Angelina Jolie

This year, Angelina Jolie plays the villain in the film Maleficient. But the Hollywood actress has spent much of her life doing good...

A DIFFICULT START
Angelina always wanted to be an actress. She got her first film role at age seven, but she was teased by other kids at school in Beverly hills, LA. She became a rebellious teenager wearing black clothes, getting tatoos and listening to punk music. Often, film directors didn't choose her because her image was "too dark".

THE LARA CROFT HEROINE
Angelina's first big success came in 2001 with the film Lara Croft Tomb Raider. It's an adaptation of the Tomb Raider video game. Angelina had to speak with an English accent and do intensive martial arts training. She became an international action star, but the film changed Angelina's life in another way too...

HELPING THE WORLD'S CHILDREN
While filming Lara Croft in Cambodia, Angelina met children who were landmine victims. She was shocked so she started visiting refugee camps worldwide and became a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. In 2002, she adopted a baby from Cambodia who she named Maddox. Since then, she has helped construct schools and health centres in Cambodia.

ANGELINA AND BRAD
Angelina adopted two more children, Zahara Marley from ethiopia, and Pax Thien from Vietnam. But this time the children had a dad too -the actor Brad Pitt. Brad and Angelina met when they were filming Mr, & Mrs. Smith.

GLAMOUR AND GENEROSITY
One of Hollywood's most glamorous actresses, Anglina has also been named the most beautiful woman in the world. But she is still comitted to humanitarian causes. When Angelina and Brad Pitt had their biological children, they sold the first photos to celebrity news magazines for millions of dollars and then donated the money to charity.