Sporting the golden-boy glow of Robert Redford and the maxillofacial structure of Kirk Douglas, Pitt became one of the great movie heartthrobs in the 1990s. Pitt grew up in Missouri and studied journalism in college before dropping out to become an actor. He got his big break as the sexy scoundrel hitchhiker in the 1991 movie Thelma and Louise (with Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon), a small role that nonetheless catapulted him to leading man status. Known as a movie star who doesn't always take the starring role, Pitt has co-starred with Tom Cruise in Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire (1994), with Bruce Willis in Twelve Monkeys (1995) and with Harrison Ford in The Devil's Own (1997). His other films include: Se7en (1995, with Morgan Freeman), Fight Club (1999, with Edward Norton) and Spy Game (2001, with Robert Redford); the ensemble films Snatch (2000) and Ocean's Eleven (2001, with George Clooney); and the big-budget star vehicles Troy (2004, with Eric Bana) and Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005, opposite Angelina Jolie).

Once engaged to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt married actress Jennifer Aniston in 2000. They split in January of 2005 and divorced in October of that year, amid rumors that Pitt had a romantic relationship with Angelina Jolie, his co-star from Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Those rumors seemed confirmed in December of 2005, when Pitt's publicist announced that Pitt had filed papers to legally adopt Jolie's children, changing their names to Zahara Jolie-Pitt and Maddox Jolie-Pitt.