Susan Sarandon

**Susan Abigail Sarandon** (née **Tomalin**) is an American actress. She is an Academy Award and BAFTA Award winner who is also known for her social and political activism for a variety of causes. She was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award in 2006.

She is starring in the first season of *Feud* as Bette Davis, while simultaneously being a producer on the show.

## Early Life

Sarandon was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City. She is the eldest of nine children born to Lenora Marie (née Criscione; b. 1923) and Phillip Leslie Tomalin (1917–1999), an advertising executive, television producer, and one-time nightclub singer. She has four brothers: Philip Jr., Terry (deceased May 19, 2016), Tim and O'Brian and four sisters: Meredith, Bonnie, Amanda, and Missy. Her father was of English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry, his English ancestors being from Hackney in London and his Welsh ancestors being from Bridgend. On her mother's side, she is of Italian descent, with ancestors from the regions of Tuscany and Sicily. Sarandon was raised Roman Catholic and attended Roman Catholic schools. She grew up in Edison, New Jersey, where she graduated from Edison High School in 1964. She then attended The Catholic University of America, from 1964 to 1968, and earned a BA in drama and worked with noted drama coach and master teacher, Father Gilbert V. Hartke.

## Career

Sarandon made her acting debut in the movie Joe, which she followed with a continuing role in the TV drama A World Apart. Early film credits include The Great Waldo Pepper, Lovin’ Molly, Billy Wilder’s The Front Page, the 1975 cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Louis Malle’s controversial Pretty Baby. She went on to receive her first Oscar nomination in Malle’s Atlantic City.

The extremely versatile Susan Sarandon brings her own brand of sex appeal and intelligence to every role – from her fearless portrayal in Bull Durham to her Oscar®-nominated performances in Thelma and Louise, Lorenzo’s Oil, The Client, and Atlantic City to her Academy Award®-winning and SAG Award®-winning role in Dead Man Walking as “Sister Helen,” a nun consoling a death-row inmate.

Film credits include Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Lovely Bones, Enchanted, Speed Racer, Elizabethtown, Shall We Dance?, The Banger Sisters, Mr. Woodcock, In the Valley of Elah, Alfie, Moonight Mile, Igby Goes Down, Romance and Cigarettes, Twilight, Step Mom, The Hunger, Jeff Who Lives at Home, That’s My Boy, Cloud Atlas, Robot & Frank, Arbitrage, Snitch, The Company You Keep, Tammy, The Last of Robin Hood and The Calling.

Her additional feature credits include The Witches of Eastwick, Cradle Will Rock, King of the Gypsies, Compromising Positions, The January Man, White Palace, The Buddy System, Sweet Hearts Dance, A Dry White Season, Bob Roberts, Light Sleeper, Little Women, and Safe Passage.

The hard-working actress has made a career of choosing diverse and challenging projects both in film and television. In 2008, she received an Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries for her role in the HBO film Bernard and Doris, as well as a Golden Globe and SAG nomination. She received an Emmy and SAG nomination for her work in Barry Levinson’s You Don't Know Jack with Al Pacino for HBO.

She starred in the 2003 CBS movie Ice Bound; in the Sy-Fy Channel mini series Children of Dune; in the TV Movie The Exonerated; in HBO’s Earthly Possessions; in the CBS movie Women of Valor; and the HBO miniseries Mussolini: The Decline and Fall of Il Duce. She has made guest appearances on 30 Rock, The Big C and in the “Mother Lover” video on Saturday Night Live.

She can currently be seen in The Meddler (Sony Classics) with J.K. Simmons and Rose Byrne and her next film is the untitled Weinstein project with Naomi Watts and Elle Fanning. She was also recently named as the new face of L’Oreal.

## Personal Life

While in college, Susan Tomalin met fellow student Chris Sarandon and the couple married on September 16, 1967. They divorced in 1979, but she retained the surname Sarandon as her stage name. She was then involved romantically with the director Louis Malle and musician David Bowie. In the mid-1980s, Sarandon dated Italian filmmaker Franco Amurri, with whom she had a daughter, Eva Amurri, on March 15, 1985. Amurri has become an actress as well. From 1988, Sarandon cohabited with actor Tim Robbins, whom she met while they were filming *Bull Durham*. They have two sons – Jack Henry (born May 15, 1989) and Miles Guthrie (born May 4, 1992). Sarandon split with her long-time partner, Robbins, in 2009. Following the dissolution of her relationship with Robbins, she soon began a relationship with Jonathan Bricklin, son of Malcolm Bricklin. They operated the SPiN ping-pong lounges together. Sarandon and Bricklin broke up in 2015.

In 2006, Sarandon and ten relatives, including her then-partner, Tim Robbins, and their son, Miles, traveled to Wales to trace her family's Welsh genealogy. Their journey was documented by the BBC Wales program, *Coming Home: Susan Sarandon*. Much of the same research and content was featured in the American version of *Who Do You Think You Are?*. She also received the "Ragusani nel mondo" prize in 2006; her Sicilian roots are in Ragusa, Italy.

## Trivia

* Sarandon admitted to initially being "overwhelmed and terrified" about the prospect of portraying Davis accurately.
* Sarandon is a vegetarian.
* She is the co-owner of New York ping-pong club SPiN, and its Toronto branch, SPiN Toronto.
* She is a former Ford model.
* In 1996, she was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful in the world.
* In October 1997, Sarandon ranked #35 in Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
* She keeps her Oscar in the bathroom.
* She received the "World Lifetime Achievement Award" at the 2006 Women's World Awards in New York.
* Sarandon is a self-confessed cannabis user and admitted on *Watch What Happens: Live* in 2013 that she's been stoned at almost all award shows, except the Oscars.

## External Links

* Susan Sarandon on Wikipedia
* Susan Sarandon at the Internet Movie Database
* Susan Sarandon on Facebook
* Susan Sarandon on Twitter
* Susan Sarandon on Instagram