Susan Sarandon

As well known for her political activism as for her varied screen roles, actress Susan Sarandon defies being stereotyped in both her career and her personal life. The former Ford model, often playing seductive older women, has demonstrated throughout her career considerable range and fearlessness, excelling equally as devoted mother and sultry screen siren. Though her film debut was in 1970, Sarandon made her first measurable impression as the wide-eyed, WASP-ish ingénue in the long-running The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), then achieved critical acclaim and an Oscar nod as a casino worker run afoul with the mob in Atlantic City (1980). But it was her performance as the sexy baseball groupie in Bull Durham (1988) that propelled her to stardom. What followed was a string of Oscar-nominated roles in Thelma & Louise (1991), Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and The Client (1994) that paved the way for Academy Award gold with a strong, dignified performance as a Catholic nun fighting for the redemption of a death row inmate (Sean Penn) in Dead Man Walking (1995). Though her career slacked a bit following that performance - especially in ill-received films like The Banger Sisters (2002) and Elizabethtown (2005) - Sarandon nonetheless keeps working as a sultry leading lady, well past the age most actresses find themselves struggling to maintain their careers. Born Oct. 4, 1946 in Manhattan, Sarandon was raised the eldest of nine siblings by Phillip, a nightclub singer during the big band era who later became an advertising executive, and Lenora, a homemaker. She was a quiet, shy child who grew up in suburban Metuchen, NJ, where she attended Edison High School in nearby Edison. After graduation in 1964, she went to Catholic University in Washington, D.C., where she lacked direction or purpose, but did take acting classes, though without the intention of pursuing it as a career. In 1967, she married Chris Sarandon, whom she had met at Catholic University. Shortly after getting married, Sarandon followed her husband to New York City, where he auditioned for an agent. On a whim, he brought Sarandon into the room with him in order to have a friendly face to read to - the agent came away impressed with both actors and signed both as his clients. Less than a week later, Sarandon was sent to read for a leading role in Joe (1970), playing a drugged-out hippie thrown into a mental institution after her father (Dennis Patrick) guns down her dealer boyfriend (Patrick McDermott), who then teams up with a gun-crazed bigot (Peter Boyle) to track her down in Greenwich Village after she escapes. Despite stumbling upon an acting career, Sarandon took to her newfound calling with abandon, though not without its initial difficulties. She appeared in several smaller features roles, including Fleur bleue (1971) and the Sophia Loren vehicle Lady Liberty (1971), before turning to television with a regular role as Sara Fairbanks on Search for Tomorrow (1951). After landing more substantial parts with bigger names, notably Sidney Lumet's Lovin' Molly (1974) and Billy Wilder's underwhelming remake of The Front Page (1974), Sarandon made herself known - with the midnight crowd, at least - when she starred in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the cult classic that survived for decades with successive midnight showings that created a subculture of freaks and geeks dressing like the characters and acting out scenes in the theater. Sarandon was Janet, one half of a WASP-ish couple (the other half played by Barry Bostwick) who stumble upon a mansion occupied by a motley crew of Transylvanian weirds led by Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry), a transvestite claiming to be from another planet. One did not have to be a rabid fan to long remember Sarandon running around for most of the film in a bra and slip. Around the time she landed a co-starring role with Robert Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), Sarandon and her husband, Chris, separated. But her career continued unabated. In Dragonfly (1976), she played a woman who falls for a man (Beau Bridges) recently released from a psychiatric hospital, then followed with a small supporting role in the goofy road comedy The Great Smokey Roadblock (1977). Following turns in Checkered Flag or Crash (1977) and The Other Side of Midnight (1977), she played a New Orleans prostitute at the turn of the century whose 12-year-old daughter, Violet (Brooke Shields), attracts the attention of a photographer (Keith Carradine) shooting a photo series on prostitutes in the controversial Pretty Baby (1978), directed by her then-companion, Louis Malle. She was directed by Malle in Atlantic City (1980), the crime drama that finally turned her into a star. Sarandon played Sally, a casino croupier who comes into possession of a large amount of mob-owned drugs courtesy of her thieving boyfriend (Robert Joy). With the mob on her trail, Sally turns to an old-time gangster (Burt Lancaster), who reinvigorates his life by killing the thugs sent to kill her. Sarandon's exceptional turn - which included an infamous scene of bathing her breasts in lemons - earned her an Oscar nod for Best Actress. After co-starring in a contemporary telling of Shakepeare's Tempest (1982), she played a premature aging expert who gets sucked into the blood-thirsty seduction of a vampire (Catherine Deneuve) in The Hunger (1983), perhaps the more infamous of Sarandon's early work, thanks to a lesbian love scene with Deneuve. Sarandon then found prominent work on television, starring in movies-of-the-week like A.D. (1985) and Women of Valor (1986), before getting back on track in features playing one of three women - along with Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer - who fall prey to the temptations of Satan (Jack Nicholson) in The Witches of Eastwick (1987). Though not as prominent as her two other female costars, Sarandon's character went through the most significant physical change onscreen, going from a bespectacled matron to raven-haired wild woman. Looking back, Sarandon considered "The Witches of Eastwick" to be one of the worst film experiences of her career. But she quickly rebounded with her best experience, Bull Durham (1988), deftly playing Annie Savoy, a sultry groupie to a minor league baseball team who takes in a member of the hapless Durham Bulls as her lover every season. She decides to have an affair with a young, but dumb pitcher, Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins), only to find herself falling for his mentor, aging catcher, Crash Davis (Kevin Costner). Thanks to "Bull Durham," Sarandon found herself in demand like never before and - just as nice - a new man in her life, in the form of co-star Tim Robbins, with whom she would spend the next two decades together in unwedded bliss. Meanwhile, she retreated to the comfortable confines of bland romantic comedy with Sweet Hearts Dance (1988), before starring opposite heavy hitters Marlon Brando and Donald Sutherland in the political drama about South African apartheid, A Dry White Season (1989). All throughout the 1980s, Sarandon - who had always been politically active - increased her public advocacy of progressive ideals, including traveling as part of a delegation to Nicaragua in 1983 to promote social and economic justice, and making contributions to EMILY's List, a political action committee dedicated to electing pro-choice Democrats. As she wore her political activism on her sleeve, Sarandon's career continued its ascent, as did Robbins' - who was equally politically outspoken. After starring in the offbeat cop thriller The January Man (1989) and the steamy May-December romantic drama White Palace (1990), Sarandon left an indelible mark on cinema history with Thelma & Louise (1991), a revisionist buddy road film that become something of a feminist anthem. Sarandon played a working-class woman who goes on a weekend getaway with her best friend, Thelma (Geena Davis), but the pair get into trouble when Louise shoots Thelma's would-be rapist in a bar parking lot, sparking a cross-country road trip where they encounter a young hustler (Brad Pitt) while trying to outrun a sympathetic police officer (Harvey Keitel). While the film created critical enthusiasm and loyal fan support, Sarandon benefited most with her second Academy Award nomination. Fresh off her triumph with "Thelma & Louise," Sarandon made cameo appearances as a news anchor in Tim Robbins' political satire, Bob Roberts (1992), and herself in Robert Altman's The Player (1992), before giving a powerful and heartbreaking performance in Lorenzo's Oil (1992) as a mom who, along with her dedicated husband (Nick Nolte), desperately tries to find a cure for their son's supposedly incurable ALD, a debilitating and fatal nerve disease. With unbridled determination, the two parents refuse to accept a death sentence for their son; instead researching on their own a cure to the disease using rapeseed oil. For her moving portrayal, Sarandon earned her third Academy Award nomination for Best Leading Actress. She followed with another award-worthy performance, playing a recovering alcoholic lawyer who finds redemption by defending a young boy (Brad Renfro) after he witnessed the murder of a mafia boss in The Client (1994). Once again, Sarandon found herself the recipient of an Oscar nomination for Best Leading Actress. After narrating the documentary short, School of the Americas Assassins (1994), an investigative look at the infamous U.S Army School of the Americas, a training ground for right-wing paramilitary groups on American soil, she gave fine performances as a mother raising her four daughters during the Civil War in Little Women (1994) and as another mother raising seven sons in the family dramedy Safe Passage (1994). If past is indeed prologue, then Sarandon's past near-misses for Oscar glory were mere preparation for her next worthy performance, playing anti-death penalty crusader Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995), a Louisiana nun who acts as spiritual counselor to Matthew Poncelet, an unrepentant death row killer (Sean Penn). Though initially intimidated by the amoral, racist Poncelet, Prejean offers comfort and ultimately redemption in an effort to bring about an admission of his guilt in order to bring about forgiveness. Both audiences and critics responded enthusiastically to her unrelentingly dignified performance, finally leading to an Oscar win for the Best Leading Actress. Meanwhile, after voicing the seductive Polish spider in the animated James and the Giant Peach (1996), Sarandon easily slipped back into her femme fatale persona for Robert Benton's rather disappointing Twilight (1998), before giving another tough, but endearing performance as a mother struggling with raising her kids while fighting cancer in Stepmom (1998). Following a starring role as a mother who packs everything and moves with her daughter to Beverly Hills in search of a new life in Anywhere But Here (1999), Sarandon joined a large ensemble cast for Robbins' third directing effort, Cradle Will Rock (1999). In 1999, Sarandon was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a position traditionally given to celebrities in order to draw attention to the plight of impoverished children around the world. After playing a supporting role as Greenwich Village painter Alice Neel in Joe Gould's Secret (2000), Sarandon returned to the rather easy task of lending her voice for a pair of animated features - Rugrats in Paris (2000) and Cats & Dogs (2001). In 2001, a rare sitcom performance as a soap opera diva on Friends (1994) led to an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Then in a rare misstep, Sarandon joined Goldie Hawn to play a former rock groupie in the comedic dud, The Banger Sisters (2002). She next played the wealthy, self-absorbed mother of a 17-year-old (Kieran Culkin) struggling to break away from his oppressive family in Igby Goes Down (2002), then starred opposite Dustin Hoffman as one half of a married couple who take in their deceased daughter's fiancé in Moonlight Mile (2002). Back on television, she appeared in the elaborate adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic Children of Dune (2003), playing Princess Wensicia Corrinom. Back on the big screen, Sarandon provided appropriate pathos as Richard Gere's wife in Shall We Dance? (2004), worried that her husband's newfound preoccupation with dance classes portends something more ominous for their drifting marriage. That same year, she appeared as one of Jude Law's extensive collection of paramours in the remake Alfie (2004), playing Liz, a successful businesswoman with a refreshingly no-nonsense approach to sex. It was then back to the small screen for the telepic The Exonerated (2005), the story of six wrongly convicted people whose death row sentences were eventually overturned through the hard work of dedicated lawyers. Sarandon then co-starred in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown (2005), playing the grieving wife and mother who distracts herself with a seemingly endless succession of hobbies after the sudden death of her husband, while her suicide-minded son (Orlando Bloom) returns home to help with the funeral. Though she only appeared fleetingly in the first two thirds of the film, "Elizabethtown" provided Sarandon with one of the most alternately touching, funny and memorable scenes of her career when she delivered a highly unorthodox eulogy at her husband's memorial. Sarandon made the jump back to television for a recurring role on Rescue Me (2004), playing a wealthy Manhattanite who starts a relationship with Franco (Daniel Sunjata), only to steal his daughter from him so she can have a better life. After playing a seamstress who catches her ironworker husband (James Gandolfini) having an affair with a lingerie salesgirl (Kate Winslet) in the low-budget Romance & Cigarettes (2005), Sarandon landed a pair of big studio movies; first playing a widowed mother who shocks her son (Seann William Scott) by getting married to his abusive high school gym coach (Billy Bob Thornton) in Mr. Woodcock (2007). She then co-starred as an evil queen attempting to keep a princess-in-waiting (Amy Adams) from finding her true love in Disney's modern-day animation and live-action fairy tale, Enchanted (2007). By then comfortable playing the grieving mother in either comedy or drama, she next gave a sterling performance in In the Valley of Elah (2007) as a mother whose former military husband (Tommy Lee Jones) spearheads an investigation into the sudden disappearance of their son (Jonathan Tucker) after he returns from fighting in Iraq. Sarandon then had a superficial role as Mom Racer in the overpriced Technicolor summer disaster, Speed Racer (2008), but returned to award contention with a compelling performance as tobacco millionaire, philanthropist and avid socialite Doris Duke, who controversially willed her entire fortune to her butler, Bernard Lafferty (Ralph Fiennes), in the cable movie Bernard and Doris (2006). Sarandon earned an eighth Golden Globe nomination; this time receiving a nod for Best Actress in the miniseries or television movie category. Meanwhile, after a 30-year absence, Sarandon returned to Broadway to play the elder ex-wife of a dying monarch (Geoffrey Rush) in Eugène Ionesco's absurdist drama, "Exit the King" (2009). But while she continued her career undaunted, Sarandon and longtime partner Tim Robbins quietly split during the summer 2009; in fact, their separation after 21 years together was kept so hush-hush that the press was caught unawares when she made an official announcement a few days before Christmas. Single once again, Sarandon was rumored to be involved with several men half her age as she enjoyed her newfound freedom. Back on the big screen, she was the grandmother of a murdered girl (Saoirse Ronan) who watches over her distressed family from heaven in Peter Jackson's muddled adaptation of The Lovely Bones (2009). Prior to her supporting role as the mother of twin sons (Edward Norton) in Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass (2009), Sarandon portrayed Hemlock Society activist Janet Good in You Don't Know Jack (2010), director Barry Levinson's acclaimed biopic about the notorious right-to-life physician Jack Kevorkian (Al Pacino). Her performance earned Sarandon Emmy and Screen Actors Guild award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Shifting further towards indie films and television, Sarandon played the thoughtful single mother of two trouble-prone brothers (Jason Segel and Ed Helms) in the Duplass Brothers' Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011) and portrayed a lovely librarian in the slightly futuristic dramedy Robot & Frank (2012), while also taking on a recurring stint on the Showtime series The Big C (2010). After reteaming with Richard Gere for the financial drama Arbitrage (2012), she proved that she was game for silly Hollywood fare with her part in the Adam Sandler comedy That's My Boy (2012). Later that year, Sarandon turned up in multiple roles for the ambitious time-spanning literary adaptation Cloud Atlas (2012) and subsequently appeared in the underwhelming ensemble comedy The Big Wedding (2013), also featuring Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton and Robin Williams.