Oscar Profile #481: Brad Pitt

Born December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, William Bradley Pitt’s father was the owner of a trucking company and his mother was a school counselor. The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri where he was raised along with his younger brother and sister. He attended the University of Missouri, majoring in journalism with a focus on advertising in the early 1980s, moving to Los Angeles just before graduation.

While taking acting lessons, Pitt had uncredited roles in four 1987 films, Hunk, No Way Out, No Man’s Land and Less Than Zero. He had his first billing and first starring role in 1988’s The Dark Side of the Sun, followed by minor roles in a couple of long forgotten films, after which he had another starring role in 1991’s Across the Tracks. It was, however, his supporting role in the same year’s Thelma & Louise that brought him world-wide attention.

Pitt’s rise was swift with starring roles in 1992’s A River Runs Through It, 1993’s Kalifornia and 1994’s Interview with the Vampire and Legends of the Fall, the latter bringing him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. 1995’s Se7en was a huge success while year-end release Twelve Monkeys earned him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and an Oscar nomination.

More hits followed, including 1997’s The Devil’s Own and Seven Years in Tibet, 1998’s Meet Joe Black and 1999’s Fight Club. In 2000, Pitt married TV actress Jennifer Aniston while continuing to star in such popular films as 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven and 2004’s Troy and Ocean’s Twelve. His affair with actress Angelina Jolie during the making of 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith led to his 2005 divorce from Aniston. The two had a natural child together in 2006 the same year Pitt adopted Jolie’s two previously adopted children. He would subsequently adopt three more children with Jolie prior to their 2014 marriage. Jolie filed for divorce in 2016 citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was granted in 2019.

Pitt’s stature as an actor continued to increase with 2006’s Babel, which earned him another Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor, followed by 2007’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and 2008’s Burn After Reading and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which brought him both Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. His performances in 2011’s The Tree of Life and Moneyball both garnered strong notices, with the latter once again earning him Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.

Pitt received a second Oscar nomination for Moneyball as producer of the film which was nominated for Best Picture. The following year he won an Oscar as producer of Twelve Years a Slave. He earned a third nomination as producer for 2015’s The Big Short.

Pitt had his best year yet in 2019 with acclaimed performances in Ad Astra and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, the latter winning him the lion’s share of the year’s Best Supporting Actor awards. He is also the producer of one of the year’s most acclaimed independent films, The Last Black Man in San Francisco.

Brad Pitt remains a force to be reckoned with at 56.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (1994), directed by Neil Jordan

A highly anticipated film and a huge box-office hit, this was based on Anne Rice’s bestselling novel. Tom Cruise had top billing as the vampire who turns Pitt into one in 18th century New Orleans, but it’s Pitt who has the central role of the vampire being interviewed by vampire wannabe Christian Slater in the present. Acting honors went to 12-year-old Kirsten Dunst as the little girl Pitt wants to protect but Cruise turns into a vampire. Cruise and Pitt, did however, earn acting awards from various science fiction and fantasy groups. Antonio Banderas also scored points as a European vampire with whom Pitt and Dunst have a later relationship.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (2008), directed by David Fincher

Based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this was a long gestating film that had previously been considered as a vehicle for the likes of Jack Nicholson and John Travolta. It was the third collaboration of director Fincher and Pitt following Se7en and Fight Club. Oscar nominated Pitt plays a character who is born old, lives his life backwards and dies young. Cate Blanchett, Pitt’s co-star in Babel was the love of his life. Julia Ormond, his co-star in Legends of the Fall was their daughter and Tilda Swinton, his co-star in Burn After Reading played another principal female role.

MONEYBALL (2011), directed by Bennett Miller

Pitt was a double Oscar nominee for this, having been nominated both for his acting and as producer of the film which was nominated for Best Picture. The inside baseball film was nominated for a total of six Oscars, losing them all. Pitt played real-life Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane who successfully assembled a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players. The script was by Steven Zallian (Schindler’s List) and Adam Sorkin (The Social Network) from a story by Stan Chervin from Michael Lewis’ book. Oscar nominee Jonah Hill co-starred.

12 YEARS A SLAVE (2013), directed by Steve McQueen

Pitt received his first Oscar as producer of the year’s Best Picture about the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the antebellum south. Pitt plays the friend who ultimately finds him and has him freed twelve years later. The film also won Oscars for Best Screenplay for John Ridley and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong’o as the beleaguered slave Patsey. Director McQueen shared Pitt’s award as one of the film’s producers. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup and Michael Fassbender as slave owner Epps were included among the film’s additional six nominations.

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD (2019), directed by Quentin Tarantino

Nominated for ten Oscars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Pitt are both terrific as a faded TV actor and his stunt double in Tarantino’s revisionist look at late 1960s Hollywood in which DiCaprio’s character, and not Clint Eastwood, becomes the premier spaghetti western star and the Manson gang doesn’t murder Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring played by Margot Robbie and Emile Hirsch. Along the way we are provided with cameos by the likes of Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Nicholas Hammond, Timothy Olyphant and Clifton Collins Jr. with a terrific soundtrack that runs the gamut from Gershwin’s “Summertime” to Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park”.