ANGELINA JOLIE, Academy Award ® nominee for ‘Changeling’ and three-time Golden Globe winner, continues to be one of Hollywood’s most talented leading actresses. Jolie’s most recently released films were Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf and Michael Winterbottom’s critically acclaimed A Mighty Heart, the dramatic true story of Mariane and Daniel Pearl. Jolie’s performance in A Mighty Heart earned her nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Broadcast Film Critics and Film Independent’s Spirit Awards.
Jolie was heard as the voice of Master Tigress in DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda, opposite Jack Black, and was recently seen in the fantasy-thriller Wanted, for Timur Bekmambetov. Upcoming films include the long-awaited adaptation of Ayn Rand’s seminal novel ‘Atlas Shrugged.’
Jolie’s previous films include The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro and co-starring Matt Damon, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, co-starring Brad Pitt; Alexander, directed by Oliver Stone and co-starring Colin Farrell and Anthony Hopkins, and the action-adventure Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.
She lent her voice to the animated feature Shark Tale, directed by the creators of Shrek, which also featured the voices of Will Smith, Robert De Niro and Jack Black. Jolie also starred in the Warner Bros. thriller Taking Lives, with Ethan Hawke. In 2003, she played the lead role in the action-adventure Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, the sequel to director Simon West’s 2001 box-office smash Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and portrayed a relief worker for the United Nations in the provocative drama Beyond Borders.
In 2001, she starred in Original Sin, opposite Antonio Banderas for Gia writer / director Michael Cristofer. The previous year, she was seen with co-stars Nicolas Cage and Robert Duvall as car thieves committing their final heist in the smash hit Gone in Sixty Seconds, for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. She was also in the romantic comedy Life or Something Like It. Jolie’s performance in Girl Interrupted garnered her an Academy Award®, and her third Golden Globe Award among many more.
Prior to that, she played a rookie police officer opposite Denzel Washington’s veteran detective in the thriller The Bone Collector, directed by Phillip Noyce. She also co-starred in Mike Newell’s Pushing Tin with Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack. Playing by Heart earned her the National Board of Review’s award for Breakthrough Performance — Female.
The HBO film Gia earned Jolie critical praise as well as a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of one of the first supermodels, Gia Carangi (Twiggy was among the first). Jolie also received an Emmy nomination for her role opposite Gary Sinise in director John Frankenheimer’s George Wallace, a period epic for TNT about the controversial governor of Alabama. The film earned Jolie her first Golden Globe Award and a CableACE nomination for her portrayal of George Wallace’s second wife, Cornelia.
Jolie also co-starred with David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton in director Andy Wilson’s Playing God. Prior to that, she starred in Hallmark Hall of Fame’s four-hour miniseries presentation True Women; directed by Karen Arthur, it was based on Janice Woods Windle’s best-selling historical novel. Jolie also starred in Annette Haywood- Carter’s much-acclaimed Foxfire and Iain Softley’s Hackers.
Jolie has also received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. She was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award from the United Nations Correspondents Association, as well as the Global Humanitarian Action Award in 2005. In February 2007, Jolie was accepted by the bipartisan think tank Council on Foreign Relations for a special five-year term designed to nurture the next generation of foreign-policy makers. Jolie is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She helped push through the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act and founded the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an organization that provides free legal aid to asylum-seeking children.
The Hollywood Sentinel, ® © 2009.