Jolie loses mother to cancer
Monday, 29 Jan 2007 08:21
Angelina was at the hospital at the time
The actress and mother of Angelina Jolie, Marcheline Bertrand, has died aged 56 after a battle with cancer.
Bertrand had been diagnosed with the disease almost eight years ago and died on Saturday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai medical centre in Los Angeles. Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt were at the hospital alongside Bertrand's director son James Haven.
Jolie's mother raised her two children largely by herself after her divorce from actor Jon Voight and gave up her ambitions as an actress to care for them.
She had previously had supporting roles in films such as The Man Who Loved Women in 1983 and Lookin' to Get Out the year after.
Speaking in a recent interview, Tomb Raider star Jolie said that her inspiration to become an actress was instilled by her mother not her more famous Oscar-wining father, with whom she has little contact.
A private funeral is to be held and the family have requested that donations to the hospital's women's cancer research fund be given instead of flowers.