Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone was born Sharon Vonne Stone on March 10, 1958 in Meadville, Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh. She is an American actress, model (height: 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)), and producer with ancestral roots in Galway, Ireland. She came to international attention for her performance in the 1992 blockbuster film Basic Instinct, which caused controversy for its erotic content. She was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood in the 1990s, until she moved to San Francisco to live with her husband and raise their adopted son. When that marriage dissolved, Stone returned to Los Angeles and resumed her film career.

Entertainment career

1980 - 1990

After joining the Ford Modeling Agency, Stone spent a few years modeling, and appeared in TV commercials for Burger King, Clairol and Maybelline, but she didn't enjoy her work. While living in Europe she decided to quit modeling and become an actress. "So I packed my bags, moved back to New York, and stood in line to be an extra in a Woody Allen movie," she later recalled. She was cast for a brief but memorable role in Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), and then had a speaking part a year later in the horror movie Deadly Blessing (1981), which was a big box-office success. When French director Claude Lelouch saw Stone in "Stardust Memories" he was so impressed that he cast her in "Les Uns et Les Autres" (1982), starring James Caan. She was only on screen for two minutes, and didn't appear in the credits.

Related Topics:
Burger King - Clairol - Maybelline - Europe - Woody Allen - Stardust Memories - 1980 - Deadly Blessing - 1981 - Claude Lelouch - James Caan

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Her next role was in Irreconcilable Differences (1984), starring Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long, and young Drew Barrymore. Stone plays a starlet who breaks up the marriage of a successful director and his screenwriter wife. The story was based on the real-life experience of director Peter Bogdanovich, his set designer wife Polly Platt, and Cybill Shepherd, who as a young actress starred in Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971). The highlight of her performance is when her cocaine addict character plays Scarlett O'Hara in a musical remake of Gone with the Wind. Later that year, she took a part on Magnum, P.I., the highest-rated television show at the time.

Related Topics:
Irreconcilable Differences - Ryan O'Neal - Shelley Long - Drew Barrymore - Peter Bogdanovich - Polly Platt - Cybill Shepherd - The Last Picture Show - Cocaine - Scarlett O'Hara - Gone with the Wind - Magnum, P.I.

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She married television producer Michael Greenburg in 1984 on the set of The Vegas Strip War, a TV movie he produced and she starred in, along with Rock Hudson and James Earl Jones. The marriage quickly fell apart; they split up three years later, and their divorce was finalized in 1990.

Related Topics:
1984 - The Vegas Strip War - Rock Hudson - James Earl Jones

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Throughout the rest of the 1980s she appeared in seven movies of poor quality, such as King Solomon's Mines (1985), and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1987).

Related Topics:
1980s - King Solomon's Mines - 1985 - Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold - 1987

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1990 - 2005

Her appearance in Total Recall (1990) with Arnold Schwarzenegger gave her career a much needed jolt. To coincide with the movie's release, she posed nude for Playboy magazine, showing off the buff body she developed in preparation for the movie (she pumped iron and learned Tae Kwon Do.) She said she posed for the magazine because she needed the money. "I had just remodeled my house. I was broke. I needed the bread."

Related Topics:
Total Recall - 1990 - Arnold Schwarzenegger - Playboy - Tae Kwon Do

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Shortly after the release of Total Recall, Stone had a bad car accident on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Immediately after the accident, she went home, not knowing she had just suffered a concussion. She woke up almost completely paralyzed, and ended up lying on the floor, crying, for three days. When she finally got to the hospital, she was diagnosed with the concussion, a dislocated shoulder and jaw, several broken ribs, and three compressed disks in her back. The accident left scars that are visible in some of her later screen appearances.

Related Topics:
Sunset Boulevard - Los Angeles

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While her memorable role in the Schwarzenegger movie should have lead to other important job offers, her career took a considerable dip for the next two years. She worked often and worked hard (five movies in two years), but the movies were low budget productions that few people saw. It wasn't until she took the role as a coke-snorting bisexual serial killer in the sexually-charged Basic Instinct (1992) that Sharon Stone became a true star. It was the number one box office hit of the year. That year, she was rated by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.

Related Topics:
Basic Instinct - 1992 - People magazine

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In 1995, Empire magazine chose her as one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history.

Related Topics:
1995 - Empire magazine

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In 1996, she received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for her role as Ginger in Martin Scorsese's Casino (1995), a role for which she won a Golden Globe award. In October 1997, she was ranked among the top 100 movie stars of all time by Empire magazine.

Related Topics:
1996 - Academy Award for Best Actress - Martin Scorsese - Casino - 1995 - Golden Globe - 1997

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On February 14, 1998, she married Phil Bronstein, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Related Topics:
February 14 - 1998 - San Francisco Chronicle

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In 1999, she was rated among the 25 sexiest stars of the century by Playboy.

Related Topics:
1999 - Playboy

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Stone and Bronstein got a divorce in January 2004, after he had suffered a severe heart attack. They have an adopted son named Roan, born in 2000. Stone herself was hospitalized following a brain aneurysm in October 2001, but has since recovered.

Related Topics:
2004 - Heart attack - 2000 - Brain aneurysm - 2001

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In 2005 during a television interview for her movie ', Sharon came out as bisexual stating "Middle age is an open-minded period." http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid02813.asp

Related Topics:
2005 - Bisexual

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In April of 2004, she was awarded the National Center for Lesbian Rights Spirit Award in San Francisco for her support and involvement with organizations that serve the lesbian, gay and HIV/AIDS community. She was presented the award by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, then embroiled in a national controversy over his decision to allow same sex marriage in his city.

Related Topics:
HIV - AIDS - San Francisco - Gavin Newsom - Same sex marriage

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She lives in Beverly Hills, California, and owns a ranch in New Zealand.

Related Topics:
Beverly Hills - California - New Zealand

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On Saturday, May 7 2005, Stone, at the age of 47, adopted a baby boy who was born in Texas to a surrogate mother. She has named the baby Laird Vonne Stone.

Related Topics:
May 7 - 2005 - Texas - Surrogate mother

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