Angelina Jolie Biography
Angelina Jolie is an American actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She was born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles, California.
She attended high school at Beverly Hills High School before transferring to Moreno High School where she completed her high school education in 1991 at the age 16. While at high school, she concurrently attended a tow year course at Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles. She has also studied film directing and screenwriting at New York University. In 2016 she was a visiting professor at London School of Economics' Centre for Women, Peace, and Security.
Angelina Jolie began engaging in film acting in 1991 after completion of her high school education, with roles in some amateur low key films, as well as music videos. It was to take two years before she got professional film acting role in 1993 in science-fiction film Cyborg 2.
Albeit probably not very happy with Cyborg 2, the film, however, paved the way for her first Hollywood film two years later, when she played a role in Hackers in 1995.
Entry to Hollywood was a game changer to Angelina Jolie's acting career and perhaps all other spheres of her professional life. She advanced rather fast, winning her first Golden Globe in 1998, for the role she played in George Wallace in 1997.
Notwithstanding, however, it was her role in Gia in 1998 that is said to have propelled her to a global movie superstar, hence her ultimate breakthrough into fame and wealth. For this role, she won her second Golden Globe in 1999, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award also in 1999. Her status as a global movie superstar was consolidated and secured by her role in the iconic movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001, despite not winning a trophy for the movie.
Angelina Jolie's contribution to the film industry has been immense. Having played roles in more than 50 movies so far. In recognition of of this remarkable contribution to the industry, she has been honored with 6 world class awards, and nominated numerous times for such awards. Won awards are as thus.
3 Golden Globe Awards (1998, 1999, 2000)
2 Screen Actors Guild Awards (1999, 2000)
1 Emmy Award (1998)
Angelina Jolie's outstanding success in Hollywood is also illustrated financial rewards there. For instance, according to Forbes, she was the highest paid actress in Hollywood in 2009, 2011, and 2013, earning annually $27 million, $30 million, and $33 million respectively. Also, probably because of her success in Hollywood, she was named the world's most powerful actress in 2006, 2007, and 2008, as well as 2011, 2012, and 2013, by Forbes.
As an entrepreneur, Angelina Jolie activities have so far been confined to mainly film production and endorsement of brands and products.
On the one hand, Angelina Jolie's engagement in film making commenced in the 2010s, in various capacities that include, among others, producer, director, and screen writer. Within such spectrum of capacities, among films she has been involved in their making include the following:
1) In The Land Of Blood And Honey (2011)
2) Unbroken (2014)
3) By The Sea (2015), and
4) First They Killed My Father (2017)
On the other hand, Angelina Jolie's endorsement of brands and products includes, among others, the following deals.
1) An endorsement deal with the beauty brand Guerlain in 2017, as a face for the brand's fragrance Mon Guerlain Eau de Parfum for women
2) $10 million endorsement deal with Louis Vuitton in 2011
3) $12 million endorsement deal with the clothing brand St. John, from 2006 - 2008
As regards philanthropy, Angelina Jolie is probably the most extra-ordinary celebrity philanthropist the world has ever seen. Her concern for others and particularly her personal contribution to helping those enduring suffering and misery accruing from various factors like wars, famine, social injustice, diseases, etc, throughout the world, is genuine and unprecedented.
More specifically, Angelina Jolie began engaging in philanthropy in 2001, just after starring in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in Cambodia. Her passion for philanthropy is said to have been partly triggered by the human suffering she witnessed in the then war-torn Cambodia. The experience reportedly had a profound effect on her view about the world and particularly made her believe we should help those who are suffering if we can. This believe that seems to be the essence of Angelina Jolie's philanthropy, is vividly illustrated in her masterpiece statement she delivered in 2001 when accepting a position of Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and we quote:
"We cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering. I honestly want to help. I don't believe I feel differently from other people. I think we all want justice and equality, a chance for a life with meaning. All of us would like to believe that if we were in a bad situation someone would help us."
Angelina Jolie is said to have also described her staunch passion for philanthropy as a shift in her personal struggle. Saying prior to the age of 26 she was fighting for herself, but after that she has been fighting for others.
Angelina Jolie philanthropic activities so far fall within, among others, the following themes: refugees, children welfare including education, conservation especially wildlife conservation, women human rights, and sex violence in war zones.
Within the context of above themes, Angelina Jolie supports at least 29 charitable organizations, some of which are:
Global Action For Children
Care To Learn
UNICEF
Human Rights Watch
UNHCR
Direct Change
Alliance For Lost Boys Of Sudan
Yele Haiti Foundation
Muhammad Ali Centre
Afghanistan Relief Organization
UN Millennium Project, and
Cinema For Peace
Also, Angelina Jolie is a co-founder of her family charity called Jolie - Pitt Foundation.
Furthermore, Angelina Jolie has donated or funded many specific charitable projects worldwide directly with her own personal money. Such philanthropic contribution can be exemplified as thus.
1) In 2001 she made a personal financial donation of a staggering $1 million to UNCHR
2) In Kenya, she funded with her money schools, roads, and a milk factory in a Millennium Village in the western part of the country, as well as a girls boarding school at Kakuma refugee camp
3) In Namibia, she funded with her family's charity, a large wildlife conservation project in Naankuse in the Kalahari, as well as a free medical center, school, and housing for the San Bushmen community in the area
4) In Cambodia, she funded a 60 000 hectare wildlife conservation project
In addition to supporting charitable organizations and direct funding of specific charitable projects, Angelina Jolie has contributed considerably to raising public awareness about refugee issues, and especially the plight of refugees, by making numerous visits to refugee camps in various parts of the world. Refugee camps she has visited camps in: Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Tanzania, Kenya, Iraq, Ecuador, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone, among others. She has also visited dangerous war zone areas including Darfur in Sudan, Syria, and Afghanistan.
In 2001, UNCHR expressed its appreciation and recognition of Angelina Jolie's remarkable involvement in philanthropy and particularly her humanitarian effort on alleviating the suffering of refugees worldwide, by naming her its Goodwill Ambassador, and promoted her to the position of Special Envoy to the UNHCR in 2012.
Other renown international organizations and individuals have also showered Angelina Jolie with world class awards for her absolutely extra-ordinary contribution to philanthropy. The awards include among others the following.
1) Title of Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (DCMG) from Queen Elizabeth II of England (2014)
2) Jean Hershott Humanitarian Award from Academy of Motion Picture Acts and Sciences (2013)
3) Freedom Award from International Rescue Committee (2007)
4) Global Humanitarian Award from UNA - USA (2005)
5) Citizen of the World Award from United Nations Correspondents Association (2003)
6) Humanitarian Award from Church World Service (2002)
As an individual person, Angelina Jolie is a very beautiful woman. She has been named by numerous beauty and lifestyle magazines as one of the most beautiful and sexiest women in the world.
Angelina Jolie's overwhelming beauty has generated massive interest among both men and women worldwide, with her most powerful perceived physical beauty attributes said to be her full lips and eyes. As such, the two attributes are claimed to be highly sought-after by women seeking to enhance their natural beauty though plastic surgery. To some women, Angelina Jolie represents the the feminine ideal, it has been observed in some quarters.
Notwithstanding, Angelina Jolie's amazing beauty should not be associated with any sort of physical fragility. She is reportedly also very strong physically, having been rather wild and fascinated with knives and blood in her teenage years and early 20s. According to her own narrations, during those early years she experimented intensively with all sorts of drugs and alcohol. She, however, successfully managed to put that lifestyle behind after the age of 25.
The above unique combination of incredible beauty and toughness has been argued in some quarters to have had positive impacts on Angelina Jolie's career as an actress. The movies she starred, like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Mr And Mrs Smith (2005), and Wanted (2008) could cited as good illustrative examples of the link.
Angelina Jolie's beauty and toughness are coupled with friendliness, empathy, generosity, intelligence, sophistication, self confidence, focus, decisiveness, and mental strength.
More generally, Angelina Jolie's life so far has demonstrated wild lifestyle most teenagers and young adults often love experiencing is normal and can be put behind as one matures. Because wild lifestyle is normal among young people, it should never be used in anyway against them in adulthood. After all, and as illustrated in Angelina Jolie's life, such lifestyle experiences can be a preamble for deep understanding of the world and provide premises of departure for individual positive contribution to making it a better place to live.
Furthermore, Angelina Jolie's life has illustrated while philanthropy is an effective mechanism by which those blessed with wealth and fame could give back to society from where wealth and fame accrue, it can also lead to enhancement of stability of life of the philanthropist, as well as delivering considerable happiness hence personal success to the latter. In other words, using some of your wealth and fame to genuinely make society a better place, may not only benefit the beneficiaries, but yourself as well! It may even lead to more wealth and fame, depending on how its done.
With a net worth of $160 million as of January 2019 by Celebs Net Worth magazine, Angelina Jolie has definitely excelled as an actress and entrepreneur. The material success coupled with her absolutely outstanding commitment to making the world a better place for mankind through philanthropy, make Angelina Jolie one of the smartest beautiful women the world has ever seen.
_______________________
© 2015 - 2019 Smart Beautiful Women. All Rights Reserved