The actress has put behind her the leather-clad exertion of Tomb Raider to plays more considered roles in movies raning from The Good Shepherd to The Changeling.

Angelina JolieAngelina Jolie

Born: 4th June 1975
Where: Los Angeles, California

At one time the Oscar-winning star was almost  as well known for her bizarre private life as she was for her successful film career.

A collector of knives, she also had an interest in mortuary science and a childhood dream of becoming a funeral director.

She also has the Latin phrase "Quod me nutrit me destruit" ("What nourishes me also destroys me") tattooed across her stomach.

However, she has subsequently impressed in a range of roles from The Good Shepherd to an captured American journalist's pregnant wife in A Mighty Heart.

"It's not a big deal to be naked. I think it's a bigger deal to be emotionally naked. I think a woman's breasts are a woman's breasts; they don't freak me out or shock me."

Born Angelina Jolie Voight, the daughter of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, and actress Marcheline Bertrand, an early modelling career led to appearances in videos for Meatloaf and Lenny Kravitz.

Her feature debut came with Hackers, in which she co-starred with future husband, British actor Jonny Lee Miller (they were briefly married from 1996 to 1999).

It was her sensitive performance as the drug-addicted, AIDS-stricken model Gia Carangi in the TV series Gia that brought her widespread critical acclaim.

She was twice Emmy-nominated in 1998 in the supporting category for George Wallace and in the leading one for Gia.

Then in 1999 she joined John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton in Mike Newell's New York set comedy about air traffic controllers, Pushing Tin.

Jolie finished that year with a best supporting actress Oscar for the role of a a sociopathic inmate in a psychiatric hospital in Girl, Interrupted.

She started off 2000 starring alongside Nicolas Cage in Gone in 60 Seconds and in May married the writer, director and actor Billy Bob Thornton.

As well as matching tattoos, the couple kept phials of each other's blood around their necks.

During the marriage - which lasted until July 2002 - Jolie adopted a Cambodian baby boy, named Maddox.

Meanwhile, Jolie landed the coveted lead role of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, based on the video action game.

In her first crack at comedy, she starred opposite Edward Burns in the dismal Life Or Something Like It.

In 2004, she starred in Beyond Borders alongside Clive Owen and Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Jolie also lent her vocal talents to Shark Tale, with Robert De Niro and Will Smith and starred in Oliver Stone's crtically-slated blockbuster Alexander with Colin Farrell.

In 2005, she starred alongside future beau Brad Pitt in the enjoyable comedy thriller Mr & Mrs Smith and went on to appear in Robert De Niro's political thriller The Good Shepherd.

In 2007, she landed the the role of the wife of kidnapped Wall St Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in A Mighty Heart and the computer generated part of Grendel's mother in Beowulf.

She recently impressed as a mother searching for her missing son in Clint Eastwood's hardhitting drama The Changeling.