Angelina Jolie turns 50 From Nepo baby to cinema icon and activist
Angelina Jolie was a Nepo baby even before people were talking about Nepo babies. Both her parents were actors.
Image: KEYSTONE
Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in 2001, the movie that made her a superstar.
Image: IMAGO/Everett Collection
"I see abuse, I see suffering, and I can't just look away": for 20 years, Jolie campaigned for the UNHCR refugee agency.
Image: KEYSTONE
In addition to her career, she was also interested in her relationships. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were a couple from 2005 to 2016.
Image: KEYSTONE
The "Brangelina" divorce was not finalized until the end of 2024.
Image: IMAGO/ABACAPRESS
Angelina Jolie has a total of six children. Here she can be seen with Shiloh (l.) and Zahara.
Image: IMAGO/Pacific Press Agency
With her Atelier Jolie, founded in 2024, she wants to offer artists a place for creative collaboration.
Image: IMAGO/ABACAPRESS
Jolie last appeared in front of the camera as Maria Callas in the biopic "Maria", which was released in cinemas in February 2025.
Angelina Jolie was a Nepo baby even before people were talking about Nepo babies. Both her parents were actors.
Image: KEYSTONE
Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in 2001, the movie that made her a superstar.
Image: IMAGO/Everett Collection
"I see abuse, I see suffering, and I can't just look away": for 20 years, Jolie campaigned for the UNHCR refugee agency.
Image: KEYSTONE
In addition to her career, she was also interested in her relationships. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were a couple from 2005 to 2016.
Image: KEYSTONE
The "Brangelina" divorce was not finalized until the end of 2024.
Image: IMAGO/ABACAPRESS
Angelina Jolie has a total of six children. Here she can be seen with Shiloh (l.) and Zahara.
Image: IMAGO/Pacific Press Agency
With her Atelier Jolie, founded in 2024, she wants to offer artists a place for creative collaboration.
Image: IMAGO/ABACAPRESS
Jolie last appeared in front of the camera as Maria Callas in the biopic "Maria", which was released in cinemas in February 2025.
She became famous early on, played her way to the top of Hollywood and used her celebrity to do humanitarian work. Now Angelina Jolie is turning 50 - and can look back on an eventful career.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Angelina Jolie rose to fame with films such as "Lara Croft" and received several awards, including an Oscar.
- She campaigned for refugees for many years and became a UNHCR Special Envoy.
- In addition to her acting career, she founded a creative center in New York in 2024 and wants to devote more time to her foundation in Cambodia.
Angelina Jolie is turning 50. The woman who once leapt through temples as Lara Croft is at a completely different point today - no less powerful, but quieter. "There's something about age that feels like a victory to me," Angelina Jolie told Vogue in 2021."I feel like I'm really going to hit my stride in my fifties." Now, on Wednesday, June 4, this new chapter begins.
Angelina Jolie was born on 1975 in Los Angeles. And is actually a Nepo baby, long before anyone was talking about Nepo babies. She has her first film role at the age of five, alongside her parents in "Two in Ink". Her father Jon Voight and mother Marcheline Bertrand are both actors, but separate a year after Jolie's birth. From then on, her mother was a single mother and Jolie's relationship with her father was strained.
While still at school, Jolie attended drama school and landed her first small film roles and modeling jobs. Her breakthrough came at the turn of the millennium. In 1998, she starred in the film "Gia" and won a Golden Globe. In 2000, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film "Crazy". And in 2001 at the latest, she became a superstar with her role as Lara Croft in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider".
"I see abuse and I can't look away"
Jolie's humanitarian commitment grew in parallel with her career, and she became involved with the UNHCR refugee agency in 2001. She travels to crisis areas, talks to those affected and collects millions in donations. In 2012, she became a special ambassador. A position she holds until 2022. "I see abuse, I see suffering, and I can't just look away," she told Vogue in 2020.
However, it's not just her acting and activism, but also her relationships that are a recurring topic in the media. Especially her marriage to fellow actor Brad Pitt. In 2004, the two starred together in the film "Mr & Mrs Smith" and confirmed their relationship the following year. Jolie has six children, three of them with Pitt, and adopts three from crisis areas. "Brangelina" get married in 2014 after nine years of dating.
Jolie's mother dies of ovarian and breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 56. Angelina Jolie herself carries a gene that increases the risk of the disease, so in 2013 she decides to have a mastectomy - and makes the procedure public. As a result, the number of genetic tests for breast cancer and preventive mastectomies increased significantly. Time magazine called this the "Angelina effect".
Career in front of and behind the camera
In addition to acting, Jolie is also increasingly drawn behind the camera. In 2011, she made her debut as a director and screenwriter with "Love in Times of War". The film deals with the Bosnian war. From then on, war and misery are the subject of her films. This was followed in 2014 by "Unbroken", a film about the Second World War, and in 2017 by "The Long Road of Hope", a film about the Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime.
In the fall of 2016, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt split up, with Jolie accusing Pitt of assaulting her and the children. However, an investigation is dropped. The divorce was not finalized until the end of 2024. For years, the two fought over a property in France.
Angelina Jolie last appeared in front of the camera as Maria Callas in the biopic "Maria", which will be released in February 2025. In 2024, Jolie founds Atelier Jolie in New York, a center for artists. She offers studio residencies and creative courses there. Jolie is also said to want to devote more time to her Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation. The organization supports people in Cambodia who live in extreme poverty.