From the action figure to human rights activist: Angelina Jolie is 50

For everyone who worships Angelina Jolie, there seems to be another person who frowns. But you can say about the star actress what you want: while her prominent colleagues advertise their beauty products and post party photos, Jolie uses her voice to work for the poor and disenfranchised in the world.

Jolie was born in Hollywood on June 4, 1975. Talent, appearance and privilege were in her cradle: her mother was actress Marcheline Bertrand (the similarity is unmistakable), the father Oscar winner Jon Voight, the godfather Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell-how shouldn’t you become an actress? But the young woman named Angelina Jolie Voight never wanted to be defined by her father. So she simply left her last name away.

Breakthrough as heroin addict

However, the career did not follow. The divorce child had mental problems, injured itself, had eating disorders and thoughts of suicide.

Nevertheless, she made her breakthrough, with the roles of two mentally unstable women. In 1998 Jolie played the heroine -addicted model Gia Carangi, who died at 26 of AIDS. A year later she was the sociopathic Lisa in « Girl, Interrupted » – and got an Oscar. From then on, Jolie was able to choose the roles. It also became a sex symbol, for example by appearing in the game adaptation « Lara Croft: Tomb Raider » (2001). Sometimes she also attacked the films, but that didn’t hurt her celebrities.

Of course, this also has to do with « Brangelina ». Some hate Jolie because she is said to have divided Hollywood’s dream couple Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt on the shooting of « Mr. and Mrs. Smith ». At least Pitt found the hoped -for family happiness: Six children both adopted three of them. It should have been the oldest that gave his mother the necessary stability: « I knew that through responsibility for Maddox I would never be self -destructive again, » she said once.

Success as a director

The relationship with Pitt lasted over ten years, but in 2016 Jolie finally submitted divorce. The agreement of the former Hollywood dream couple was only finalized a few months ago. In addition, daughter Shiloh Jolie-Pitt seemed to avert her father last year: With her 18th birthday, she applied for his name to no longer bear his name.

Film star, sex symbol, wife, mother – was that? Not at all. Jolie also works as a director. Her film « Unbroken » found respect among the critics. This was followed by « by the Sea », in which Pitt and Jolie play a couple of lovers, a flop. In 2017, Jolie’s massacres of the Red Khmer in Cambodia in Cambodia will be in “First They Killed My Father”. He was nominated for the Golden Globe and the British Film Award BAFTA.

As an actress, Jolie, on the other hand, was most recently celebrated in her role as an opera legend Maria Callas – critics called it one of the strongest achievements in her career.

Work for the United Nations

And then she is also a special ambassador for the United Nations for Refugees. For over two decades, Jolie has worked tirelessly to attract attention and fund from financial purposes – especially for education, women’s rights and refugee protection. She spoke several times in the UN Security Council and also in the Great Hall of the UN General Assembly.

Her work always washed large donations into the coffers of international organizations. Jolie used her prominence more and more to draw attention to international problems. If you go on your Instagram channel, you get information about women’s rights in Iran, Jolie sees Sudanese refugees in Chad or in conversation about the late consequences of colonialism. Their energy seems to apply more than ever to have the importance of fame.

In 2013, Jolie showed that she can raise awareness of problems when she could be removed breasts and ovaries as a precaution. She was afraid of a genetic disposition – her grandmother, her aunt and her mother had died of cancer. She made her openness in dealing with the procedure for many women.