Brad Pitt the This sensuously handsome blond actor emerged as one of the most celebrated screen sex symbols of 1990s Hollywood. Brad Pitt started out in TV guest spots (including a recurring role on the CBS primetime soap "Dallas" in 1987) that tended to capitalize on his wiry good looks. He co-starred in "Glory Days" (Fox, 1990), a short-lived drama about post-high school angst. Pitt entered features via the well-traveled low road, appearing in supporting roles in such standard teen fodder as slasher flicks, sex comedies and family-oriented sports dramas.
Pitt gained relatively instant stardom as the hitchhiking hunk--part charmer, part thief--who seduces Geena Davis in the female buddy movie, "Thelma & Louise" (1991). The following year, he achieved leading man status sporting a formidable pompadour as the fictitious, aspiring teen idol "Johnny Suede", and maintained the hairstyle as a soft-hearted yet hard-boiled vet turned cartoon cop in "Cool World", Ralph Bakshi's uneven blend of live-action and animation. Pitt gained some critical esteem playing the troubled younger brother who casts a mean fishing line in Robert Redford's "A River Runs Through It" (also 1992), but fared less well as a bearded psycho killer in "Kalifornia" (1993). He provided a delightful character turn as a stoner roommate in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted "True Romance" (also 1993). Pitt subsequently played his first high profile lead in a Hollywood blockbuster as Louis, the lachrymose narrator of "Interview With the Vampire" (1994). His depressed bloodsucker seemed all the more anemic paired with a lively Tom Cruise. Pitt's star qualities were better displayed in "Legends of the Fall" (also 1994), as the wild, middle brother of a colorful Western clan. In a change of pace from glamour roles (and to subtly subvert his being dubbed "the sexiest man alive" by People magazine), the actor played a scruffy, arrogant policeman tracking a serial killer with Morgan Freeman in "Seven" and earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination as a twitching mental patient/animal rights activist in the Terry Gilliam-directed "12 Monkeys" (both 1995).
After a turn as a prosecutor in Barry Levinson's "Sleepers" (1996), Pitt adopted a Belfast accent as an IRA gunman seeking refuge in the home of a NYC cop (Harrison Ford) in "The Devil's Own" (1997). What had been a long a troubled shoot resulted in a muddled and uneven drama. Pitt caused some controversy with a Newsweek interview in which he made disparaging comments about the film and its script. With "Seven Years in Tibet" (1997), he adopted an Austrian accent to play an egotistical man who undergoes a conversion of sorts when he is befriended by the youthful Dalai Lama. That film was also the subject of some debate when it was revealed that Heinrich Harrer (the character Pitt portrayed) had been a Nazi Party member; the resultant negative publicity and mixed reviews probably hurt the film's box office. Pitt followed by reteaming with his "Legends of the Falls" co-star Anthony Hopkins in the languid "Meet Joe Black" (1998), a loose remake of "Death Takes a Holiday" with the younger thespian portraying the Grim Reaper in human form.
Further downplaying his attractive facade, Pitt was cast as Tyler Durden, the straight-shooting but charismatic mastermind behind "Fight Club" (1999), an underground society of disaffected young men who engage in fisticuffs. He continued in a similar vein with a turn as an Irish gypsy with a flair for bare knuckles boxing in "Snatch" (2000). In both of these films, Pitt's muscular physique was on display but in "Fight Club", he favored a scruffy look while in "Snatch", he was covered in tattoos. Off-screen, however, Pitt's celebrity status as a hunky Hollywood icon soared into the stratosphere after his romantic relationship with equally beautiful and popular TV star Jennifer Aniston culiminated in 2001 with a storybook wedding--complete with fireworks--in Malibu. The couple's every move quickly became must-have fodder for entertainment-oriented media outlets everywhere.
In "The Mexican" (2001), he offered a relaxed, loose turn as a somewhat dim low-level gangster sent south (over the objections of his long-time girlfriend, played by Julia Roberts) to retrieve the title object, an antique pistol that supposedly carried a curse. He remained busy portraying the protege of a retiring CIA operative (Robert Redford) in "Spy Game" and joining George Clooney and the ensemble of the Steven Soderbergh-directed remake of "Ocean's Eleven" (both 2001). That year Pitt also made a notable guest appearance on his wife's famous sit-com "Friends" playing a now-thin high school pal of Monica's who's harbored a long animosity toward Rachel (Aniston), as well as a much discussed slot on MTV's stunt-prank series "Jackass," where the actor was violently "kidnapped" from L.A.'s Pink's hot dog stand as several dumbfounded witnesses observed. In 2002, Pitt made brief cameo appearances in Soderbergh's experimental film "Full Frontal" (as himself) and Clooney's directorial debut "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," and in 2003 voiced the title character in the animated feature film "Sinbad."
After years of downplaying his handsome, heroic looks by appearing in scruffy beards and long hair, Pitt finally took a role that cast him as every bit the beautiful Golden Boy, playing the legendary Greek hero Achilles in director Wolfgang Petersen's epic "Troy" (2004), a role that inspired excitement among his male and female fans alike. The actor also agreed to rejoin Clooney, Soderberg, et al, for the sequel romp "Ocean's Twelve" (2004), this time playing a Rusty with his own love interest (Catherine Zeta-Jones), although the film lacked much of the charm of the first outing. The actor then found himself at the center of an intense media whirlwind when he announced he was splitting from Aniston: one of the speculated reasons for the divorce of the dream couple centered on rumors of an on-set relationship with Angelina Jolie during his next film, the Doug Liman-helmed action-fest "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005), in which the actors played a bored married couple surprised to learn that they are each secretly assassins, ultimately hired to kill each other. Though both actors initially refuted the rumors--and, after frequently being photographed together in their private lives, took a coyer stance later on--the intense media and public interest in their possible relationship propelled the film to huge box office receipts, thanks in large part to their palpable on-screen chemistry. Their "are they or aren't they?" coupling captivated star watchers and was the most written-about celebrity story of 2005 (prompting the coining of the term "Brangelina") as their relationship gradually emerged in the public eye as Pitt accompanied Jolie on her missions of mercy to third world nations, petitioned to adopt her two adopted children, and ultimately revealed that he and Jolie were expecting their own biological child together as well.