Marcheline Bertrand is best remembered today as the mother of Angelina Jolie and James Haven, but she had a life and identity well beyond her famous family. She was an actress, a producer, and a committed humanitarian who spent years working to support Native American communities. Her life was marked by early Hollywood promise, a high-profile marriage, and a quiet strength that carried her through years of serious illness.
Bertrand’s acting career was modest but notable. She made her screen debut with the role of Connie in the fourth season of the television series Ironside. In 1982, she appeared in a small role in the film Lookin’ to Get Out, a movie that also featured her then-husband Jon Voight. Her final acting credit came the following year in the 1983 comedy The Man Who Loved Women. After that, she stepped away from performing and shifted her focus to producing films and doing humanitarian work.
One of her most meaningful contributions was co-founding the All Tribes Foundation alongside activist and musician John Trudell. The organization was built to support the cultural and economic survival of Native peoples — a cause Bertrand championed with genuine dedication in the years that followed her acting career.
Bertrand married actor Jon Voight in 1971. The couple quickly became a recognizable pair on the Hollywood social circuit, appearing at events across New York and Los Angeles throughout the early 1970s. The photos below, taken largely in 1972, capture them during some of their most public years together.
The pair attended numerous high-profile events together, including political fundraisers. In 1972, they were photographed at the “Stars for McGovern” event, a celebrity-driven campaign rally in support of Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. Their public appearances during this period showed a couple deeply embedded in the cultural and political conversations of the era.
Together, Bertrand and Voight had two children — James Haven, born in 1973, and Angelina Jolie, born in 1975. Despite building a family, the marriage deteriorated. Bertrand and Voight separated in 1976 after Voight committed adultery, and their divorce was finalized in 1980. The photos from 1976 and 1977 below reflect what were some of the final years of their public life as a couple.
Following the separation, Bertrand entered a long relationship with film producer and director Bill Day. They were together from 1978 to 1989 — eleven years — though they never married. Throughout this period, she continued raising her children and pursuing her work outside of acting.
Bertrand developed close friendships within the entertainment world, including with British actress Jacqueline Bisset. The two were photographed together on multiple occasions, and Bisset also appears in photos alongside Bertrand and a young Angelina Jolie.
In her final years, Bertrand withdrew almost entirely from public life. She had been diagnosed with both ovarian cancer and breast cancer, and she fought the diseases for eight years. Her mother and her sister also died of cancer. Marcheline Bertrand died in 2007 at the age of 56. She kept her illness private and faced it largely outside of the public eye, which was in keeping with the quieter, more purposeful life she had chosen long before her death.
