Susan Sarandon Bio
Susan Sarandon Bio
Susan Sarandon (née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her work. She is also noted for her social and political activism for a variety of liberal causes.
Susan Sarandon: Early life
Sarandon was born Susan Abigail Tomalin in New York City to a Roman Catholic family, the eldest of nine children of Leonora Marie (née Criscione) and Phillip Leslie Tomalin (September 26, 1917 - March 26, 1999), who worked as an advertising executive, television producer, and nightclub singer during the big band era. Her father was of English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry, his English ancestors being from Hackney in London. Her Italian American mother's ancestors emigrated from the regions of Tuscany and Sicily. Sarandon attended Roman Catholic schools. She grew up in Edison, New Jersey, where she graduated from Edison High School in 1964. She then attended The Catholic University of America, from 1964 to 1968, and earned a BA in drama and worked with noted drama coach and master teacher, Father Gilbert V. Hartke.
Susan Sarandon: Career
In 1969, Sarandon went to a casting call for the motion-picture Joe, with her then-husband Chris Sarandon. Although he did not get a part, she was cast in a major role of a disaffected teen, who disappears into the seedy underworld. (The film was released in 1970). Between the years 1970 and 1972, Sarandon played Patrice Kahlman on the short-lived soap opera A World Apart, and on Search for Tomorrow, in the role of Sarah Fairbanks. She appeared in Fleur bleue (The Apprentice) (1971) and also appeared in Lady Liberty (1971), by Mario Monicelli, opposite Sophia Loren.
In 1974, she co-starred in The Front Page, with the comedy duo Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and Lovin' Molly with Anthony Perkins. She appeared in the cult favorite musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). That same year, she starred in The Great Waldo Pepper, opposite Robert Redford. In 1978, Sarandon played the mother of a child prostitute, who was played by Brooke Shields, in Pretty Baby.
Susan Sarandon's hand and foot prints at Grauman's Chinese TheatreHer most controversial film appearance was in The Hunger in 1983, a modern vampire story in which she had a lesbian sex scene with Catherine Deneuve. The film was a critical and commercial flop but gained a cult following. Sarandon played one of the leads in the 1987 dark comedy/fantasy film The Witches of Eastwick, opposite Jack Nicholson. Sarandon starred in the 1988 film Bull Durham, which became a huge commercial and critical success. In 1989, she co-starred with Marlon Brando in A Dry White Season. In 1990 she starred in "White Palace" with James Spader.
Sarandon has received five Academy Award nominations, for best actress, in Atlantic City (1980), Thelma & Louise (1991), Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and The Client (1994). In 1995, she won the award for her performance in Dead Man Walking..
In 1994, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.
Additional performances in film include Little Women (1994), Compromising Positions, Stepmom (1998), Anywhere but Here (1999), Cradle Will Rock (1999), The Banger Sisters (2002), Shall We Dance (2004), Alfie (2004), Romance & Cigarettes (2005), Elizabethtown (2005) and Enchanted (2007).
Sarandon has appeared in two episodes of The Simpsons, one as herself ("Bart Has Two Mommies") and another as a ballet teacher, "Homer vs. Patty and Selma". She has made appearances on comedies such as Friends, Malcolm in the Middle, Mad TV, Saturday Night Live, Chappelle's Show, 30 Rock, and Rescue Me.
Sarandon has contributed the narration to some two dozen documentary films, many of which dealt with social and political issues; in addition, she has served as the presenter on many installments of the PBS documentary series, Independent Lens. In 1999-2000, she hosted and presented Mythos, a series of lectures by the late American mythology professor Joseph Campbell. Sarandon also participates as a member of the Jury for the NYICFF, a local New York City Film Festival that is dedicated to screening films made for children between the ages of 3 and 18.
Sarandon joined the cast of the adaptation of The Lovely Bones, opposite Rachel Weisz, and appeared with her daughter, Eva Amurri, in Middle of Nowhere; both of the films were filmed in 2007.
In June 2010, Sarandon joined the cast of new HBO pilot The Miraculous Year. She will play the role of Patty Atwood, a Broadway director/choreographer.
Susan Sarandon: Personal life
In 1964, Sarandon began dating actor Chris Sarandon while both were in college, and the couple married on September 16, 1967. Following their separation in 1978, Sarandon gave an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, in which she stated "I no longer believe in marriage." They divorced in 1979 and she retained Sarandon as her stage name.
In the late 1970s, Sarandon had a two-year relationship with director Louis Malle, who directed her in Pretty Baby and Atlantic City.
In the mid-1980s, Sarandon dated Italian filmmaker Franco Amurri, with whom she had a daughter on March 15, 1985, actress Eva Amurri.
From 1988 to 2009, Sarandon was in a relationship with actor Tim Robbins, whom she met while they were filming Bull Durham. They have two sons - Jack Henry (born 1989) and Miles Guthrie (born 1992).
In 2006, Sarandon and 10 of her relatives (including her then-partner Tim Robbins and her son Miles) travelled to Wales to trace her family's Welsh genealogy. Their journey was documented by the BBC Wales programme, Coming Home: Susan Sarandon. In 2006, she also received the "Ragusani nel mondo" prize, since she had recently discovered her Sicilian roots, in Ragusa, Italy.
Sarandon is the co-owner a New York table tennis club SPiN.
Susan Sarandon: Activism
Sarandon is noted for her active support of progressive and left-liberal political causes, ranging from donations made to organizations such as EMILY's List, to participating in a 1983 delegation to Nicaragua sponsored by MADRE, an organization that promotes "social, environmental and economic justice." Sarandon has also expressed support for various human rights causes that are similar philosophically to ideas found among the Christian left.
In 1995, Sarandon was one of many Hollywood actors, directors and writers who were interviewed for the documentary The Celluloid Closet, which looked at how Hollywood films have depicted homosexuality. In 1999, she was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In that capacity, she has actively supported the organization's global advocacy, as well as the work of the Canadian UNICEF Committee.
Susan Sarandon in April 2007During the 2000 election, Sarandon supported Ralph Nader's run for President, serving as a co-chair of the National Steering Committee of Nader 2000.
During the 2004 election campaign, she withheld support for Nader's bid, being among several "Nader 2000 Leaders" who signed a petition that urged voters to vote for Democratic Party candidate John Kerry. After the 2004 election, Sarandon called for US elections to be monitored by international entities.
Sarandon and Robbins both took an early stance against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with Sarandon stating that she was firmly against the concept of the war as a pre-emptive strike. Prior to a 2003 protest sponsored by the United for Peace and Justice coalition, she said that many Americans "do not want to risk their children or the children of Iraq". Sarandon was one of the first to appear in a series of political ads sponsored by TrueMajority, an organization established by Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream founder Ben Cohen. Also in 2003, Sarandon appeared in a "Love is Love is Love" commercial, which promoted the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.
In 2004, she served on the advisory committee for the group 2004 Racism Watch. She hosted a section of the Live 8 concert in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2005. In 2006, she was one of eight women who were selected to carry in the Olympic flag at the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, in Turin, Italy.
Along with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Sarandon took part in a 2006 Mother's Day protest, which was sponsored by Code Pink; she has expressed interest in portraying Sheehan in a film. In January 2007, she appeared with Robbins and Jane Fonda at an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. in support of a Congressional measure to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.
In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Sarandon and Tim Robbins campaigned for John Edwards in the New Hampshire communities of Hampton, Bedford and Dover. When asked at We Vote '08 Kickoff Party "What would Jesus do this primary season", Sarandon said, "I think Jesus would be very supportive of John Edwards."
On March 12, 2011, Sarandon spoke before a crowd in Madison, Wisconsin during a protest of Governor Scott Walker and his "Budget Repair Bill".
On September 27, 2011, Sarandon spoke to reporters and other interested parties at the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City.
After using the term "Nazi" in describing Pope Benedict XVI on October 15, 2011, she drew umbrage not only from Roman Catholic authorities, but also the Anti-Defamation League called on Sarandon to apologize.
Susan Sarandon - Recognition
In 2006, Sarandon received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award. She was honored for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, an advocate for victims of hunger and HIV/AIDS and a spokesperson for Heifer International.
In 2010, Sarandon was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
