette Lewis in the story of a writer researching serial killers, unaware that one is closer than he thinks.
A small appearance in Tony Scott's True Romance was followed by a role Brad could really get his teeth into as Louis de Pointe du Lac, a vampire who gives Christian Slater the scoop to end all scoops in Interview with a Vampire. Starring alongside Tom Cruise, Pitt gave a performance that proved he could compete with the top guns. Pitt then signed to star in Legends of the Fall, an all American sweeping epic that paired him with acting legend Anthony Hopkins. Brad then starred in one of his finest movies: the classic thriller Seven. Co-starring Morgan Freeman, Pitt played a detective trailing a serial killer.
Seven had an ending that was unforgettable and a performance by Pitt that signposted the way to his star on Sunset Boulevard. While on set, Pitt dated co-star Gwyneth Paltrow and soon they were the happy couple that every paparazzi photographer had to have in his camera lens.
With Hollywood clamouring for his attention, Pitt did a little moonlighting with Bruce Willis, co-starring in the under-rated Twelve Monkeys, which netted Brad a best supporting actor nomination. After making The Devil's Own and Seven Years in Tibet, Brad starred in Meet Joe Black, a movie about death that dragged on so long many critics felt close to it themselves. Brad soon bounced back with Fight Club, a story of two disillusioned thirty somethings who start a club for men to release their anger. Starring alongside Edward Norton, Fight Club punched a hole in all the competition, getting Helena Bonham Carter out of corsets and Brad into a sweat. With Pitt now separated from Gwyneth, the twice-voted sexiest man in the world met Jennifer Aniston, and soon they were more then just friends.
Still fighting fit from Fight Club, Guy Ritchie signed Pitt for Snatch, playing a gypsy boxer who becomes involved in dodgy promoters, murderous cockney gangsters and a dog with a taste for a very special diamond. A jewel in itself, Snatch was a success; however Brad's next films, The Mexican and Spy Game, failed to set the box office alight.
Brad soon married Jennifer Aniston and his next film, Ocean's Eleven, was a celebrity fest with Pitt starring alongside Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Andy Garcia. After an appearance in Clooney's own Dangerous Minds, Brad played Achilles in the hit movie Troy, while adding more than a touch of irony by tearing his left Achilles tendon.
After reuniting with George and the boys for Ocean's Twelve, Brad locked lips with his own Tomb Raider, Angelina Jolie, in Mr and Mrs Smith. Brad and Angelina's chemistry was so hot that the press hinted it was down to more than good acting and, true or not, Jennifer Aniston soon brought the curtain down on their performance in the shape of a divorce lawyer. Personal problems aside, Brad looks set to continue to be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood; even though Shania Twain sang of Brad Pitt, 'That Don't Impress Me Much', Brad has proved that he is an actor that does impress - every time.
Ben Gavan
Director Doug Liman
Starring Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Adam Brody