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Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Susan Sarandon

Full Biography

From All Movie Guide: Simply by growing old gracefully, actress Susan Sarandon has defied the rules of Hollywood stardom: Not only has her fame continued to increase as she enters middle age, but the quality of her films and her performances in them has improved as well. Ultimately, she has come to embody an all-too-rare movie type -- the strong and sexy older woman. Born Susan Tomalin on October 4, 1946, in Queens, NY, she was the oldest of nine children. Even while attending the Catholic University of America, she did not study acting, and in fact expressed no interest in performing until after marrying actor Chris Sarandon. While accompanying her husband on an audition, Sarandon landed a pivotal role in the controversial 1970 feature Joe, and suddenly her own career as an actress was well underway. She soon became a regular on the daytime soap opera A World Apart and in 1972 appeared in the feature Mortadella.

Lovin' Molly and The Front Page followed in 1974 before Sarandon earned cult immortality as Janet Weiss in 1975's camp classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the quintessential midnight movie of its era. After starring with Robert Redford in 1975's The Great Waldo Pepper, Sarandon struggled during the mid-'70s in a number of little-seen projects, including 1976's The Great Smokey Roadblock and 1978's Checkered Flag or Crash. Upon beginning a relationship with the famed filmmaker Louis Malle, however, her career took a turn for the better as she starred in the provocative Pretty Baby, portraying the prostitute mother of a 12-year-old Brooke Shields. Sarandon and Malle next teamed for 1980's superb Atlantic City, for which she earned her first Oscar nomination. After appearing in Paul Mazursky's Tempest, she then starred in Tony Scott's controversial 1983 horror film The Hunger, playing a scientist seduced by a vampire portrayed by Catherine Deneuve. The black comedy Compromising Positions followed in 1985, as did the TV miniseries Mussolini and I. Women of Valor, another mini, premiered a year later.

While Sarandon had enjoyed a prolific career virtually from the outset, stardom remained just beyond her grasp prior to the mid-'80s. First, a prominent appearance with Jack Nicholson, Cher, and Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1986 hit The Witches of Eastwick brought her considerable attention, and then in 1988 she delivered a breakthrough performance in Ron Shelton's hit baseball comedy Bull Durham, which finally made her a star, at the age of 40. More important, the film teamed her with co-star Tim Robbins, with whom she soon began a long-term offscreen relationship. After a starring role in the 1989 apartheid drama A Dry White Season, Sarandon teamed with Geena Davis for Thelma and Louise, a much-discussed distaff road movie which became among the year's biggest hits and won both actresses Oscar nominations. Sarandon was again nominated for 1992's Lorenzo's Oil and 1994's The Client before finally winning her first Academy Award for 1995's Dead Man Walking, a gut-wrenching examination of the death penalty, adapted and directed by Robbins. Now a fully established star, Sarandon had her choice of projects; she decided to lend her voice to Tim Burton's animated James and the Giant Peach (1996). Two years later, she was more visible with starring roles in the thriller Twilight (starring opposite Paul Newman and Gene Hackman) and Stepmom, a weepie co-starring Julia Roberts. The same year, she had a supporting role in the John Turturro film Illuminata.

Sarandon continued to stay busy in 1999, starring in Anywhere But Here, which featured her as Natalie Portman's mother, and Cradle Will Rock, Robbins' first directorial effort since Dead Man Walking. On television, Sarandon starred with Stephen Dorff in an adaptation of Anne Tyler's {-Earthly Possessions}, and showed a keen sense of humor in her various appearances on SNL, Chappelle's Show, and Malcolm in the Middle. After starring alongside Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters, Sarandon could be seen in a variety of projects including Alfie (2004), Romance and Cigarettes (2005), and Elizabethtown (2006). In 2007, Sarandon joined Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely Bones, director Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel of the same name.

She continued her heavy work schedule into the 2010s- in 2012 alone, the actress took on the role of a long-suffering mother to two grown sons in various states of distress for Jeff, Who Lives at Home, appeared as an older version of a character played by her daughter, Eva Amurri Martino, in That's My Boy and played a variety of supporting roles in the Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas. The following year found her in the crime drama Snitch, the ensemble rom-com The Big Wedding and in the Errol Flynn biopic The Last of Robin Hood. In 2014, she played Melissa McCarthy's grandmother (despite the fact that the actresses are only 24 years apart in age) in Tammy. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
Education

Institution - Edison High School
Location - Edison , New Jersey
Year range - 1964

Institution - The Catholic University of America
Location - Washington , Washington D.C.
Major - Performing Arts
Degree - Bachelors of Arts, B.A.
Year range - 1964 - 1968

Institution - Edison High School
Location - Edison, NJ
Year range - 1964

Institution - The Catholic University of America
Location - Washington, DC
Major - English and drama
Degree - BA
Year range - 1964-1968

Institution - The Catholic University of America
Location - Washington , Washington D.C.
Major - Literature
Degree - Bachelors of Arts, B.A.
Year range - 1964 - 1968

Susan Sarandon Biography


Susan Sarandon is an Academy Award-winning American film actress known for roles in films like Bull Durham, Thelma and Louise and Dead Man Walking.

Susan Sarandon - Versatile Actress (TV-14; 1:11) Watch a short video about Susan Sarandon and learn which role that this actress with more than 50 films under her belt cherished the most.

Synopsis

American film actress Susan Sarandon was born on October 4, 1946, in New York City. After college, Sarandon began acting, and in 1975 she landed a role in the cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She won an Academy Award for her performance in Dead Man Walking (1995), and received Oscar nominations for her roles in Atlantic City (1980), Thelma and Louise (1991), Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and The Client (1994). Other notable films include The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and Bull Durham (1988).

Early Career

Actress and activist Susan Sarandon was born on October 4, 1946, in New York City, New York. Known as an actress and an activist, Sarandon has shared with the world her dramatic talents and personal convictions. She graduated the Catholic University of America in 1968 and not long after made her film debut in Joe (1970). After a few other film roles, Sarandon landed a part in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), a campy musical, which has developed quite a cult following over the years.

Career Highlights

Sarandon earned her first Academy Award nomination for Atlantic City (1980) starring opposite screen legend Burt Lancaster. But her career really seemed to pick up steam later that decade with appearances in The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and Bull Durham (1988). In The Witches of Eastwick, she played one of three women seduced by the devil (Jack Nicholson) and developed special powers. This comedic battle of good versus evil showed Sarandon’s talent for lighter fare. In Bull Durham, she played smart and sexy baseball groupie “Annie Savoy” who becomes involved with one of the players -- “Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh” played by Tim Robbins. Robbins would become her partner in real life.
With Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon made one of her most memorable films Thelma and Louise (1991), which centered on the friendship of two women on a road trip turned wrong. Her portrayal of the tough, protective, and somewhat broken Louise brought her another Academy Award nomination. Sarandon was also nominated for Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and The Client (1994). She played a nun in the gritty and powerful capital punishment drama Dead Man Walking (1995) and won her first Academy Award for her performance.
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Recent Work

More recently, Sarandon took to the stage to appear in a revival of Eugene Ionesco's Exit the King. She played Queen Marguerite to Geoffrey Rush's King Berenger in the critically acclaimed production. On the big screen, Sarandon took on a supporting role in The Lovely Bones (2009), a film adaptation of the best-selling novel by Alice Sebold, in addition to roles in various films and TV series, including The Big C (2012), Arbitrage (2012) and Cloud Atlas (2012).

Activism

Outspoken on many issues, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins included information on the plight of Haitian HIV-positive refugees during the 1993 Academy Awards ceremony where they appeared as presenters. In 2006, she was one of the celebrities that joined antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan in a fast against the war in Iraq.

Personal Life

Susan Sarandon has three children: a daughter from a relationship with writer Franco Amurri and two sons with actor Tim Robbins. She and Robbins split in the summer of 2009, they had been one of Hollywood's most enduring couples having been together for 23 years. She was also married to actor Chris Sarandon from 1967 to 1979.
 
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