50 Fun Facts About Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt grew up in Missouri but was born in Shawnee, in which neighbouring state?

Oklahoma. Shawnee is home to Oklahoma Baptist University, where his parents had met as students; they married in 1962 and their first child arrived the following year.

In which Missouri city did Brad Pitt grow up?

Springfield. At Kickapoo High School there he was on the golf, swimming and tennis teams and sang in the musicals, though the career he had in mind was advertising art director.

What did Pitt major in at the University of Missouri before leaving for Los Angeles?

Journalism. With graduation in sight he walked away just short of his degree and drove to Los Angeles, where he took odd jobs, chauffeuring a limousine among them, while he studied acting.

Pitt's first leading film role was shot in 1988 in which now-vanished country?

Yugoslavia. The Dark Side of the Sun, shot on the Adriatic coast with Pitt as a young American seeking a cure for a skin disease, went unseen until 1997: by legend a casualty of the war, though he blames its quality.

On which primetime soap did Pitt play Randy, boyfriend of Jenna Wade's daughter, in 1987–88?

Dallas. Randy lasted four episodes, one of several bit parts Pitt picked up in his first year of screen work while paying the rent with odd jobs such as dressing as a chicken outside a fast-food restaurant.

In 1988 Pitt appeared in a TV commercial for which snack brand?

Pringles. In the ad a carload of shirtless surfers, Pitt among them, break down by the beach and are rescued by girls carrying tubes of the crisps.

Pitt played Billy Canton, a drug addict exploiting a runaway, in which 1990 NBC TV movie?

Too Young to Die? The runaway was played by Juliette Lewis, and three years later the pair were reunited as a serial killer and his partner in the road movie Kalifornia.

Pitt's breakout role as hitchhiking thief J.D. came in which 1991 road movie?

Thelma & Louise. Ridley Scott at first thought Pitt too young for the part, and he got it only after William Baldwin and then a second actor dropped out.

Who directed Pitt as Paul Maclean in A River Runs Through It (1992)?

Robert Redford. He later said he cast Pitt less for his audition than for an 'inner conflict' he found interesting; Pitt himself counts the performance among his weakest.

Pitt's cameo as the couch-bound stoner Floyd came in which 1993 film?

True Romance. Floyd barely leaves the sofa, yet he moves the plot: he is the one who cheerfully tells the mobsters where the drug deal is going to happen.

Which vampire did Pitt play in Interview with the Vampire (1994)?

Louis de Pointe du Lac. Author Anne Rice hated the casting at first and even urged the studio to have Pitt and Tom Cruise swap parts; once she saw the film she took it all back.

Which character earned Pitt his first Golden Globe nomination in Legends of the Fall?

Tristan Ludlow. Director Edward Zwick's memoir says Pitt tried to quit after a flat read-through days before filming, and disliked the final cut for playing down his character's madness.

Pitt was engaged to which co-star from the 1995 thriller Seven?

Gwyneth Paltrow. She was cast at his suggestion, after her audition for Legends of the Fall had impressed him, and the two were a couple from 1994 to 1997.

Who directed 12 Monkeys, which brought Pitt his first Oscar nomination?

Terry Gilliam. He at first thought Pitt wrong for the fast-talking asylum inmate Jeffrey Goines and was talked round by his casting director; the part then won Pitt a Golden Globe.

In The Devil's Own (1997) Pitt played an IRA man opposite which actor?

Harrison Ford. Pitt threatened to walk out early in the shoot over an unfinished script, and afterwards called the result the most irresponsible bit of film-making he had ever seen.

Which Austrian mountaineer did Pitt play in Seven Years in Tibet?

Heinrich Harrer. Just months before the film opened, a German magazine revealed from archive files that the real climber had joined the SS in 1938, which he went on to call a mistake of his youth.

In Meet Joe Black (1998), Pitt plays the personification of what?

Death. The film remakes 1934's Death Takes a Holiday, and part of its audience reportedly came only for the first Phantom Menace trailer, walking out as soon as it had played.

To look right as Tyler Durden, Pitt had pieces of what removed for Fight Club?

His front teeth. He had a dentist chip them so that Tyler Durden would not flash a film star's perfect smile, then had them rebuilt once the shoot was over.

Fight Club premiered at which film festival in 1999?

Venice. The film then fell short at the box office, and only after its DVD release the following year did it turn into the cult classic it is today.

Who directed Snatch, in which Pitt plays a near-unintelligible Irish Traveller boxer?

Guy Ritchie. Pitt's Mickey, a bare-knuckle champion, is ordered to throw a fight, gets up off the canvas and knocks his man out anyway, having quietly bet on himself.

Pitt starred opposite which actress in the 2001 romantic comedy The Mexican?

Julia Roberts. For all the star billing, the script keeps the two apart for most of the film; they were properly reunited later that year in Ocean's Eleven.

Pitt's Emmy-nominated Friends guest role was a man holding a grudge against which character?

Rachel Green. His Will Colbert, a schoolmate she used to bully, proudly announces at Thanksgiving dinner that he and Ross once founded a club devoted to hating her.

What is the name of Pitt's character in the Ocean's trilogy?

Rusty Ryan. Danny Ocean's right-hand man helps recruit the crew, then tries to call the whole heist off on learning it is really about winning back Danny's ex-wife.

In 2002 Pitt ran through Los Angeles in a gorilla suit for which MTV reality series?

Jackass. He came back for a second episode as the victim of his own staged abduction, and that year also popped up in George Clooney's first film as a director.

Pitt's first voice role in a film came in which 2003 DreamWorks animation?

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. He took the part after Russell Crowe dropped out, and the film flopped so badly that DreamWorks never made another hand-drawn feature.

Filming on Troy was delayed for weeks when Pitt injured which part of his body?

His Achilles tendon. He was playing Achilles, the warrior whose only weak spot was his heel, and the injury shut the production down for weeks.

Pitt co-founded Plan B Entertainment with his manager Brad Grey and which actress?

Jennifer Aniston. The two were married at the time; after their 2005 divorce Pitt became the company's sole owner, and it went on to produce Best Picture winners including 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight.

Who directed Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)?

Doug Liman. He nearly lost both stars before filming: Nicole Kidman left for another film, Pitt walked out after her, and he came back only once a new leading lady was in place.

Who directed Babel (2006), the film Pitt calls one of the best decisions of his career?

Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Babel was his third film with screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga and it ended the partnership: the two fell out over who deserved the credit, and the writer was kept away from the Cannes premiere.

Plan B produced which 2006 Best Picture winner for which only Graham King could collect the Oscar?

The Departed. Pitt and his partners had bought the remake rights to the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs in 2003; he was set to act in it too, but gave up the part, stayed on as producer and made Babel instead.

Pitt won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for playing which American outlaw?

Jesse James. The slow, wintry Western lost money in cinemas, yet it has since gathered a devoted following, and Pitt has called it his own favourite of all his films.

Burn After Reading (2008) was Pitt's first film with which filmmaking duo?

The Coen brothers. They cast him as Chad, a dim gym trainer who finds a disc of what he takes to be state secrets and bungles an attempt to blackmail its owner.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button loosely adapts a short story by which American writer?

F. Scott Fitzgerald. In his 1922 story Benjamin is born in Baltimore already talking and looking seventy; the film keeps little but the premise and moves it all to New Orleans.

What is the name of the lieutenant nicknamed 'The Apache' that Pitt plays in Inglourious Basterds?

Aldo Raine. The Tennessee bootlegger earns the nickname by ordering each of his men to bring him the scalps of the Nazis they kill.

Which superhero did Pitt voice in the 2010 animated film Megamind?

Metro Man. Tired of protecting the city, he fakes his own demise early in the film, renames himself Music Man and slips away to chase his dream of becoming a musician.

Who directed The Tree of Life, which Pitt produced and starred in and which won the Palme d'Or?

Terrence Malick. The stern 1950s Texas father was to have been Heath Ledger, who withdrew shortly before he died in 2008; Pitt, already producing the film, took the part himself.

In Moneyball, Pitt's Billy Beane is general manager of which baseball team?

Oakland Athletics. Short of money, Beane uses statistics to sign players other clubs undervalue, and at the end turns down a record offer to go and run the Boston Red Sox.

Pitt plays mob hitman Jackie Cogan in which 2012 crime film?

Killing Them Softly. Cogan is hired to restore order after a mob card game is robbed, and insists that even the man he knows to be innocent has to die as a warning to others.

World War Z, Pitt's biggest hit until F1, is based on a novel by which author?

Max Brooks. Pitt's company won the film rights to his novel in a bidding war with a rival producer, and a planned sequel under David Fincher was later shelved over its budget.

12 Years a Slave, which Pitt produced, is based on the autobiography of which man?

Solomon Northup. Pitt also plays Bass, the Canadian carpenter who agrees to send the letter that gets Northup freed, and as a producer the film won him his first Oscar.

Who wrote and directed the 2014 tank film Fury?

David Ayer. He borrowed the world's last working Tiger from Britain's Tank Museum, so the German tank that ambushes Pitt's platoon is the real thing rather than a replica.

Who wrote and directed By the Sea (2015), the marriage-in-crisis drama Pitt starred in?

Angelina Jolie. The newly-weds shot this story of a couple coming apart during their own honeymoon, on the Maltese island of Gozo, and she played the wife as well.

In Allied (2016), Pitt's assassin falls for a French spy played by which actress?

Marion Cotillard. Their pretend marriage in wartime Casablanca becomes a real one, and then he is told she may be a German spy whom, if it is proved, he must execute himself.

Which stunt double did Pitt play to win his acting Oscar in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

Cliff Booth. He is driver and handyman to the fading TV cowboy he doubles for, yet in the film's rewritten ending it is Booth and his pit bull who see off the Manson family intruders.

In Ad Astra, Pitt's astronaut Roy McBride crosses the solar system searching for whom?

His father. Clifford McBride, played by Tommy Lee Jones, vanished decades earlier leading a mission to Neptune in search of alien life, and his abandoned station now threatens the Earth.

Pitt earned an Emmy nomination for playing which public figure in a 2020 SNL cold open?

Anthony Fauci. Asked on television who should play him, the doctor had joked, 'Brad Pitt, of course'; later that month Pitt did, and broke character at the end to thank him.

Which French studio, where Pink Floyd recorded part of The Wall, did Pitt reopen in 2022?

Miraval. The studio stands on his Château Miraval wine estate in Provence and had been silent for some twenty years; he rebuilt it with the French producer Damien Quintard.

Who directed F1 (2025), which became Pitt's highest-grossing film?

Joseph Kosinski. He brought over his Top Gun: Maverick team and shot at real Grand Prix weekends across two seasons, with Lewis Hamilton on board as a producer.

Pitt's Make It Right Foundation set out to build 150 sustainable homes in which New Orleans district?

Ninth Ward. Just over a hundred were finished before leaks and rot set in; residents sued over the building work, and a $20.5 million settlement followed in 2022.

In 2022 Pitt said he had struggled for years with which undiagnosed condition?

Face blindness. He believes he has prosopagnosia and fears that people take it for aloofness when he fails to recognise them; in 2013 he said it made him want to stay at home.