What Really Helped Clint Eastwood and Brad Pitt Rise to Hollywood Stardom?

An Unusual Mix of Luck and Pluck Took Them Up the Pinnacle of Glory
"The Sexiest Man Alive," (as he was termed by the People Magazine), William Bradley Pitt was born in Oklahoma and brought up in Missouri. At school, Pitt spent time in sports, debating, music and student government. As he was about to graduate in journalism,
Pitt decided to pursue a career in Hollywood.

Sequel to his appearances on TV, by the late 1980's, Thelma & Louisa was rather a breakthrough to him. Film critics though praised his looks, did not approve his performance. But there followed a string of striking performances in movies like A River Runs Through It, Legends of the Fall, Interview with a Vampire, etc.

Pitt's portrayal of a mental patient in 12 Monkeys won him the Golden Globe in 1997. In 2000 he made headlines when he married actress Jennifer Aniston, breaking hearts of adoring female fans. Then he acted in the violent Fight Club and in Snatch directed by Guy Ritchie. Pitt's latest starring in Troy and in Ocean's Twelve with actors George Clooney and Matt Damon was striking.

Pitt's break up with his wife Jennifer in 2005 and his new relationship with Angelina Jolie, with whom he co-starred in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, were hot subjects for the tabloids. A baby girl named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt was born to the couple in 2006. In the same year, Pitt acted in Babel along with Cate Blanchett.

In the year 2008, the couple again made headlines when the twins Knox Leon, a baby boy, and Vivienne, a baby girl were born to them. They have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax and Zahara, and thus taking the brood to six.

Enormous Oscar buzz was generated when Pitt re-teamed with the Australian-born actress in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 2008. The latest Pitt movie, opening in August, 2009, is Quentin Torantino's Inglorious Basterds based on World War II.

Born as the son of a steel worker in San Francisco, California, USA, in 1930, Clinton Eastwood, Jr. served in the US Army before he joined for business administration at a Los Angeles College and finally dropped out for acting. Eastwood's first major acting role was in the 1959 TV cowboy series, Rawhide, followed by Italian Spagetti Westerns.

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