Billy Bob Thorton was born on August 4, 1955, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film, Thorton was a drummer and singer in a musical group named Tres Hombres. Billy Bob’s move to L.A. did not bring him immediate fame. Literally a starving artist, he lived on potatoes and was hospitalized for malnutrition while he tried for years, unsuccessfully, to sell his scripts. His efforts would not go unrewarded. In 1992, he co-wrote and starred in the well-received film One False Move.  After his starring role in 1996 film Slingblade, which he also wrote and produced, Thorton became a true Hollywood icon. In the last decade, Thorton has been involved in dozens of movies, performing important roles both in front of and behind the cameras.

He has had starring roles in Bad Santa and Bad News Bears, as well as a role in the 1998 drama Armageddon. Thorton has also worked as a writer, producer, and director on the films All the Pretty Horses, Daddy and Them, and The Gift. As a tribute to his successful career, Billy Bob Thorton received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.

With five failed marriages, Thorton’s relationships have not been as successful as his entertainment career. His second and third marriages were to Toni Lawrence and Cynda Williams, two aspiring actresses who made appearances in television and film but never achieved huge success. Ex-playboy model Pietra Dawn Cherniak, Thorton’s fourth wife, claimed she was abused by Thorton and successfully filed a restraining order against him. Thorton was also involved with Laura Dern, who had a starring role in Jurassic Park.

Thorton’s most publicized reunion was with the much-younger movie star Angelina Jolie, who is currently dating Brad Pitt and is thought to have been the other woman in Pitt’s marriage to Jennifer Aniston. It is rumored that Thorton was still seeing Dern when he married Angelina. Thorton and Jolie were married in 2000 and became a popular media topic because of their public displays of affection and devotion, including wearing vials of the other’s blood around their necks. Their relationship seemed quite committed as they adopted a Cambodian boy named Maddox, and Angelina sported a Billy Bob Thorton tattoo on her left arm. Despite outward appearances, Thorton and Jolie divorced in 2003, only three years after their wedding. Angelina has custody of their adopted son Maddox.

Thorton is now dating Connie Angland, a special-effects expert whom he met on the set of Bad Santa. They had their daughter Bella in 2004, making this Thorton’s fifth child. They are currently still together but have not yet married. In a strange twist of fate, Thorton is set to star in the upcoming film Peace Like a River, which is being produced by Brad Pitt.

YUDDY