Most Hollywood stars make their red-carpet debuts in their late teens or early 20s, usually without much fanfare and at relatively small-scale events. Not so for Angelina Jolie, who, at the tender age of 10, arrived at the 1986 Academy Awards in a froth of Madonna-esque white lace and strings of pearls. “Are you nervous for your dad tonight?” she’s asked by a red carpet reporter, who nods to her father, Jon Voight, the Oscar-winning star of Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home, who that year was in the running for the best-actor prize for Runaway Train. “Sort of,” she replies tentatively, giggling and revealing an adorable gap in her teeth.
Remarkably, it wasn’t even her first public appearance: the Los Angeles-born industry fixture has been in the public eye since birth, initially alongside her family, and then in her own right. After appearing on the big screen for the first time as a precocious seven year old, opposite Voight in Hal Ashby’s 1982 comedy Lookin’ to Get Out, she was a captivating presence in a string of music videos; won a part in Hackers with Jonny Lee Miller, whom Jolie later married at 20; secured a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy for the ’50s-set George Wallace; and then broke out in a big way with 1998’s Gia. Cue yet another Golden Globe, a SAG Award, and a scene-stealing supporting role in Girl, Interrupted that would bring her an Oscar and establish her as a bonafide A-lister.
She’s only gone from strength to strength since then, kicking ass as Lara Croft, setting pulses racing in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, landing her second Oscar nod for the tear-jerking Changeling, and winning plaudits most recently for her ravishing turn in Pablo Larraín’s sumptuous Maria.
As she celebrates her 50th birthday, we present 29 incredible throwback photos of the actor from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and early aughts, from Jolie at a Hollywood party as a two-year-old, to her making the case for skinny brows and a pixie crop as a teenager.
Photo: Getty Images1/291975
Hollywood royalty from birth, Angelina Jolie is pictured at just four hours old, in the arms of her father, actor Jon Voight.
Photo: Getty Images2/291978
At two, a camera-shy Jolie attends a party in Los Angeles with her father.
Photo: Getty Images3/291986
In pearls and frothy white lace, a 10-year-old Jolie makes her debut on the Oscars red carpet with her father (who was nominated that year for best actor for Runaway Train) and brother, James Haven—and looks right at home. She appeared in her first film, the Hal Ashby-directed comedy Lookin’ to Get Out, some four years prior, also alongside her father.
Photo: Getty Images4/291988
Back at the Academy Awards two years later with her father and brother, this time with braces and a silky black dress with diamanté detailing.
Photo: Getty Images5/291991
A 15-year-old Jolie poses for a portrait session with a big smile and a bowler hat, her star power already evident.
Photo: Getty Images6/291991
With big, bouncy curls and pared-back make-up in the same portrait session.
Photo: Getty Images7/291991
Equally stunning with straight hair and a strapless black prom dress.
Photo: Getty Images8/291991
On the red carpet with her father, wearing a pearl choker, lace-lined silk top, slouchy suit, and shiny pink lip gloss.
Photo: Getty Images9/291993
With her razor-thin brows, flat-ironed hair, and strappy black slip, an 18-year-old Jolie is the epitome of the understated ’90s girl in this studio shoot.
Photo: Getty Images10/291993
Jolie is effortlessly beautiful in character as a grungy runaway with a wildly gesticulating Meat Loaf on the set of his music video for “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through.”
Photo: Getty Images11/291994
In a classic leather jacket, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Jon Voight’s Midnight Cowboy with him and her brother.
Photo: Getty Images12/291995
With a chocolate brown crop, arched eyebrows, and minimal make-up in the crime thriller Hackers, alongside her co-star Jonny Lee Miller. The pair fell in love and married a year later, when Jolie was just 20, and then separated after 18 months together.
Photo: Getty Images13/291997
In a nude-colored strapless dress, with a gray silk scarf wrapped around her buzzcut, a smoky eye, and a glossy pout at the Los Angeles premiere of George Wallace—in which she played Cornelia Wallace, the second wife of the reviled and embattled governor George C. Wallace—at 22.
Photo: Getty Images14/291997
At the Los Angeles premiere of Fedora in a one-shouldered black dress, with her perfect buzzcut and glowing skin.
Photo: Getty Images15/291998
Incandescent in a sequined ball gown, with a smoky eye and nude lip, at the Golden Globes, the year she scooped the prize for best supporting actress in a series, miniseries, or TV movie for George Wallace.
Photo: Getty Images16/291998
In a black suit and sleek crop for an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Photo: Getty Images17/291998
At a New York screening of Gia, with slicked-back hair, a silky black shirt, and dainty jewellery.
Photo: Getty Images18/291998
In another strappy black number for the BAFTAs, with her then-husband Jonny Lee Miller.
Photo: Getty Images19/291998
Exuding movie-star glamor in a silk slip dress with a sheer, sequin-encrusted slit at the 50th Emmy Awards, where she was a double nominee (in the outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie category for Gia, and the outstanding supporting actress in a miniseries or movie category for George Wallace).
Photo: Getty Images20/291998
Wonderfully low-key in a beige coat on the red carpet for the Playing by Heart premiere in Los Angeles.
Photo: Getty Images21/291998
With a red crop, opposite a blue-haired Ryan Phillippe, in Playing by Heart.
Photo: Getty Images22/291999
Collecting her second Golden Globe in two years for her star-making role in Gia, in a sequined showstopper.
Photo: Getty Images23/291999
In a strapless white ball gown at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, collectsing her statuette for outstanding performance by a female actor in a miniseries or television movie for Gia.
Photo: Getty Images24/291999
At the Los Angeles premiere of Girl, Interrupted, in a long black skirt, black crop top, and plush grey coat.
Photo: Getty Images25/291999
In character as the volatile Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted, the part that would go on to change her life forever.
Photo: Getty Images26/292000
In a retina-searing white gown and matching jacket, collectsing her third Golden Globe in three years for Girl, Interrupted.
Photo: Getty Images27/292000
Back at the SAG Awards in a strappy black dress with a dusky pink shawl, the year she won the outstanding-actress-in-a-supporting-role prize for Girl, Interrupted.
Photo: Getty Images28/292000
In a floor-skimming, long-sleeved black gown with long, jet-black hair, as she collectss her best-supporting-actress Oscar for Girl, Interrupted.
Photo: Getty Images29/292000
In pearls and a crisp white shirt for a day at the polo in Windsor.
