Born May 9, 1950, Marcheline Bertrand was an actress and activist. She was best known for her humanitarian work, supporting Native communities. She welcomed her daughter Angelina Jolie on June 4, 1975, in Los Angeles, with Hollywood star and former husband Jon Voight.
Angelina has previously talked about her close relationship with her late mom. “I will never be as good a mother as she was,” Jolie told CBS News in 2011. “I will try my best, but I don’t think I could ever be. She was grace incarnate, the most generous, loving -- she’s better than me.”
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“There are no words to express what an amazing woman and mother she was,” Angelina said to People after the death of her mom in 2007.
Marcheline married actor Jon Voight on December 12, 1971. They had two children, James Haven and Angelina.
The pair separated in 1976 after Voight’s infidelity scandal.
“She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms,” Jolie said to the New York Times. “But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.”
Angelina recently shared an emotional tribute to Marcheline. “Today would have been my mother’s 73rd birthday. She passed away 15 years ago, after a long struggle with breast and ovarian cancer,” she wrote.