Actress Susan Sarandon is a Hollywood rarity: a strong, sexy, successful, older woman. The five-time Academy Award nominee won her first Oscar just before her fiftieth birthday for Dead Man Walking (1995). A former Ford model, her boundary-breaking acting career began with a small role in a 1970 film. In 1975 she appeared in the campy cult film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A lesbian love scene in The Hunger (1983) also attracted attention. First nominated for an Oscar in 1980, she got the nod three more times in the early 1990s for films such as the popular feminist road movie Thelma and Louise and true-to-life medical drama Lorenzo's Oil. Sarandon's private life is as progressive as her politics. The divorcee has had several high-profile romances with younger co-stars, including common-law husband actor Tim Robbins, father of two of her three children. The two met while filming Bull Durham (1988).

Further Reading:

Blau, E. "Susan Sarandon's Roughest Role." The New York Times. January 14, 1983.

Neuman, B. "Susan Sarandon: Lover, Lawyer, Marmee." The New York Times. July 17, 1994.