Sandra Bullock Biography

Sandra Bullock (born July 26, 1964) is an American film actress.

Biography

Sandra Bullock was born in Arlington County, Virginia, to John Bullock (a Pentagon contractor and part-time vocal coach from Alabama) and Helga Mayer (a German opera singer who died of cancer on April 4, 2000); her maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg. Bullock frequently traveled with her mother on her opera tours, and lived for much of her childhood in Germany and several other parts of Europe. She studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, taking small parts in her mother's opera productions, and later attended Washington-Lee High School, where her graduating class voted her "Most Likely to Brighten up Your Day".

Sandra Bullock majored in drama at East Carolina University. She left university during the spring semester of her senior year in order to pursue acting in New York City, but had difficulty establishing herself in the theater community, and eventually took a job as a waitress. Bullock had been only three credits short of graduating, and later received an honorary degree.

Sandra Bullock moved to Los Angeles, California, and was cast in a series of small roles in several independent films as well as in the lead role in the television version of the film Working Girl. One of Bullock's first notable movie appearances was in Demolition Man (1993), which led to her breakthrough 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 (she replaced actress Demi Moore, who was originally scheduled to star), Miss Congeniality and Two Weeks Notice.

Sandra Bullock on The Tonight Show in 2005Bullock tried to produce a film based on F.X. Toole's short story “Million-Dollar Baby”, but couldn't interest studios in a female boxing drama. It was eventually made as the Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby (2004). 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.

Sandra Bullock runs her own production company, Fortis Films; her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, is vice president of the company. She has been selected as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1996 and 1999. She has also been ranked #58 in Empire magazine's Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list.

Bullock's next film will be The Lake House, a romantic drama also starring her Speed co-star, Keanu Reeves. She will also appear in Infamous, in which she will play author Harper Lee, and will play author Grace Metalious in an upcoming film.

Sandra Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James on July 16, 2005. She had previously dated football player Troy Aikman, blues guitarist Guy Forsythe, Austin musician Bob Schneider and her film co-stars, Ryan Gosling and Matthew McConaughey. She has also been engaged to actor Tate Donovan.

When the September 11th, 2001 attacks occurred, Bullock was staying at the Soho Grand hotel, twelve blocks from the World Trade Center. She saw the attacks happen from her hotel bedroom window, and then went straight to a nearby hospital to offer help. As all phone lines in New York City were down, she spent the rest of the day using her Palm Pilot to send e-mails on behalf of patients wanting to contact their families.

Sandra Bullock has twice donated $1 million to the American Red Cross, first to its Liberty Disaster Relief Fund and four years later, in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis.

In October 2004, Bullock won a multi-million-dollar judgment in a lawsuit against Benny Daneshjou, the builder of her Lake Austin, Texas, mansion. She had never resided in the home, claiming it is uninhabitable; Daneshjou denied any wrongdoing and is appealing the judgment.