Sandra Bullock was a huge hit as Keanu Reeves's plucky love interest in the 1994 bus-gone-crazy film Speed. The film's success made her one of Hollywood's most talked about actresses. The honeymoon was brief, but Bullock moved into making light comedies and romances as a solid lead. Her films include While You Were Sleeping (1995), Forces of Nature (1999, with Ben Affleck), Miss Congeniality (2000) and Two Weeks Notice (2002, with Hugh Grant). Bullock married Jesse James, the star of the reality TV show Monster Garage, on 16 July 2005.
The marriage to James is Bullock's first; she was 41, he 35. James owns the high-end motorcycle shop West Coast Choppers and claims to be a distant relative of the outlaw Jesse James... After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, Bullock donated $1 million to the American Red Cross... After the tsunami devastation of December 2004, she donated another $1 million to the Red Cross.
Career Highlights: Speed, While You Were Sleeping, A Time to Kill
First Major Screen Credit: Hangmen (1987)
Biography
Giving new meaning to the term America's Sweetheart, Sandra Bullock won over scores of filmgoers and critics with her wholesome, exuberant portrayals of ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances. Since her breakthrough role as Speed's unwitting heroine, Bullock has enjoyed the type of popularity that was in the past reserved for actresses along the lines of Mary Pickford or Shirley Temple.
Born in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 1964, Bullock was the elder daughter of a vocal coach dad and an opera singer mom. Touring through Europe with her mother, Bullock was given her first taste of show business while still a child. Back in the States, she attended high school in Virginia and was a popular cheerleader, whose classmates dubbed her the person Most Likely to Brighten Your Day. After a stint at East Carolina University, Bullock took her sunny nature to New York, where she began concentrating on an acting career. After tending bar and studying her craft with dramatician Sanford Meisner, she got her start with a number of stage productions. It was for one of these productions, the off-Broadway No Time Flat, that Bullock received a rave review for her portrayal of a Southern belle, the strength of which was enough to land her an agent.
Television work followed, with a small role in the 1989 Bionic Showdown: The Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and, after her migration to Los Angeles, Melanie Griffith's role in the short-lived television version of Working Girl. Miraculously surviving the widespread career fallout that surrounded her first starring film role in Love Potion No. 9 (1992), the actress went on the following year to star in the similarly ill-fated The Thing Called Love. However, things began to look up the same year when the struggling actress became the last-minute replacement for Lori Petty in the Sylvester Stallone action flick Demolition Man. Though her role was essentially limited to intermittent saliva exchanges with Stallone, her performance won the attention of the film's producer, Joel Silver, who in turn recommended her to Jan de Bont. De Bont, then in the process of casting his upcoming bus-with-a-bomb action film, chose the struggling actress for the part of Annie, the film's reluctant heroine. In casting Bullock against Keanu Reeves, de Bont reportedly came up against considerable resistance from studio executives, who wanted someone blonde and buxom for the part. The director persevered and, in 1994, Bullock took her place in movie history as part of Speed, one of the most successful action films ever made.
The film propelled the actress to stardom, surprising no one more than Bullock herself, who later remarked, "never in a million years did I think a bus movie would open every door I ever possibly wanted open."
Doors now wide open, Bullock next starred in the 1995 romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping. The film was a critical and commercial hit, and the actress followed it up with a screen adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, co-starring Ashley Judd and Matthew McConaughey. The success of that film was the last that Bullock would enjoy for a while, as she then entered something of a sophomore slump with disappointments such as In Love and War (1996), Two If By Sea (1996), and, perhaps most excruciating, Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997). Fortunately for Bullock, her audiences seemed to be inclined to forgive and forget, and she had a modest rebound with the following year's Hope Floats, which also happened to be the first project of the production company she founded, Fortis Films. The same year, Bullock also starred in another romantic comedy, Practical Magic, opposite Nicole Kidman. The film provided another modest success for Bullock, who, back in the saddle again, proceeded to do yet another romantic comedy, this time starring with Ben Affleck in Forces of Nature (1999). Although the film proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment, Bullock was back on the radar with a number of projects in 2000, including the critically disembowelled comedy Gun Shy and 28 Days, a comedy that starred the actress as a newspaper columnist forced to enter rehab after her drinking problem assumes uncontrollable proportions. Following her role in Miss Congeniality (2000) as an FBI agent forced to go undercover in the Miss U.S.A. beauty pagent in order to prevent a bombing, Bullock faced off against a more low-key menace in the thriller Murder By Numbers (2002) before returning to lighthearted drama with Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (also 2002). Her status as the reigning queen of the chick flick permanantly established, Bullock next teamed with Hugh Grant for the amiable romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice before taking a two year furlough from the big screen - during which time she would assume the duty of executive producer for the George Lopez show in addition to turning in the occasional guest appearance.
In 2005, Bullock found herself at the center of Oscar talk when she essayed the role of the racist wife of a prominant district attorney in Paul Haggis' critically acclaimed drama Crash. An unflinching look at racism in the multicultural melting pot of Los Angeles, Crash defied expectations to take home best editing, best screenplay, and best motion picture at the 77th Annual Academy Awards. That same year, a return to her role as bumbling undercover FBI agent Gracie Heart in Miss Congeniality 2 found Bullock returning to familiar lighthearted territory, although the sequel performed far more poorly than the first film. With her role as a lovelorn doctor who discovers a curious rift in time in 2006's romantic fantasy The Lake House (a remake of the 2000 South Korean film Siworae), the actress marked a graceful return to swooning, romantic pictures, not to mention a reteaming with her Speed man Keanu Reeves. Determined to remain firmly planted in serious acting, Bullock singed on to play author Harper Lee in the movie Infamous which, because of its unfortunate timing, was swallowed by comparisons to the film Capote, and went largely unnoticed. Undaunted, Bullock singed on for the supernatural thriller {#Premonition, about a woman who experiences shifts in the events of the universe and must use the visions to prevent her husband's death. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
"The key to any good relationship, on-screen and off, is communication, respect, and I guess you have to like the way the other person smells -- and he smelled real nice."
Sandra Annette Bullock (pronounced /ˈbʊlək/; born July 26, 1964) is an Americanactress.[1] She came to fame in the 1990s, after roles in successful films such as Speed and While You Were Sleeping. She has since established her career as a well-known leading Hollywood actress, with films such as Miss Congeniality and 2005's Crash, which received critical acclaim. In 2007 she was ranked as the 14th richest female celebrity with an estimated fortune of $85 million.[2]
Bullock was born in Arlington County, Virginia, the daughter of Helga D. Meyer, a German opera singer and part-time vocal coach, and John W. Bullock, a Pentagon contractor, voice coach and executive from Alabama.[3][4] Bullock's maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg, Germany.[5] On her father's side, she is descended from a prominent family in early Alabama history for whom Bullock County is named. Bullock lived in Nuremberg until age twelve, where she sang in the opera's children's choir at the Staatstheater Nürnberg.[6] She frequently traveled with her mother on her opera tours, and lived in Germany and other parts of Europe for much of her childhood. She is fluent in German and holds German citizenship via her late mother's nationality.[1] Bullock studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, taking small parts in her mother's opera productions.
Bullock attended Washington-Lee High School where she was a cheerleader, participated in high school theater productions and dated a football player.[7] She graduated in 1982 and enrolled in East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. During this time, she worked as a waitress at a restaurant.[7] She later left school during her senior year (Spring 1986), only three credits short of graduating, to pursue an acting career.[7] She went on to Manhattan to pursue auditions and supported herself with a variety of odd jobs (bartender, cocktail waitress, coat checker).[7]
Bullock later completed her coursework and was awarded a bachelor's degree from East Carolina University.[8]
While in New York, Bullock took acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She appeared in several student films and later landed a role in an Off-Broadway play No Time Flat.[7] Director Alan J. Levi was impressed by Bullock's performance and offered her a part in the made-for-TV movie Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989). After filming the TV movie, Bullock stayed in Los Angeles and was cast in a series of small roles in several independent films as well as in the lead role of the short-lived NBC television version of the film Working Girl (1990). She later appeared in several films such as Love Potion No. 9 (1992), The Thing Called Love (1993) and Fire on the Amazon (in which she agreed to appear topless if the camera did not show that much; she covered herself with duct tape, which apparently was somewhat painful to remove).[7]
One of Bullock's first notable movie appearances was in the science-fiction/action movie Demolition Man (1993), which starred Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. This role then led to her break-through performance in Speed the following year. She became a high-level movie star in the late 1990s, carrying a string of successes, including While You Were Sleeping (replacing actress Demi Moore, who was originally scheduled to star), and Miss Congeniality. Bullock received $11 million dollars for Speed 2: Cruise Control[7] and $17.5 million dollars for Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous.[7]
Bullock was selected as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1996 and 1999, and was also ranked #58 in Empire magazine's Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list. She was presented with the 2002 Raúl Juliá Award for Excellence[9] for her efforts, as the executive producer of the sitcom The George Lopez Show, in helping expand career openings for Hispanic talent in the media and entertainment industry. She also made several appearances on the show as Accident Amy, an accident-prone employee at the factory Lopez's character manages. In 2002, she starred opposite Hugh Grant in the global hit Two Weeks Notice.
In 2005, Bullock had a supporting role in the film Crash. She received positive reviews for her performance, with some critics suggesting that it was the best performance of her career.[citation needed] Bullock later appeared in The Lake House, a romantic drama also starring her Speed co-star, Keanu Reeves; it was released on June 16, 2006. Because their film characters are separated throughout the film (due to the plot revolving around time travel), Bullock and Reeves were only on set together for two weeks during filming.[10] The same year, Bullock appeared in Infamous, playing author Harper Lee. Bullock also starred in Premonition with Julian McMahon, which was released in March 2007.[11]
Entrepreneurship
Bullock runs her own production company, Fortis Films. Her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, is president of the company and her father, John Bullock, is its CEO.[12] She was an executive producer of The George Lopez Show which garnered a lucrative syndication deal that banked Bullock some $10 million (co-produced with Robert Borden [13]). Bullock tried to produce a film based on F.X. Toole's short story, Million-Dollar Baby, but could not interest the studios in a female boxing drama.[14] The story was eventually adapted and directed by Clint Eastwood as the Oscar-winning film, Million Dollar Baby (2004). Bullock's production company, Fortis Films, will produce her next movie, All About Steve. In the meantime, she tends to her Austin restaurant, Bess Bistro,and its first merchandising tie-in, a line of Bessence organic candles.
Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James on July 16, 2005. They met when Bullock arranged for her ten-year-old godson to meet James as a Christmas present. On her husband and her marriage, Bullock has commented:
So basically through a courtship of letters ... I learned about a human being. It was not something I wanted, needed, or looked for, but because he was a stronger person than I was, spiritually and on a tolerance level, I was lucky enough that he educated me... I always thought of marriage as a death sentence, that there'd be a ball and chain, and you'd be told, "You need to stop doing these things and become a good little wife." Now people say "Oh my God you're going to have sex with one person the rest of your life!" I hope I have sex with him for the rest of my life - because I like it![15]
On December 20, 2000, Bullock survived the crash of a chartered business jet at Jackson Hole Airport. The aircraft hit a snowbank instead of the runway, resulting in both the nose gear and nose cone being ripped off, the right wing partially separated from the aircraft and the left wing bent back.
In October 2004, Bullock won a multimillion dollar judgment against Benny Daneshjou, the builder of her Lake AustinTexas mansion; the jury ruled the house was uninhabitable. It has since been torn down and rebuilt.[17] Bullock also owns a house on Tybee Island, which is a few miles from Savannah, Georgia. After four years of preparation, Bullock's first restaurant Bess Bistro opened in November 2006 in Austin, Texas.
On April 22, 2007, a woman was lying outside James and Bullock's Southern California home in Orange County. When James confronted the woman, she ran inside her 2004 silver Mercedes and tried to run him over 3 to 4 times. The woman is said to be an obsessed fan of Sandra Bullock. The woman, Marcia Diana Valentine, was arrested on investigation of assault with a deadly weapon.[18] In May, Bullock won a three-year restraining order against the woman. Valentine pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault and stalking.[19]
On April 18, 2008, while Bullock was in Massachusetts shooting the film The Proposal, she and her husband were in an SUV that was hit head on by a drunken driver. There were no injuries.[20]
In January 2009, she and husband Jesse James were awarded temporary full-time custody of his daughter, Sunny, following her mother's (adult film star Janine Lindemulder) sentencing to 6 months in prison, for income tax evasion.[21]
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