I first saw Angelina Jolie in Playing God (1997 starring David Duchovny), where she pouted her lips and played a character that can be both tough and vulnerable. She was the girl stuck between David’s doctor down on his luck and Timothy Hutton’s criminal, and she made the role stand out with her wrestling with the choices she has made. With other roles standing out against my cinematic regulars like Denzel Washington (1999 The Bone Collector) and Nicolas Cage (2000 Gone in Sixty Seconds), I was really happy to see Angelina bring the character of Lara Croft to life in 2 Tomb Raider films (2001 and 2003), and I wish she would have made more. Angelina can bring fiery passion, a complicated head space, and a damaged soul together, in roles that can be otherwise undeveloped or quite daunting. After proving herself in front of the camera, she has lately been working on projects behind the camera with her latest directed and co-wrote film, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.

Angelina Jolie was born in Los Angeles, California, had a small part in a film of her father’s at age 5, (Lookin’ to Get Out, 1982 with Jon Voight), and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Manhattan, New York. She appeared in a number of music videos for artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Meat Loaf, and The Rolling Stones and her first leading role was in Cyborg 2 (1993). She would soon be in Hackers (1995), Gia (1998), and in 1999, Angelina won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Girl, Interrupted. Jolie has balanced sexy thrillers, (Original Sin with Antonio Banderas in 2001, Taking Lives with Ethan Hawke in 2004, and The Tourist with Johnny Depp in 2010), with action (Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Brad Pitt in 2005, Wanted with James McAvoy in 2008, and Salt with Liev Schreiber in 2010), with more kid friendly features, (Shark Tale with Will Smith in 2004, Kung Fu Panda films with Jack Black 2008-2016, and Maleficent with Elle Fanning in 2014). Her directing credits include By the Sea (2015 which she also wrote) and Unbroken (2014 which was nominated for 3 Academy Awards).

Thank you and Happy Birthday Angelina!

Links
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