Brad Pitt Turns 63 on December 18, and the Pretty Boy Became the Producer Behind a Best Picture Winner

Illustration: AI-generated with Pollinations (FLUX), free to use

Brad Pitt turns 63 on December 18. He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1963 and moved to Los Angeles after studying journalism at university, taking small parts on television before a short scene in Thelma and Louise in 1991 made the world notice him. After that, he was never out of work.

Photo: Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 1990s gave us the proof that he was more than a face. In A River Runs Through It he played a charming, doomed brother, in Interview with the Vampire he played the guilt-ridden Louis, and in Se7en he was the young detective opposite Morgan Freeman. In 1995 he received an Oscar nomination for Twelve Monkeys, playing a manic patient, and in 1999 he starred in Fight Club, which has found a bigger audience over time than it did on release.

Photo: Franz Richter, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

The 2000s mixed the big and the small. He was the calm one in Ocean's Eleven, a warrior in Troy, a man ageing backwards in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and the loud Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds. Moneyball in 2011 and The Tree of Life, the same year, showed an actor who wanted different challenges.

Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Behind the camera, his company Plan B Entertainment produced 12 Years a Slave, which won Best Picture, and he finally won an Oscar himself for acting, Best Supporting Actor, for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019. His racing film F1 followed in 2025.

Photo: Paul Bird, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which Brad Pitt performance is your favourite? I will always have a soft spot for Twelve Monkeys, because it is so far from the person you think he is.