See a young Brad Pitt in his high school yearbook photos and get to know the ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Se7en’ actor better.
Birthdate: December 18, 1963 (Age 61)
High School: Kickapoo High School, Springfield, MO
Yearbooks: 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982
Who is Brad Pitt?
You couldn’t possibly forget Brad Pitt’s iconic role as ambitious detective David Mills in ‘Seven’, or his perplexing performance as eccentric soap salesman and anarchist Tyler Durden in ‘Fight Club’.
Starting in the ‘90s, Brad Pitt has consistently blown audiences away with his unique acting style and impressive range. Those who grew up watching Pitt steal the show time and time again would do anything to go back and watch a young Brad in action all over again.
Brad Pitt is an Academy Award-winning actor with a career spanning nearly four decades. Pitt began acting in the late ‘80s, starting out in minor television roles and uncredited film roles before becoming a decade-defining actor in the ‘90s and eventual household name.
Where Did Brad Pitt Go to School?
High School Education
Brad Pitt attended Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri, graduating in 1982. At Kickapoo, he was a member of the golf, swimming, and tennis teams.
He was always destined to be in the spotlight, also participating in school debates and musicals in his formative years.
College Education
Following his high school graduation, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism with an emphasis on advertising. Pitt did not graduate, and instead decided to leave the university two weeks shy of graduating to move to Los Angeles and pursue a career in acting.
Crazy right? Clearly, it worked out for the best!
Brad Pitt: Then vs Now
Pitt has always taken breaths away with his good looks and effortless charisma. From the ‘80s and ‘90s to today, here’s how he looked from his teenage years all the way to today.
Brad Pitt’s Acting Career
Early Career
Pitt’s first leading film role came in 1988 in the American-Yugoslavian drama The Dark Side of the Sun, which did not premiere in the United States until 1999.
Brad Pitt continued to take part in lesser-known films before securing his breakout role as J.D. in Ridley Scott’s crime film Thelma and Louise(1991). His performance defined him as a sex symbol in Hollywood.
Pitt starred in many notable films throughout the rest of the early-to-mid ‘90s, including as vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the horror fantasy Interview with the Vampire(1994) and a brief supporting role as a stoner named Floyd in the cult classic True Romance(1993).
Established Actor
After appearing in mostly light-hearted roles through the early ‘90s, Pitt expressed interest in deviating from the ‘heartthrob’ stereotype, and playing characters with more depth to them.
In 1995, Pitt starred as Detective David Mills in David Fincher’s crime thriller Seven alongside Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kevin Spacey. This was one of Pitt’s most critically acclaimed performances, as it displayed his ability to expand his acting horizons, and allowed him to appear in more complex roles later on.
Pitt continued to star in more multifaceted roles through the mid-to-late ‘90s, including in 12 Monkeys(1995) and Sleepers(1996), the first of which he earned his first Oscar nomination for.
In 1999, Pitt starred as Tyler Durden in a second David Fincher film, the psychological crime thriller Fight Club. Through this role, Pitt further cemented his ability to take on more challenging roles, separating himself from the ‘pretty-boy’ persona, and Fight Club has become widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.
Later Work
Pitt proceeded to star in many critically acclaimed films throughout the 2000s, including as Rusty Ryan in Ocean’s Eleven(2001), the Coen brothers’s black comedy Burn After Reading(2008), the titular character in a third Fincher film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(2008), and in two films from the legendary Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds(2009) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood(2020), the latter of which he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Who is Brad Pitt’s Family?
Midwest Upbringing
Brad Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and raised in Springfield, Missouri by his mother, Jane Etta, a school counselor, and his father, William Alvin Pitt, who owned a trucking company. Pitt has two younger siblings, a brother, Doug, and a sister, Julie. Pitt was raised in a conservative Christian household, but went on to question these beliefs, as he fluctuated between atheist and agnostic, but later adopted some spiritual beliefs.
Life as a Father
Pitt has six children with ex-wife Angelina Jolie, three of which are adopted. He has three sons, Maddox, 24, Pax, 21, and Knox, 17, and three daughters, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, and Vivienne, 17. Following his divorce from Jolie, Pitt keeps little contact with his adult children, and sees his younger children only on occasion, due to Jolie having primary physical custody in accordance with their custody agreement.
Who Has Brad Pitt Married and Dated?
Relationships
As many of those who pay attention to pop culture know, Brad Pitt is quite the ladies man. Pitt had relationships with many of his co-stars throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, including Shalane McCall, Robin Givens, Jill Schoelen, Geena Davis, and Juliette Lewis. Pitt also dated and was engaged to actress and Seven co-star Gwyneth Paltrow from 1994 to 1997.
Pitt is currently in a relationship with jewelry executive Ines de Ramon, whom he began dating in 2022.
Marriages
Jennifer Aniston
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston met in 1988, and married in a private wedding ceremony in Malibu in 2000. The marriage lasted five years, with the couple separating in January 2005, and divorcing soon after. Pitt has indicated that he and Aniston have maintained contact and kept a friendly relationship over the years following their divorce, and often “check in with each other”.
Angelina Jolie
You must have been living under a rock if you missed out on Pitt’s high-profile relationship, dubbed “Brangelina” with Angelina Jolie during the early-to-mid 2000s! Their names were hard to miss in the tabloids, as the relationship and subsequent breakup and divorce received significant media attention. Pitt began dating Angelina Jolie, the daughter of legendary actor Jon Voight, shortly after his divorce from Aniston. They got engaged in 2012 after seven years together, marrying two years later in 2014.
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in 2016, with the divorce becoming legal in 2019. The divorce was highly publicized due to multiple lawsuits filed between the two of them. They finally reached a divorce and child custody settlement in 2024, after years of legal battles.
The Curious Case of Brad Pitt
Ever since his powerful reign over Hollywood throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s, Brad Pitt has established himself as not only one of the most famous actors of all time, but also one of the most recognizable faces in American pop culture.
His versatility and ability to immerse himself within a role has been especially impressive over the years, as he has excelled in both comedic and dramatic roles. Pitt will always be looked back fondly on as an actor who defined the adolescence of those who grew up watching him, and has proven time and time again that a script with his name on it is certainly not one that you should Burn After Reading.
Pitt’s most groundbreaking and memorable performances include:
- Thelma and Louise(1991)
- Interview with the Vampire(1994)
- Legends of the Fall(1994)
- Seven(1995)
- 12 Monkeys(1995)
- Meet Joe Black(1998)
- Fight Club(1999)
- Snatch(2000)
- Ocean’s Eleven(2001)
- Troy(2004)
- Mr and Mrs. Smith(2005)
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(2008)
- Burn After Reading(2008)
- Inglourious Basterds(2009)
- Moneyball(2011)
- World War Z(2013)
- Fury(2014)
- The Big Short(2015)
- Ad Astra(2019)
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood(2019)
- F1(2025)
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Sources:
- Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brad_Pitt_2019_by_Glenn_Francis.jpg
- Then – Classmates® 1980 Kickapoo High School Yearbook, p.55.
- https://www.classmates.com/siteui/yearbooks/14110?page=59
- Now – Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brad_Pitt_2019_by_Glenn_Francis.jpg
- Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brad_Pitt-69924.jpg
- Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brad_Pitt_Cannes_2012.jpg
