Susan Sarandon Movies
Simply by growing old gracefully, actress Susan Sarandon has defied the rules of Hollywood stardom: Not only has her fame continued to increase as she enters middle age, but the quality of her films and her performances in them has improved as well. Ultimately, she has come to embody an all-too-rare movie type -- the strong and sexy older woman. Born Susan Tomaling on October 4, 1946, in New York City, she was the oldest of nine children. Even while attending the Catholic University of America, she did not study acting, and in fact expressed no interest in performing until after marrying actor Chris Sarandon. While accompanying her husband on an audition, Sarandon landed a pivotal role in the controversial 1970 feature Joe, and suddenly her own career as an actress was well underway. She soon became a regular on the daytime soap opera A World Apart and in 1972 appeared in the feature Mortadella.Lovin' Molly and The Front Page followed in 1974 before Sarandon earned cult immortality as Janet Weiss in 1975's camp classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the quintessential midnight movie of its era. After starring with Robert Redford in 1975's The Great Waldo Pepper, Sarandon struggled during the mid-'70s in a number of little-seen projects, including 1976's The Great Smokey Roadblock and 1978's Checkered Flag or Crash. Upon beginning a relationship with the famed filmmaker Louis Malle, however, her career took a turn for the better as she starred in the provocative Pretty Baby, portraying the prostitute mother of a 12-year-old Brooke Shields. Sarandon and Malle next teamed for 1980's superb Atlantic City, for which she earned her first Oscar nomination. After appearing in Paul Mazursky's Tempest, she then starred in Tony Scott's controversial 1983 horror film The Hunger, playing a scientist seduced by a vampire portrayed by Catherine Deneuve. The black comedy Compromising Positions followed in 1985, as did the TV miniseries Mussolini and I. Women of Valor, another mini, premiered a year later.
While Sarandon had enjoyed a prolific career virtually from the outset, stardom remained just beyond her grasp prior to the mid-'80s. First, a prominent appearance with Jack Nicholson, Cher, and Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1986 hit The Witches of Eastwick brought her considerable attention, and then in 1988 she delivered a breakthrough performance in Ron Shelton's hit baseball comedy Bull Durham, which finally made her a star, at the age of 40. More important, the film teamed her with co-star Tim Robbins, with whom she soon began a long-term offscreen relationship. After a starring role in the 1989 apartheid drama A Dry White Season, Sarandon teamed with Geena Davis for Thelma and Louise, a much-discussed distaff road movie which became among the year's biggest hits and won both actresses Oscar nominations. Sarandon was again nominated for 1992's Lorenzo's Oil and 1994's The Client before finally winning her first Academy Award for 1995's Dead Man Walking, a gut-wrenching examination of the death penalty, adapted and directed by Robbins. Now a fully established star, Sarandon had her choice of projects; she decided to lend her voice to Tim Burton's animated James and the Giant Peach (1996). Two years later, she was more visible with starring roles in the thriller Twilight (starring opposite Paul Newman and Gene Hackman) and Stepmom, a weepie co-starring Julia Roberts. The same year, she had a supporting role in the John Turturro film Illuminata.
Sarandon continued to stay busy in 1999, starring in Anywhere But Here, which featured her as Natalie Portman's mother, and Cradle Will Rock, Robbins' first directorial effort since Dead Man Walking. On television, Sarandon starred with Stephen Dorff in an adaptation of Anne Tyler's Earthly Possessions, and showed a keen sense of humor in her various appearances on SNL, Chappelle's Show, and Malcolm in the Middle. After starring alongside Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters, Sarandon could be seen in a variety of projects including Alfie (2004, Romance and Cigarettes (2005), and Elizabethtown (2006). In 2007, Sarandon joined Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely Bones, director Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel of the same name. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- R
Lovin' Molly is basically Jules and Jim, Texas style. In 1925, two close friends (Anthony Perkins and Beau Bridges) both fall in love with prescient woman's-libber Molly (Blythe Danner). Molly in turn loves both men equally and can't choose between them, so the three set up a freewheeling menage a trois--which endures for nearly forty years. Lovin' Molly belongs to Blythe Danner, an otherwise overly mannered actress who is at her naturalistic best herein. Lovin' Molly was based on the novel Leaving Cheyenne by Larry McMurtry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Perkins, Beau Bridges, (more)
Davey Marlin-Jones directed this 1972 made-for-television performance of Lanford Wilson's small-town drama The Rimers of Eldritch. Starring Rue McClanahan, the play is a character study that focuses on the residents of Eldritch amid a sexual assault and a murder trial, two unrelated events that both breed tension and lies in the tiny hamlet. Also starring Susan Sarandon and Frances Sternhagen, the program was released as part of Kultur's Broadway Theatre Archive series. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Two giants of American humor, Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman, collaborated for this stage comedy (a major success on Broadway when it was first staged in 1929) about a young tunesmith's struggle to succeed in the dog-eat-dog world of Tin Pan Alley. An up-and-coming songwriter (Tom Fitzsimmons) arrives in the big city hoping to make good, and is soon befriended by a veteran composer (Jack Cassidy) whose career isn't what it used to be. The kid looks like he may have a solid career ahead of him, but he soon attracts the attentions of a brass-hearted dame (Susan Sarandon) who wants to take him for his future fame and wealth. This production of June Moon (created for PBS, where it first aired in 1974) features a top-notch supporting cast, including Kevin McCarthy, Estelle Parsons, Austin Pendleton, Marshall Efron, Lee Meredith, and one of Broadway's greatest composers, Stephen Sondheim, in a rare acting role as a fellow Tin Pan Alley melody maker. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1974
In this thriller, a wife gets tired of her husband's constant verbal abuse and convinces a cultist to kill him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
In a strange blending of reality and fantasy, this is the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald's use of the creative process to try to work out and ameliorize his own marital difficulties, writing the fictional "The Last of the Belles" while trying to work out his own relationship with Zelda during WWI. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
This third film version of the 1928 Ben Hecht/Charlie MacArthur Broadway hit The Front Page was the first one permitted to utilize all the salty profanities in the original play. Director Billy Wilder cast his two favorite leading men, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, as ace reporter Hildy Johnson and ruthless newspaper editor Walter Burns, respectively. The plot of the Hecht/MacArthur play remains intact: Burns pulls every underhanded game in the book to prevent Johnson from leaving his Chicago paper to get married, and in so doing the two journalists uncover a cesspool of political corruption, centered around the planned execution of anarchist Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton). Carol Burnett has an extended cameo as Williams' tart girlfriend, Mollie Malloy. The Front Page was remade for a fourth time in 1988 as Switching Channels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, (more)
- 1973
Rosalind is played by Pamela Payton-Wright in this "ghost in the mansion" hair-raiser. The members of an old-money family find themselves targeted by an unfriendly spirit. Not content with mere chain-rattling, this wrathful wraith contrives to have selected members of the family pop up seriously dead. Is it a genuine "haunt," or a plot to gain the family's sizeable legacy? When Haunting of Rosalind was first telecast on ABC's Wide World Mystery in 1973, little attention was paid to the videotaped drama's third-billed supporting actress: Susan Sarandon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
The well-known short-story writer Ring Lardner, Jr. wrote the screenplay for La Mortadella, an Italian/French production with mostly English dialogue. The story concerns the difficulties and reactions of Madelena (Sophia Loren), an Italian visitor to New York City. She has come to the country carrying a huge mortadella sausage which she intends as a gift for her fiancé. U.S. Customs has other ideas, however, and she is detained until she hits upon the idea of sharing the offending foodstuff with the customs officers. Finally allowed entry into the U.S., she grows disenchanted with her fiancé and other men she meets and is only with difficulty able to make her escape to a more agreeable location. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
In a mixture of French and English, this Canadian film tells the somewhat muddled story of a lad growing up in Montreal. Without many prospects, the boy is confused on the one hand by his virginal but fanatically separatist French-speaking girlfriend, and his goofy (but sexually available) English girlfriend who is a model. Somehow, this confusion later leads him to bank robbery. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Peter Boyle delivers a strong and raw performance as Joe Curran, a racist factory worker who hates "hippies and niggers." The film deals with New York City advertising executive Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick), who kills Frank (Patrick McDermott), the junkie lover of his daughter Melissa (Susan Sarandon, in her film debut), when she ends up in a mental hospital after suffering an overdose of speed. Stunned by his rage, Bill goes into a bar and comes upon Joe, who discovers the murder and holds Bill in great esteem for his killing of the long-haired drug pusher, congratulating Bill on a job well done. The two begin a class-spanning friendship. When Melissa escapes from the hospital, after finding out that her father killed her boyfriend, Bill and Joe comb Greenwich Village to find her. When they come upon a hippie pot party, the two reactionaries snap, pull out their guns, and go on a killing spree. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Patrick, Peter Boyle, (more)
The image of the woman's perfect figure has always influenced the thinking of men and women, especially women who feel they have to achieve this perfection. Girdles, corsets, and other devices were called upon to mold women's figures into impossible shapes because it was fashionable. In nations where there was no shortage of food, young women starved themselves to look thinner, resulting in anorexia. Women: A True Story: Body Politics examines the history of perfect figures, and looks to the healthier attitudes of modern times, when women are encouraged to accept their normal bodies. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
Women in power is the topic of this program, part of a series of six that examines issues related to women. Women: A True Story: The Power Gene is a study of women who rose to powerful positions through their marriages, and those who achieved their status on their own. Hillary Clinton, Imelda Marcos, and Jacqueline Onassis are in the first group. Host Susan Sarandon also talks to Geraldine Ferraro, and to several other women in power, including a senator in Brazil. The program uses paintings, sculpture, and images from the media to illustrate its points. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
Despite changes in the workplace and in modern society, women find themselves still secondary to men in wages and many other important areas. In Women: A True Story -- The Gender Tango, the challenges women face are met head on. Susan Sarandon hosts this series of six programs exploring the ways women all over the globe cope with problems of career and family. Some women cannot get past their looks, in a world that covets and rewards beauty, while others must assume the appearance of a man in order to succeed in their profession. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
For many career women, the end of the workday simply means the beginning of the work that awaits at home. The burden of child and elderly parent care still falls primarily on the woman, and frequently the stresses can be too much. Women: A True Story: The Double Shift provides insight into the workload of the modern woman, giving examples of a surgeon and an immigrant single parent. When World War II caused a drain on the male worker population, women stepped in to take their places with scarcely a hitch. The series is hosted by Susan Sarandon. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
Women have traditionally been excluded from the same educational opportunities as men, and in Women: A True Story: The Need to Know, the discussion centers on the attitudes of the world's religions towards women. The submissive woman whose life is focused on home and children is admired, and in some religions, speaking out about this submission can mean execution. Susan Sarandon hosts this look at a male-dominated society, that shows how women have never been given the chance to be intellectual equals. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
Women: A True Story: Postcards From the Future looks to the future and offers a look at how women in other parts of the world are rising to the challenge. In many cases, they are taking matters into their own hands, and are working towards solutions to age-old problems central to their native countries. Their attempts and their successes are documented in this program, and include the efforts to achieve peace in Chechnya by a group of mothers, and a look at Kenyan women who are trying to save their environment. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
