Susan Sarandon (born October 4, 1946) is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1970 and has won an Academy Award for her role in Dead Man Walking. She is also noted for her political activism for liberal causes.
Early life
Sarandon, the eldest of nine children, was born Susan Abigail Tomalin in New York City, the daughter of Lenora Marie (née Criscione) and Phillip Leslie Tomalin, who worked as an advertising executive, television producer, and nightclub singer during the big band era. Sarandon’s father was of English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry and her mother was of Sicilian/Italian descent. Sarandon, and 10 of her relatives (including her significant other Tim Robbins and her son Miles), traveled to Wales to track her family’s Welsh genealogy. Their journey was documented by the BBC Wales programme “Coming Home: Susan Sarandon”.
Sarandon was raised in a Roman Catholic family. She graduated from Edison High School in 1964, and then attended The Catholic University of America from 1964 to 1968 where she attained a BA in drama, working with noted drama coach and master teacher Father Gilbert Hartke.
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). Five years later, she appeared in the cult favorite The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That same year, she also played the female lead in The Great Waldo Pepper, opposite Robert Redford. Her most controversial film appearance was in The Hunger in 1983, a modern vampire story which turned out to be a critical and box office flop. The film has gained some cult status for a rather graphic lesbian love scene between Sarandon and co-star Catherine Deneuve. It was the first mainstream American film to feature such a scene between two star actresses. However, Sarandon did not become a “household name” until her breakthrough in the 1988 film Bull Durham. which became a huge commercial and critical success.
Sarandon received five Academy Award nominations for best actress, in Atlantic City (1981), Thelma & Louise (1991), Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), and The Client (1994), finally winning in 1996 for Dead Man Walking. Her other movies include Stepmom (1998), Anywhere but Here (1999), Cradle Will Rock (1999), The Banger Sisters (2002), Shall We Dance (2004), Alfie (2004), Romance & Cigarettes (2005) and Elizabethtown (2005).
Sarandon appeared in The Simpsons as herself, in an episode which aired in March 2006; she has appeared on the show once before as a ballet teacher. She made appearances on the shows Friends, Malcolm in the Middle, Mad TV, Saturday Night Live, Chappelle’s Show, and Rescue Me.
Most recently, 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 movies were filmed in 2007.
Personal life
While in college, she met and married fellow student Chris Sarandon in 1967. They divorced in 1979 and she retained her married name as her stage name.
In 1981, readers of Playboy magazine voted hers the Best Celebrity Breasts of the Summer of 1981. In response, she said, “It must seem to a lot of people that I am always naked or making love in my films. I think it’s very hard to be in a scene and not be upstaged by your nipples”.
In the mid-1980s, Sarandon dated director Franco Amurri, with whom she had a daughter in 1985, actress Eva Amurri. Since 1988, Sarandon has been in a relationship with actor Tim Robbins, whom she met while filming Bull Durham. The couple have two children: Jack Henry (born 1989) and Miles Guthrie (born 1992). Sarandon and Robbins are often involved in the same social and political causes.
Political 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 tolerance and human rights causes that are similar philosophically to ideas found among the Christian left.
In 1995 she 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 and in that capacity has actively supported the organization’s global advocacy as well as the work of the Canadian UNICEF Committee.
During the 2000 election, she supported Ralph Nader’s run for President, serving as a co-chair of the National Steering Committee of Nader 2000. However, during the 2004 election campaign, she withheld support for Nader’s bid, being among several “Nader 2000 Leaders” who signed a petition urging voters to vote for Democratic Party candidate John Kerry.
Sarandon took an early stance against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, 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. Recently, the actress has expressed interest in portraying Cindy Sheehan in a movie about Sheehan and her anti-war activism. Also in 2003, Sarandon appeared in a “Love is Love is Love” commercial, promoting the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.
Sarandon hosted a section of the Live 8 concert in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2005. She appeared at a 2006 Mother’s Day protest sponsored by Code Pink and in January 2007 she appeared with Robbins and Jane Fonda at an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. in support for a measure to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.
