Brad Pitt

EARLY LIFE

Brad Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to Jane Etta (née Hillhouse), a school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, who ran a trucking company.

His full name is William Bradley Pitt.

By DoD News Features -  Wikipedia

He has English, with a smaller amount of German, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Scots-Irish ancestry.

The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he lived together with Brad's younger siblings, Doug (born 1966) and Julie Neal (born 1969).

Pitt told GQ that his childhood was similar to that of Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: "We had a lot of caves, fantastic caverns," he said. "And we grew up First Baptist, which is the cleaner, stricter, by-the-book Christianity."

When he was 14-years-old, Brad failed to make the cut for the basketball team at Cherokee Middle School in Springfield, Missouri. In response, he set up a rival squad who were coached by his father and called themselves the Cherokee Rejects. They even had their own uniforms.

Bradley went to the strangely named Kickapoo High School, in Springfield, Missouri.

His high school nickname was Brad the "Pitt-bull".

Just weeks before graduating from the University of Missouri, Pitt dropped out to pursue acting. 

Brad Pitt worked as an El Pollo Loco mascot in Hollywood before he became a star. He danced in a chicken suit to draw in customers at an El Pollo Loco restaurant on Sunset Boulevard.

ACTING CAREER 

Pitt had 325 dollars in his pocket when he moved to LA in 1986. There, he slept on the sofa of US singer Melissa Etheridge.

Pitt's television debut came in May 1987 with a two-episode role on the NBC soap opera Another World. The following year Pitt made a guest appearance on the Fox Johnny Depp-starring police drama 21 Jump Street.

Brad Pitt's movie acting career began in 1987 with uncredited roles in the films No Way Out and Less Than Zero.

His first starring role in a feature film was in The Dark Side of the Sun, which was shot in pre-war Yugoslavia during the summer of 1988. He played a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic Sea to search for a cure for a rare skin disease.

Pitt first gained recognition in Thelma & Louise (1991), and received his first Academy Award nomination for the role of a mental patient in 12 Monkeys (1995).

He had to learn to fly-cast for his role in A River Runs Through It (1992). Pitt practiced on top of buildings in Hollywood.

Brad Pitt tried to buy himself out of the 1994 horror drama Interview with the Vampire. Upon hearing about the $40 million exit clause, he shot the movie. It went on to receive two Oscar nominations and launched Kirsten Dunst’s career

Pitt had to learn boxing, taekwondo, and grappling for his starring role in the apocalyptic film Fight Club (1999).

Brad Pitt’s tooth got chipped during the making of Fight Club, but the actor thought the look suited his character. So he did not get his tooth capped until the shooting of the film was over.

When Brad Pitt played the Greek hero Achilles in Troy, he coincidentally tore his Achilles tendon while filming a fight scene and could not shoot for ten weeks.

In Ocean's 11 (2001), Rusty (Brad Pitt) was eating in every scene he was in. This was Brad Pitt's Idea.

Brad Pitt was given a cup of coffee as payment for his cameo in the 2018 film Deadpool 2. Co-writer Ryan Reynolds thought the most wasteful way to use the biggest movie star in the world was to make him invisible and worthless throughout the flick. Brad found it funny and shot his cameo in about seven minutes.

Pitt is the first man ever to be named "Sexiest Man Alive" twice by People magazine (1994 and 2000).

Pitt in 2001

PERSONAL LIFE

Brad Pitt first met Jennifer Aniston on a blind date, which was arranged by their agent.

Pitt and Aniston were one of Hollywood’s highest-profile couples when they married on July 29, 2000 in Malibu, California. They spent $1 million on their wedding.

The pair separated on January 7, 2005 after four years of marriage.

Pitt subsequently started a relationship with Angelina Jolie. They have six children (four adopted, plus twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline whom Jolie gave birth to on July 12, 2008 in Nice, France.)

Angelina Jolie and Pitt at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival

Pitt and Angelina Jolie married in California on August 14, 2014 and in southern France nine days later.

Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt on September 20, 2016.

Pitt owns the production company Plan B Entertainment, which has produced films such as Troy (2004), The Departed (2006), Moneyball, and 12 Years a Slave (2013).  He founded it in 2001 with Jennifer Aniston when they were married.

Pitt has learned to fly, piloting his own Cirrus SR22, and has also bought a World War II-era Supermarine Spitfire for $3.3 million.

Brad Pitt's younger brother, Douglas Pitt, is the first American to have scaled Mount Kilimanjaro and descended on a mountain bike.