Marcheline Bertrand

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Marcheline Bertrand
Image:MarchelineBertrand.jpg
Born	May 9 1950(1950-05-09) Chicago, Illinois
Died	January 27 2007 (aged 56) Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s)	Jon Voight (1971-1978) Tom Bessamra
Children	James Haven (b.1973) Angelina Jolie (b.1975)

Marcheline Bertrand (May 9 1950 – January 27 2007) was an American actress of French-Canadian descent. According to daughter Angelina Jolie, Bertrand was often wrongly identified as a French actress: "My mom is as far from French Parisian as you can get. She grew up in a bowling alley that my grandparents owned."^[1]

Bertrand married actor Jon Voight on December 12 1971. The couple had two children: director James Haven and actress Angelina Jolie. Bertrand and Voight separated in 1976 and divorced in 1978.

In 1978, Bertrand met documentary filmmaker Bill Day (Saviors of the Forest and Missionary Positions, among others). Day and Bertrand lived together for 12 years in Beverly Hills and New York City. Numerous miscarriages ended their hopes of having their own children. As business partners in Woods Road Productions, they developed a film project called Amazonia and sold it to film director Ridley Scott, but the project never took off.

After her split from Day in 1993, Bertrand turned her attention toward producing. She was the executive producer of a documentary Trudell, about Native American activist John Trudell. It was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.

Bertrand studied with Lee Strasberg during her early years as an actress. Many years later her daughter would study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. During a recent interview on Inside the Actor's Studio, Angelina Jolie credited her mother rather than her famous father for getting her involved with acting.

In interviews with both Marie Claire and Larry King Live ( June 2007) her daughter Angelina Jolie stated that the name of her second son, Pax, was chosen out of a list of names picked by Bertrand just before her death. In her Esquire interview (June 2007) Jolie stated that her mother's side of the family did not have much longevity. ""There is no longevity on my mother's side of the family. My grandmother also died young so my mother always thought it could happen to her...."" When a reporter asked Angelina Jolie where she got her empathy for the less fortunate she stated she saw the joy her mom had in doing things for others. "It was never like something she had to do. She had a real joy" (Inquirer June 17th 2007).

Towards the end of her life, Bertrand preferred to keep a low profile and did not grant interviews. She died from ovarian cancer in Los Angeles, after a 7½ year battle. Her children, Angelina Jolie and James Haven, and Jolie's partner, Brad Pitt, were at the hospital at the time of her death.^[2]^,^[3]

In her will, Marcheline Bertrand left several thousands of dollars to her brother, sister, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren. In addition, she left a million dollars to each of her children ^[4].