Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon, born in 1946, American motion-picture actor, who gained a reputation as one of Hollywood's leading political activists. Born Susan Abigail Tomalin in New York City, she studied drama at Catholic University. While there, she met actor Chris Sarandon, whom she married in 1967 and divorced in 1979. Her first film role was in the mean-spirited political satire Joe (1970), in which she played a waiflike addict whose murder sets the plot of the film in motion.

After appearing in several unremarkable motion pictures, Sarandon developed a following after she played the role of the hopelessly middle-class character Janet in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Atlantic City (1980), directed by French filmmaker Louis Malle, brought her critical praise, her first Academy Award nomination, and public recognition. Sarandon’s physical appeal and innate sensuality were showcased in the vampire movie The Hunger (1983), but it was the hit comedy Bull Durham (1988), in which she appeared as a lusty baseball fan opposite Kevin Costner, that made her a sex symbol at the age of 42.

Sarandon resisted being typecast, however, and instead chose to express her feminism in the film Thelma & Louise (1991), in which she played one of a pair of women who become outlaws after thwarting an attempted rape. She played maternal roles in Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and Little Women (1994). Sarandon also acted in several projects that reflected her political activism—including Bob Roberts (1992) and Dead Man Walking (1995)—and achieved major commercial success in her role as a tough defense attorney in The Client (1994). In 1996 she won the Academy Award for best actress for her performance in Dead Man Walking. Her other films include Stepmom (1998) and Anywhere But Here (1999).