Susan Sarandon stars as Sister Helen Prejean in the film "Dead Man Walking," written and directed by Tim Robbins, a Gramercy Pictures release.Photo by Demmie ToddGramercy PicturesSusan 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.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. (Wikipedia)
