Grew up in Springfield, Missouri

Moved to Los Angeles claiming to his parents that he was attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena

Worked at odd jobs including as a chaffeur to Strip-O-Gram strippers, delivering refrigerators to college students and dressing up in a chicken costume outside the El Pollo Loco restaurant

Did extra work in the film "Less Than Zero"

Had small role on the NBC soap opera "Another World"

Primetime TV debut in a guest role in an episode of the ABC sitcom "Growing Pains"

Cast as the boyfriend of Jenna Wade Ewing's daughter in three episodes of the CBS primetime soap "Dallas"

TV-movie debut, "A Stoning in Fulham County"

Made second guest appearance on "Growing Pains," playing a different character

Feature acting debut, "Cutting Class"

Co-starred with Juliette Lewis in the fact-based NBC TV-movie "Too Young to Die?"

Cast as Walker Lovejoy, a high school graduate working as a reporter, in the short-lived Fox drama "Glory Days"

Cast in breakthrough role of drifter J D in "Thelma & Louise" after Billy Baldwin bowed out to star in "Backdraft"

Debut as a feature lead, "Johnny Suede," about an aspiring pop singer

Had major film role in the Robert Redford directed "A River Runs Through It"

Played featured role in "True Romance"

First worked with Anthony Hopkins playing one of his sons in "Legends of the Fall"

Co-starred with Tom Cruise in "Interview With the Vampire," playing Louis, the aristocratic Southerner made turned reluctant bloodsucker

In January dubbed "The Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine

Co-starred with Morgan Freeman as detectives tracking a serial killer in "Seven"

Earned Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a mental patient in "12 Monkeys"

Engendered controversy for making negative comments about "The Devil's Own," in which he played an Irish revolutionary opposite Harrison Ford as an NYC cop

Successfully sued Playgirl magazine to stop distribution after it published unauthorized nude photographs of Pitt and then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow

Film "Seven Years in Tibet" was subject of controversy when it was disclosed that the character Pitt played, Heinrich Harrer, had ties to the Nazis

Reteamed with Anthony Hopkins for "Meet Joe Black," a loose remake of "Death Takes a Holiday"

Co-starred with Edward Norton in "Fight Club"

Portrayed an itinerant Irish gypsy bare knuckles boxer in "Snatch," written and directed by Guy Ritchie

Co-starred with Julia Roberts in "The Mexican," playing a mafia bagman sent to retrieve the titular object, an antique pistol that supposedly carried a curse

Teamed with Robert Redford in "The Spy Game," playing the protege of a retiring CIA agent

Had featured role in the ensemble of "Ocean's Eleven," which included Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Matt Damon

Cast as the lead in the sci-fi film "The Fountain" directed by Darren Aronofsky; film fell through

Voiced the title character in the animation feature "Sinbad"

Portrayed fated warrior Achilles in director Wolfgang Petersen's epic "Troy"

Reunited with the original cast for "Ocean's Twelve" directed by Steven Soderbergh

Starred opposite Angelina Jolie, as a bored married couple that is surprised to learn that they are assassins hired to kill each other in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"

Co-starred with Cate Blanchett as a tragedy-stricken American couple in "Babel"; received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Will star in David Fincher's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (lensed 2006)

Reprised role along with the original cast for "Ocean's 13"

Produced "A Mighty Heart," the film based on the book by Mariane Pearl, wife of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, and which starred his partner Angelina Jolie

Portrayed outlaw Jesse James in "The Assassination Of Jesse James" by Coward Robert Ford"