Brad Pitt has never been far out of the media spotlight during a career that has spanned over two decades.Now his personal life, and the women who share it, and more of an attraction for the media than the movies that he stars in.Pitt's decision to be an actor was an on the spot decision made just a fortnight before earning a degree in Journalism.With just $300 in his pocket Pitt left the University of Missouri and drove to L.A.He began his career in television appearing in shows like Dallas and Glory Days.He shot to fame in 1991 as the petty thief and charmer who seduces Geena Davis in Thelma and Louise. In just a year he had achieved leading man status as Johnny Suede.Critical acclaim came his way in 1992 for his role in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It.

By this time the media attention around the actor began to grow and in 1993 he called off his engagement to actress Juliette Lewis, who he had been dating for three years.

More high profile roles followed landing the part of Louis de Pointe du Lac in Neil Jordan's Interview With A Vampire alongside Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater.

He followed this up with another high profile as Detective David Mills in crime thriller Seven with Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey.

But it was as Jeffery Goines ,a mental patient and animal rights activist, in Terry Gilliam's futuristic 12 Monkeys that earnt his an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

He followed up his Oscar nominated role with Sleepers, The Devil's Own and Seven Years In Tibet all of which faired relatively poorly at the box office.

But he bounced back with one of the most popular films of the nineties, which has now achieved a somewhat cult status, Fight Club. Pitt was cast alongside Edward Norton as Tyler Durden, the mastermind behind Fight Club, an underground club that encouraged men to fight with one another as a means of re-claiming their masculinity.

With this role and his role in Snatch which followed in 2000 his status as a Hollywood hunk soared, heightened further by his relationship, and eventual marriage, to popular friends actress Jennifer Aniston.

In 2001 he joined the ensemble cast of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts for Steven Soderbergh's crime caper Ocean's Eleven.

Another all star cast beckoned when he took the starring role as Greek hero Archilles in Troy. Despite it's all star line-up of Pitt, Eric Bana, Peter O'Toole, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger and Sean Bean the film did worst than expected at the box office, as well as fairing poorly with the critics.

In 2005 Pitt found himself at the centre of a media frenzy when he announced he was splitting from wife Jennifer Aniston.

Rumours circulated that the divorce was because of an on-set relationship with his Mr and Mrs co-star Angelina Jolie.

The rumours of an affair were denied but the couple's relationship soon came into the public domain. Pitt petitioned to adopt Jolie's two children and they had a biological child Shiloh Nouvel.

In 2006 Pitt returned to the big screen with the critically acclaimed Babel. Pitt played an American tourist who is on holiday in morocco when a stray bullet smashes through a bus window hitting his wife (Cate Blanchett) setting off a series of events.

This year has seen the actor re-unite with Soderbergh, Clooney and Damon for Ocean's 13, the third instalment in the crime franchise, which did much better critically than Ocean's 12.

He will next be seen as American legend Jesse James in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

His role won him the Best Actor prize at this year's Venice Film Festival and there is already speculation that he big earn an Oscar nomination come awards season.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is released 30th November.

Helen Earnshaw

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