Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon is an American actor whose career has spanned more than five decades, earning her an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and an Actor Award, along with nominations for seven Emmy Awards, ten Golden Globes, and a Grammy. Born on October 4, 1946, in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, she was the eldest of nine children in a Roman Catholic family. Her father, an advertising executive and television producer, had English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry, while her mother was of Italian descent from Tuscany and Sicily. When Sarandon was four, the family moved to the Stephenville community in Edison, New Jersey. She attended the all-girls Saint Francis Grammar School in Metuchen, while her brothers went to Saint Matthews Grammar School in Edison. After graduating from Saint Francis in 1960, she attended Edison High School, where she performed lead roles in plays and was inducted into the National Honor Society in 1964. That same year, her family moved to the Chandler Hill community in Edison, and she graduated from high school. She then studied drama at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1968, while supporting herself with jobs such as emptying bedpans, cutting hair, cleaning houses, and working as a switchboard operator.

Sarandon made her film debut in *Joe* (1970) after accompanying her then-husband to a casting call, landing a major role as a disaffected teen. She appeared on the soap operas *A World Apart* (1970–1971) and *Search for Tomorrow* (1972). Her career gained momentum with the 1974 television film *F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles'* and Billy Wilder’s *The Front Page*. In 1975, she starred in the cult classic *The Rocky Horror Picture Show* and the Robert Redford film *The Great Waldo Pepper*. She was twice directed by Louis Malle, in *Pretty Baby* (1978) and *Atlantic City* (1980), the latter earning her first Oscar nomination. Her role in *The Hunger* (1983) featured a groundbreaking sex scene with Catherine Deneuve, the first such scene between two star actresses in a mainstream American film. She appeared in *The Witches of Eastwick* (1987) and became a household name with *Bull Durham* (1988). After four Oscar nominations for *Atlantic City*, *Thelma & Louise* (1991), *Lorenzo's Oil* (1992), and *The Client* (1994), she won the Academy Award for Best Actres