INSIDE EDITION looks at Angelina Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died of cancer at age 56, prompting Jolie to proactively deal with her family's medical history.
Angelina Jolie was an adorable little girl with her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, in 1981 in a home video. They wore matching dresses on a bluff overlooking the ocean in Hawaii and did the Hula together.
The bond between mother and daughter was apparent. Marcheline carried a sleeping Angelina to bed in their hotel room.
Angelina Jolie said once in an interview, "Her name was Marcheline but everyone called her marshmallow because she was just the softest, most gentle woman in the world."
People magazine Assistant Managing Editor Julie Dam told INSIDE EDITION, "Angelina and her mom were really, really close. Angelina says that she's her best friend, that she was the most compassionate woman she's ever known, and that she was really devastated by her death."
In Angelina's shocking op-ed piece in The New York Times, she writes this about her mother in the very first sentence: "My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56."
She writes about her brood of six kids: "We often speak of 'mommy's mommy', and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us."
Marcheline Bertrand was also an actress. She appeared in the 1982 movie "Lookin' To Get Out" that starred her then-husband, Jon Voight.
Angelina always blamed her father's alleged philandering for her parents' divorce. In a 60 Minutes profile in 2011, the mention of her late mom brought Jolie to tears.
Bob Simon said, "It's clear that you can talk about anything but your mother, without welling up."
"Yes, that is my soft spot," replied Jolie.
Bertrand died in 2007. By undergoing a double mastectomy, Jolie is clearly hoping her children have more time with her than she did with her mom.
