Born December 18, 1963, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Pitt grew up in Springfield, Missouri, the eldest of three children in a devoutly Southern Baptist family. His father, Bill Pitt, owned a trucking company and his mother, Jane Pitt, was a family counselor. Pitt originally aspired to be an advertising art director, studying journalism at the University of Missouri. However, the young college student had other quiet aspirations, the product of a childhood love of movies, which finally seemed tangible his last semester at university when he realized, "I can leave." On a whim, Pitt dropped out of college, packed up his Datsun, and headed West to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles, just two credits shy of a college degree.
Pitt told his parents he intended to enroll in the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, but instead spent the next several months driving a limousine—chauffeuring strippers from one bachelor party to the next, delivering refrigerators, and trying to break into the L.A. acting scene. He joined an acting class and, shortly after, accompanied a classmate as her scene partner on an audition with an agent. In a twist of fate, the agent signed Pitt instead of his classmate. After weathering only seven months in Los Angeles, Pitt had secured an agent and regular acting work.
Pitt's first jobs came in television, appearing in episodes of Dallas, the daytime soap Another World, the sitcom Growing Pains, and in 1990's short-lived Fox Television series, Glory Days. In 1989, Pitt played Billy Canton, the drug-addicted pimp of a teenage runaway, played by Juliette Lewis, in the NBC made-for-television movie Too Young to Die. Pitt and Lewis (9 years his junior at age 16) started dating and eventually moved in together.
Pitt made his big screen debut in 1989's horror/slasher film Cutting Class with Donovan Leitch, and played a teen track star in Sandy Tung's Across the Tracks, but it was a well-timed bit part in a controversial Hollywood film that pushed him into the glare of instant stardom. Pitt's performance as a renegade, sugar-tongued hitchhiker who gets picked up by the two title characters in Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise (1991) grabbed universal attention despite only a few minutes worth of screen time. Pitt's combination of charming bad boy charisma and sexual playfulness (particularly in a fiery love scene with Geena Davis) secured him as a genuine sex symbol (and wore out the rewind button on many a VCR).
In the News: Actor Brad Pitt told W magazine on Wednesday (January 7th, 2009) that he never cheated on ex-wife Jennifer Aniston during their marriage. In October of 2008, Jolie revealed during an interview that she and Pitt fell in love while making the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. In November of that same year, Aniston called the comments "uncool," because she was still married to Pitt during the film's production.
"What people don't understand is that...we were still filming [Mr. & Mrs. Smith] after Jen and I split up," Pitt explains. "Even then it doesn't mean that there was some kind of dastardly affair. There wasn't."
Pitt also says he and Aniston are still on good terms, and that they still talk with each other from time to time. "We still check in with each other. She was a big part of my life, and me hers. I don’t see how there cannot be [that]. That’s life, man. That’s life
| Sandra Bullock | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 May 2007 | |||
| Born | Sandra Annette Bullock July 26, 1964 Arlington, Virginia | ||
| Othername(s) | Sandra Sandy | ||
| Occupation | Actor , producer | ||
| Years active | 1987 - present | ||
| Spouse(s) | Jesse G. James (2005 - present) | ||
| |||
Sandra Annette Bullock, IPA: ˈbʊlək (born July 26, 1964) is a Screen Actors Guild Award-winning and two-time Golden Globe Award-nominated American-German actor.[1] She came to fame in the 1990s, after roles in successful films such as Speed and While You Were Sleeping. She has since established her career as a well-known leading Hollywood actress, with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House and 2004's Crash, which received critical acclaim. In 2007 she was ranked as the 14th richest female celebrity with an estimated fortune of $85 million.[2]
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Bullock was born in Arlington County, Virginia, the daughter of Helga D. Meyer, a German operasinger, and John W Bullock, a Pentagon contractor, executive and part-time vocal coach fromAlabama.[3][4] Bullock's maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. On her father's side, she is descended from a prominent family in early Alabama history for whomBullock County is named. Bullock lived in Nuremberg until age twelve, where she sang in the opera's children's choir at the Staatstheater Nürnberg.[5] She frequently traveled with her mother on her opera tours, and lived in Germany and other parts of Europe for much of her childhood. She retains German citizenship.[1] Bullock studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, taking small parts in her mother's opera productions.
Bullock attended Washington-Lee High School where she was a cheerleader, participated in high school theater productions and dated a football player.[6] She graduated in 1982 and enrolled inEast Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. During this time, she worked as a waitress at a restaurant.[6] She later left school during her senior year (Spring 1986), only three credits short of graduating, to pursue an acting career.[6]She went on to Manhattan to pursue auditions and supported herself with a variety of odd jobs (bartender, cocktail waitress, coat checker).[6]
Bullock later completed her coursework and was awarded a bachelor's degree from East Carolina University.[7] She is fluent in German.
While in New York, Bullock took acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She had appeared in several student films and had later landed a role in an Off-Broadway play No Time Flat.[6] Director Alan J. Levi was impressed by Bullock's performance and offered her a part in the made-for-TV movie Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989). After filming the TV movie, Bullock had stayed in Los Angeles and was cast in a series of small roles in several independent films as well as in the lead role of the short-lived NBC television version of the film Working Girl (1990). She had later appeared in several films such as Love Potion No. 9 (1992), The Thing Called Love (1993) and Fire on the Amazon(where she agreed to appear topless if the camera did not show that much, she covered herself with duct tape which apparently was somewhat painful to take off).[6]
One of Bullock's first notable movie appearances was in the science-fiction/action movie, Demolition Man(1993), which starred Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. This role then led to her break-through performance in Speed the following year. She became a high-level movie star in the late 1990s, carrying a string of successes, including While You Were Sleeping (replacing actress Demi Moore, who was originally scheduled to star), and Miss Congeniality. Bullock received 11 million dollars for Speed 2[6] and 17.5 million dollars for Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous.[6]
Bullock was selected as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1996 and 1999, and was also ranked #58 inEmpire magazine's Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list. She was presented with the 2002 Raúl Juliá Award for Excellence[8] for her efforts, as the executive producer of the sitcom The George Lopez Show, in helping expand career openings for Hispanic talent in the media and entertainment industry. She also guest starred as Accident Amy in two episodes. In 2002, she starred opposite Hugh Grant in the global hitTwo Weeks Notice.
In 2004, Bullock had a supporting role in the film Crash. She received positive reviews for her performance, with some critics suggesting that it was the best performance of her career.[citation needed] Bullock later appeared in The Lake House, a romantic drama also starring her Speed co-star, Keanu Reeves; it was released on June 16, 2006. Because their film characters are separated throughout the film (due to the plot revolving around time travel), Bullock and Reeves were only on set together for two weeks during filming.[9] The same year, Bullock appeared inInfamous, playing author Harper Lee. Bullock also stars in Premonition with Julian McMahon, which was released in March 2007.[10]
Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 24, 2005. In January 2007, Bullock was named the 14th richest woman in entertainment by Forbes, with a net worth of $85 million.[11]
Bullock currently runs her own production company, Fortis Films. Her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, is president of the company and her father, John Bullock, is its CEO.[12] She was an executive producer of George Lopez which garnered a lucrative syndication deal that banked Bullock some $10 million (co-produced with Robert Borden [13]). She also made sporadic "cameo" appearances in the show as "Accident Amy," a factory worker prone to accidents in the workplace. Bullock tried to produce a film based on F.X. Toole's short story Million-Dollar Baby, but couldn't interest studios in a female boxing drama.[14] The story was eventually filmed by Clint Eastwood as the Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby (2004). Bullock's production company, Fortis Films, will produce her next movie, All About Steve. In the meantime, she tends to her Austin restaurant, Bess Bistro, and its first merchandising tie-in, a line of organic candles.
Bullock was once engaged to actor Tate Donovan whom she met while filming Love Potion No. 9. Their relationship lasted four years.[6] She had previously dated football player Troy Aikman, Austin musician Bob Schneider (for two years)[6] and film co-stars, Ryan Gosling and Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey and Bullock met each other while filming A Time to Kill and became friends, dating for a while. Some notable celebrity friends include Heather Burns and Hugh Grant.
Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James on July 16, 2005. They met when Bullock arranged for her ten-year-old godson to meet James as a Christmas present. On her husband and her marriage, Bullock has commented:
So basically through a courtship of letters... I learned about a human being. It was not something I wanted, needed, or looked for, but because he was a stronger person than I was, spiritually and on a tolerance level, I was lucky enough that he educated me... I always thought of marriage as a death sentence, that there'd be a ball and chain, and you'd be told, "You need to stop doing these things and become a good little wife." Now people say "Oh my God you're going to have sex with one person the rest of your life!" I hope I have sex with him for the rest of my life - because I like it![15]
On December 20, 2000, Bullock survived the crash of a chartered business jet at Jackson Hole Airport. The aircraft hit a snowbank instead of the runway, resulting in both the nose gear and nose cone being ripped off, the right wing partially separated from the aircraft and the left wing bent back. When the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred, Bullock was staying at the Soho Grand hotel, twelve blocks from the World Trade Center. She saw the attacks from her hotel bedroom window and went to a nearby hospital to offer help. As all phone lines in New York City were down, she spent the rest of the day using her Palm Pilot to send e-mailson behalf of patients wanting to contact their families.
Bullock has twice donated $1 million to the American Red Cross, first to its Liberty Disaster Relief Fund and four years later in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis.[16]
In October 2004, Bullock won a multimillion dollar judgment against Benny Daneshjou, the builder of her Lake Austin Texas mansion; the jury ruled the house was uninhabitable. It has since been torn down and rebuilt, and her Porsche 911 Turbo replaced by a Toyota Prius.[17] Bullock also owns a house on Tybee Island, Georgia, which is a few miles from Savannah, Georgia. After four years of preparation, Bullock's first restaurant, Bess,[18] opened in November 2006 in Austin, Texas.
On April 22, 2007, a woman was lying outside James and Bullock's Southern California home in Orange County. When James confronted the woman, she ran inside her 2004 silver Mercedes and tried to run him over 3 to 4 times. The woman is said to be an obsessed fan of Sandra Bullock. The woman, Marcia Diana Valentine, was arrested on investigation of assault with a deadly weapon.[19] In May, Bullock won a three-year restraining order against the woman. Valentine pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault and stalking.[20]
On April 18, 2008, while Bullock was in Massachusetts shooting the film The Proposal, she and her husband were in an SUV that was hit head on by a drunken driver. There were no injuries.[21]
On a brighter note, it was revealed in January 2009 that, fulfilling a rumoured life-long fantasy for Bullock, she and husband Jesse James were awarded temporary full-time custody of his daughter Sunny, following her mother's (adult film star, Janine Lindemulder) sentencing to 6 months in prison, for income tax evasion. It is rumoured that Bullock already has a close relationship with James' 6-year-old daughter.[22]
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Hangmen | Lisa Edwards | |
| 1989 | Religion, Inc. | Debby | |
| Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman | Kate Mason | ||
| Who Shot Patakango? | Devlin Moran | ||
| The Preppie Murder | Stacy | ||
| 1990 | Lucky/Chances | Maria Santangelo | |
| 1992 | Who Do I Gotta Kill? | Lori | |
| When the Party's Over | Amanda | ||
| Love Potion No. 9 | Diane Farrow | ||
| 1993 | The Vanishing | Diane Shaver | |
| The Thing Called Love | Linda Lue Linden | ||
| Demolition Man | Lt. Lenina Huxley | ||
| Fire on the Amazon | Alyssa Rothman | ||
| Wrestling Ernest Hemingway | Elaine | ||
| 1994 | Speed | Annie Porter | |
| 1995 | While You Were Sleeping | Lucy Eleanor Moderatz | Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
| The Net | Angela Bennett/Ruth Marx | ||
| 1996 | Two If by Sea | Roz | |
| A Time to Kill | Ellen Roark | ||
| In Love and War | Agnes von Kurowsky | ||
| 1997 | Speed 2: Cruise Control | Annie Porter | |
| 1998 | Hope Floats | Birdee Pruitt | Also executive producer |
| Practical Magic | Sally Owens | ||
| The Prince of Egypt (Animated Film) | Miriam | voice | |
| 1999 | Forces of Nature | Sarah Lewis | |
| 2000 | Gun Shy | Judy Tipp | |
| 28 Days | Gwen Cummings | ||
| Miss Congeniality | Gracie Hart/Gracie Lou Freebush | Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | |
| 2002 | Murder by Numbers | Cassie Mayweather/Jessica Marie Hudson | Also executive producer |
| Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood | Siddalee 'Sidda' Walker | ||
| Two Weeks Notice | Lucy Kelson | Also producer | |
| 2004 | Crash | Jean Cabot | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
| 2005 | Loverboy | Mrs. Harker | |
| Farm of the Yard | Amanda the Tyrannosaurus Rex | voice | |
| Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous | Gracie Hart | Also producer | |
| 2006 | The Lake House | Kate Forster | |
| Infamous | Nelle Harper Lee | ||
| 2007 | Premonition | Linda Quinn Hanson | |
| 2009 | All About Steve | Mary Horowitz | post-production; also producer |
| The Proposal[23] | Margaret Tate | post-production | |
| Kiss & Tango[24] | TBA | pre-production |
| Year | Award Show | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Razzie Awards | Worst Supporting Actress for Demolition Man | Nominated |
| 1995 | Saturn Awards | Best Actress for Speed | Won |
| 1995 | Golden Apple | Female Star of the Year | Won |
| 1995 | Blimp Award | Favorite Movie Actress for Speed | Won |
| 1995 | MTV Movie Awards | Best Female Performance for Speed | Won |
| 1995 | MTV Movie Awards | Best On-Screen Duo for Speed | Won |
| 1995 | MTV Movie Awards | Most Desirable Female for Speed | Won |
| 1995 | MTV Movie Awards | Best Kiss for Speed | Nominated |
| 1996 | American Comedy Awards | Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) for While You Were Sleeping | Nominated |
| 1996 | Golden Globe | Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical for While You Were Sleeping | Nominated |
| 1996 | MTV Movie Awards | Best Female Performance for While You Were Sleeping | Nominated |
| 1996 | MTV Movie Awards | Most Desirable Female for While You Were Sleeping | Nominated |
| 1996 | MTV Movie Awards | Most Desirable Female for The Net | Nominated |
| 1996 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Motion Picture Actress | Won |
| 1997 | Blockbuster Entertainment Award | Favorite Actress - Suspense for A Time To Kill | Won |
| 1997 | MTV Movie Awards | Best Female Performance for A Time To Kill | Nominated |
| 1997 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Motion Picture Actress | Won |
| 1998 | Razzie Awards | Worst Actress for Speed 2: Cruise Control | Nominated |
| 1998 | Razzie Awards | Worst Screen Couple for Speed 2: Cruise Control | Nominated |
| 1999 | Lone Star Film & Television Award | Best Actress for Hope Floats | Won |
| 1998 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Motion Picture Actress | Won |
| 1999 | Teen Choice Awards | Film - Choice Hissy Fit for Forces of Nature | Won |
| 2000 | Bambi Awards | Film international | Won |
| 2000 | Golden Globe | Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical for Miss Congeniality | Nominated |
| 2001 | American Comedy Awards | Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) for Miss Congeniality | Won |
| 2001 | Satellite Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical for Miss Congeniality | Nominated |
| 2001 | Blockbuster Entertainment Award | Favorite Actress - Comedy for Miss Congeniality | Won |
| 2001 | Teen Choice Awards | Film - Choice Wipeout for Miss Congeniality | Won |
| 2005 | Teen Choice Awards | Film - Choice Movie Actress: Comedy for Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous | Won |
| 2006 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Female Movie Star | Won |
| 2006 | Black Reel Awards | Best Ensemble for Crash | Won |
| 2006 | Critics' Choice Award | Best Acting Ensemble for Crash | Won |
| 2006 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for Crash | Won |
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