Angelina Jolie

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the niece of Chip Taylor, sister of James Haven and the goddaughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. In a 2004 article in Vogue she stated that her mother is from Chicago. At the Premiere Magazine "Women in Hollywood" Awards, she said her mother was born in a bowling alley and has stated that because of her name people often assume that her mother is French. Jolie's grandparents were French-Canadian. Her paternal grandfather was from Czech Republic. She is of Czech and English descent on her father's side, and French-Canadian and Iroquois on her mother's side. As a teenager, Jolie dreamed of becoming a funeral director.She attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute from the age of 11, later attending Beverly Hills High School. Her mother also studied with Lee Strasberg. Though she enrolled at the film school at New York University after finishing Gia, she did not complete her studies.
Jolie has been long estranged from her father, though a reconciliation was attempted by his appearing with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. In the October 2004 issue of Premiere Magazine, Jolie indicated that she was no longer interested in pursuing a relationship with her father, but that she did not hate him because she realized that "...we only have so much energy in this life". Soon afterwards, he claimed that she has "serious emotional problems" on Access Hollywood, and she legally dropped Voight as her last name, taking "Angelina Jolie" as her legal name. She stated that she didn't want to publicize her reasons for not having a relationship with her father, but since she had just adopted her son Maddox, that she didn't think it was healthy for her to be around him. Voight has yet to meet any of his three grandchildren.