Susan Sarandon

She is the eldest of nine children of Lenora Marie (née Criscione 1923–2020) and Phillip Leslie Tomalin (1917–1999), an advertising executive, television producer, and one-time nightclub singer.

She has four brothers: Phillip Leslie Jr., Terry (an outdoorsman, journalist, and community leader), Timothy, and O'Brian (owner of Building 8 Brewery in Northampton, Mass.); and four sisters: Meredith (or "Merry"), Bonnie Priscilla, Amanda, and Melissa (or "Missy").

Her father was of English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry.

His English ancestors came from Hackney in London and his Welsh ancestors from Bridgend.

On her mother's side, she is of Italian descent, with ancestors from the regions of Tuscany and Sicily.

Her father worked for WOR-TV in New York City.

When she was four years old, the Tomalin family moved from New York City to the newly developed Stephenville community, located in the northern area of Raritan (now Edison) Township, New Jersey.

The family was raised Roman Catholic and she and her sisters attended Saint Francis Grammar School in nearby Metuchen, while her brothers attended Saint Matthews Grammar School in Edison Township.

Her mother was a member and board director of the Stephenville Women's Club and the Terra Tova Garden Club.

The family was also member to the Woodside Swim Club, a private swimming club and park in the Stephenville community, where Sarandon and her sisters won many swimming competitions.

Susan Abigail Sarandon (née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actor.

She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and nine Golden Globe Awards.

Sarandon graduated from Saint Francis Grammar School in 1960.

Sarandon attended Edison High School, a public school located in Edison Township.

In 1962, while still in high school, she joined a band and dance group to entertain sick children at a nearby rehabilitation hospital.

As a high school junior, she performed the lead in the play Lady Precious Stream.

As a senior, she played the title character in the comedy My Sister Eileen, earning mentions in the local newspapers.

In 1964, Sarandon was inducted into the National Honor Society.

In May 1964, the Tomalin family moved to the newly developed Chandler Hill community, east of Stephenville in Edison.

Sarandon graduated from Edison High School in 1964.

She attended the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. from 1964 to 1968, earning a Bachelor of Arts in drama, and studying under the drama coach Gilbert V. Hartke.

During and shortly after college, she supported herself by emptying bedpans in a hospital, cutting hair, cleaning houses, and working as a switchboard operator.

In 1968, Sarandon and her then-husband, Chris Sarandon, appeared on stage at the Wayside Theatre in Middletown, Virginia.

Sarandon began her acting career in the drama film Joe (1970), the soap opera A World Apart (1970–1971), and the television film F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles' (1974).

The following year, the couple went to a casting call for the motion-picture Joe (1970).

Although he did not get a part, she was cast in a major role of a disaffected teen who disappears into the seedy underworld.

Between 1970 and 1972, she appeared in the soap operas A World Apart and Search for Tomorrow, playing Patrice Kahlman and Sarah Fairbanks, respectively.

Sarandon made her Broadway debut in the play An Evening with Richard Nixon (1972) and went on to receive Drama Desk Award nominations for the off-Broadway plays A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking (1979) and Extremities (1982).

She gained prominence for her role as Janet Weiss in the cult classic musical comedy horror film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

She appeared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and also played the female lead in The Great Waldo Pepper (also 1975), opposite Robert Redford.

Her other notable films include Pretty Baby (1978), The Hunger (1983), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Bull Durham (1988), Little Women (1994), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Stepmom (1998), Enchanted (2007), 'Speed Racer' (2008), The Lovely Bones (2009), Cloud Atlas (2012), The Meddler (2015), and Blue Beetle (2023).

She was twice directed by Louis Malle, in Pretty Baby (1978) and Atlantic City (1981).

The latter earned Sarandon her first Academy Award nomination.

Her other Oscar-nominated roles were in Atlantic City (1980), Thelma & Louise (1991), Lorenzo's Oil (1992), and The Client (1994).

Sarandon went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress for Dead Man Walking (1995).

Also known for her social and political activism, Sarandon was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award in 2006.

Sarandon was born in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City.

On television, she is a six-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee, including for her guest roles on the sitcoms Friends (2001) and Malcolm in the Middle (2002) as well as her portrayals of Janet Good in the HBO film You Don't Know Jack (2010), Doris Duke in the HBO film Bernard and Doris (2008), and Bette Davis in the FX miniseries Feud (2017).

In 2002, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She returned to Broadway in the 2009 revival of Exit the King, and to off-Broadway in the 2019 play Happy Talk.