Born William Bradley Pitt, 8 December 1963, Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA

Raised in Springfield, Missouri but born in Oklahoma. His mother is named Jane Etta Hillhouse and his father, William (Bill) Pitt, worked in management at a Springfield trucking firm. He has two siblings, a younger brother, Douglas (Doug) Pitt and a younger sister Julie Neal Pitt.

Pitt attended Kickapoo High School where he was involved in sports, debating, student government and school musicals. He also posed for a campus calendar. He went on to the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism. He also occasionally acted in fraternity shows. He missed graduation by two credits and moved to California.

In California Pitt supported himself by driving strippers in limos, dressing as a giant chicken while working for "el Pollo Loco" and moving refrigerators. Success in acting came later. His first starring role was in "The Dark Side of The Sun" released in 1997.

He played a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic Sea in search of a cure for a rare skin disease. The movie was shot in pre-war Yugoslavia during the summer of 1988. Editing was near to completion when civil war broke out in the region and much of the footage was lost. It was seven whole years before the lost footage was found and returned to Andjelo Arandjelovic a producer working on a distribution deal. Pitt's earnings? $1,523 per week for seven weeks.

He met Juliette Lewis on the set of "Too Young to Die?" while making the TV drama together in 1990. They dated and they also did Kalifornia together in 1993. He played the role of J.D. in "Thelma & Louise" (1991). Another movie he starred in was "Across The Tracks" with Rick Schroder and Carrie Snodgrass. Pitt was also listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1991" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 43.

In the 1992 movie "A River Runs Through It" he had to learn to fly. He practiced on top of buildings in Hollywood often hooking himself from the back of his head. He also shared a home in Southern California in 1992 with friend Buck Simmonds, who starred with him in "A River Runs Through It"

In 1994, after making "Legends of The Fall", he was given the title "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine.

In 1995 Empire magazine voted him number twenty-three of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history. Also in 1995 he turned down a role as an astronaut in Apollo 13 to accept his role in Se7en. In 1997 he was ranked number 32 in Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time". He was also voted "Best Actor" by MTV viewers in 1995 for his part in MTV's "The Big Picture" (1988).

1996 was an eventful year for Pitt culminating in his engagement to Gwyneth Paltrow on December 20. He was also chosen as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by "People" magazine and he gave $100,000 to the Discovery Center, a museum of learning for children in his hometown Sprinfield MO.

In 1996 he purchased a mansion in Southern California for a reported $1.7 million. It is full of antiques and has a "vampirish" look to it.

The Chinese authorities banned Pitt from entering China in 1997 because of his role in the film "Seven Years In Tibet". He and Gwyneth Paltrow mutually agreed to split in June 1997.

He married Jennifer Aniston in 2000 and spent $1 million on their wedding. In 2001 he sued Damiani International who created the wedding ring he gave Jennifer Aniston. He claimed that it was his design and therefore exclusive to him. The company, however, had decided to cash in by selling replicas, indicating endorsement by Pitt and Aniston.

The pair claimed the company agreed to never reproduce their wedding rings, but it manufactured and sold "Brad and Jennifer" rings in 18 karat white or yellow gold, featuring either 12 or 13 diamonds and costing about $1,000 apiece.

He and ex-wife Jennifer Aniston reached a settlement with Damiani International in early 2002. Under the settlement, Pitt will now design jewelry for Damiani that Aniston will model in ads, and Damiani will stop selling the Pitt and Aniston copies.

He was the spokesman for Edwin Jeans ads in Japan. He was also the face of ads for a new Japanese canned coffee named Roots. He did a TV commercial for Toyota Altis that aired only in Asia. The car became very popular and its sales resulted in Toyota getting an almost 32% share of the passenger car market.

During the production of Troy in 2003 in which he plays Achilles he tore his Achilles tendon. The injury caused the production of Ocean's Twelve to be pushed back to April 2004. "Troy" was also released in 2004.

January, 2005 he announced the separation from his wife Jennifer Aniston after 4 1/2 years of marriage. They were finally divorced in October 2006. He and Angelina Jolie are now an item.

He had his first child with Angelia Jolie in May, 2006. Her name is Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. March 2007 - he and girlfriend Angelina Jolie adopted a 3-year-old boy named Pax Thien from Vietnam (born November 29th 2003). Pitt is also the adoptive father of Jolie's children Maddox and Zahara. He moved to New Orleans with Jolie and their four children in 2007.

Donated 5 million dollars of his own money to rebuild homes in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. He is a Patron of the Mineseeker Foundation and the Sole of Africa, a campaign dedicated to detecting and removing land mines in Africa. The Foundation's patrons include Nelson Mandela, Sir Richard Branson, Queen Noor, Graca Machel and John Paul de Joria.