Angelina Jolie Loses Her Mother

E! Online reports that Oscar winning actress, Angelina Jolie, anounced on Sunday that her mother, former actress Marcheline Bertrand has died of cancer. Bertrand passed away on Saturday at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with Jolie, Brad Pitt and Jolie's brother, actor/filmmaker James Haven by her side. She was 56.

Bertrand was in Chicago and studied under acting coach Lee Strasberg. However, she put her acting career on hold when she married Jon Voight in 1971. She had Haven and Jolie before splitting up in 1976 and divorcing Voight in 1978.

Although Jolie and Voight reunited as costars in Tomb Raider, the two are no longer on speaking terms and Jolie has said Bertrand is the one who mostly raised her. Moreover, Jolie claims she got the desire to be an actress from her mother. Some of Bertrand's short roles include 80s films such as The Man Who Loved Women, with Burt Reynolds and Lookin' to Get Out, as well as a 1971 episode of Ironside.

Jolie implied that a private funeral would be held and asked that donations be made to the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai in lieu of flowers.