Sharon Stone biography
Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actress, film producer, and former Model (person). She came to international attention for her performance in the 1992 Hollywood blockbuster film
Basic Instinct. She was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her role in
Casino (film), won a Golden Globe for her role in
Casino, and has won an Emmy Award.
Early life
Stone was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania. The second of four children, she is the daughter of Dorothy (married and maiden names Lawson), an accountant and homemaker, and Joseph Stone, a Tool and die maker manufacturer.
As a teen, she worked at a fast food restaurant. After skipping a grade in school, she was involuntarily transferred from Saegertown High School to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, enrolling at the age of fourteeen years. She returned for a visit to her college in March 2007 for academic purposes, and there, to her surprise, she received an honorary doctorate from former university president Frank Pogue.
Career
1970s
Stone won the title of Miss Crawford County in Meadville. One of the pageant judges said she should quit school and move to New York to become a fashion model. When her mother heard this, she agreed, and, in 1977 Stone left Meadville, moving in with an aunt in New Jersey. Within four days of her arrival in New Jersey, she was signed by Ford Modeling Agency in New York. After signing with Ford, Stone spent a few years modeling and appeared in TV commercials for fast food restaurant, Clairol and Maybelline, but she did not enjoy her work.
1980-1990
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. While auditioning, she met Michelle Pfeiffer, recognized her from the pageant she competed in, and the two began a friendship that lasts to this day. Stone 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). 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 did not appear in the credits.
Her next role was in
Irreconcilable Differences (1984), starring Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long, and a 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 had starred in Bogdanovich's
The Last Picture Show (1971). The highlight of Stone's performance is when her cocaine-addict character plays Scarlett O'Hara in a musical pitched as a remake of
Gone with the Wind (film).
Through the rest of the 1980s she appeared in
Action Jackson (1988),
King Solomon's Mines (1985 film) (1985) and
Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1987). She also played the wife of Steven Seagal's character in
Above the Law (film) (1988). She appeared in a two-part episode of
Magnum, P.I, titled "Echoes of the Mind", where she played identical twins, one a love interest of Thomas Magnum (1984).
1990-2004
Her appearance in
Total Recall (1990) with Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Stone's 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). In 1999, she was rated among the 25 sexiest stars of the century by
Playboy.
The role that made her a star was that of Catherine Tramell, a brilliant, Bisexuality serial killer in
Basic Instinct (1992). Stone had to wait and actually turned down offers for the mere prospect to play Tramell (the part was offered to 13 other actresses before being offered to Stone). Several better known actresses of the time such as Geena Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan, Melanie Griffith, Kelly Lynch and Julia Roberts turned down the part mostly because of the nudity required. In the movie’s most notorious scene, Tramell is being questioned by the police and she crosses and uncrosses her legs revealing the fact she was not wearing any underwear. According to Stone, upon seeing her own vulva in the leg-crossing scene during a screening of the film, she went into the projection booth and slapped director Paul Verhoeven.
Stone claimed that although she agreed to film the flashing scene with no panties, and although she and director Paul Verhoeven had discussed the scene from the beginning of production, she was unaware just how explicit the infamous shot would be. She said, "I knew that we were going to do this leg-crossing thing and I knew that we were going to allude to the concept that I was nude, but I did not think that you would see my vagina in the scene. Later, when I saw it in the screening I was shocked. I think seeing it in a room full of strangers was so disrespectful and so shocking, so I went into the booth and slapped him and left."
Despite this, she claimed in an earlier interview that "it was so fun" watching the film for the first time with strangers. Director Verhoeven has denied all claims of trickery and said, "As much as I love her, I hate her too, especially after the lies she told the press about the shot between her legs, which was a straight lie". Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, who later befriended the actress, also claimed the actress was fully aware of the level of nudity involved in his memoir,
Hollywood Animal.
Following this film, she was listed by
People magazine magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. >
In 1992, photographer George Hurrell took a series of photographs of Stone, Sherilyn Fenn, Julian Sands, Raquel Welch, Eric Roberts and Sean Penn. In these portraits he recreated his style of the 1930s, with the actors posing in costumes, hairstyle and makeup of the period.
Stone's stardom was such that she received top billing over Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio when cast as a gunslinger for Sam Raimi's 1995 western
The Quick and the Dead (1995 film).
In November 1995, Stone received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. That same year,
Empire magazine magazine chose her as one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history. In October 1997, she was ranked among the top 100 movie stars of all time by Empire.
In 1996, she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Motion Picture for her role as "Ginger" in Martin Scorsese's
Casino (film) opposite Robert DeNiro. She also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for the role.
Stone was hospitalized in late 2001 for a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which was diagnosed as a vertebral artery dissection rather than the more common ruptured aneurysm, and treated with an embolization.
Stone starred opposite actress Ellen DeGeneres in the 2001 HBO movie
If These Walls Could Talk 2, in which she played a lesbian trying to start a family. In 2003, she appeared in three episodes from the 8th season of
The Practice as Sheila Carlisle. For her performances, she received an Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
2004-present
Stone attempted a return to the mainstream with a role in the film
Catwoman (film) (2004); however, the film was a critical and commercial flop.
After years of litigation,
Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction was released on March 31, 2006. A reason for a long delay in releasing the film was reportedly Stone's dispute with the filmmakers over the nudity in the movie; she wanted more, while they wanted much much less. A group sex scene was cut in order to achieve an R rating from the MPAA for the U.S. release; the controversial scene remained in the U.K. version of the London-based film. Stone told an interviewer, "We are in a time of odd repression and if a popcorn movie allows us to create a platform for discussion, wouldn't that be great?"
Despite an estimated budget of $70,000,000, it placed only 10th in gross on its debut weekend with a meager $3,200,000, and was subsequently declared a bomb. It ultimately ran in theaters for only 17 days and finished with a total domestic gross of under $6 million. Despite the failure of
Basic Instinct 2, Stone has said that she would love to direct and act in a third
Basic Instinct film.
A subsequent film role came in the drama
Alpha Dog opposite Bruce Willis, playing Olivia Mazursky, the mother of a real-life murder victim. Stone wore a fatsuit for the role. In February 2007, Stone found her role as a clinical depression woman in her latest film,
When a Man Falls in the Forest, strangely uplifting, as it challenged what she called "Prozac society". "It was a watershed experience," she said. "I think that we live in a... Prozac society where we're always told we're supposed to have this kind of equilibrium of emotion. We have all these assignments about how we're supposed to feel about something".
In 2007, she appeared in a television commercial demonstrating the symptoms of a stroke.
Personal life
Stone lives in Beverly Hills, California, and owns a ranch in New Zealand. In March 2006, Stone traveled to Israel to promote peace in the Middle East through a press conference with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres.
Chinese earthquake controversy
Stone sparked criticism for her comments made in an exchange on the red carpet with Hong Kong's "Cable TV Hong Kong" during the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2008. When asked about the 2008 Sichuan earthquake she remarked:
Observers have also noted that Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the earthquake, is located in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, where ethnic Tibetans comprise over half of the population. According to the
Hollywood Reporter, after her comments, one of China's biggest cinema chains released statements stating its company would not show her films in its theaters. The founder of the UME Cineplex chain and the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, Ng See-Yuen called Stone's comments "inappropriate" and said the UME Cineplex chain would not be releasing her films in the future. Stone was also struck from the 2008 Shanghai International Film Festival guest list, with the event's organizers considering a permanent ban for the actress.
Christian Dior SA had originally posted an apology in Stone's name, however, Stone later denies making the apology during an interview with the New York Times, saying "I'm not going to apologize. I’m certainly not going to apologize for something that isn’t real and true — not for face creams," although she does admit she had "sounded like an idiot". The Dalai Lama XIV reportedly has distanced himself from the Hollywood star.
Tanzania controversy
On January 28, 2005, Stone helped solicit pledges for $1 million in five minutes for mosquito nets in Tanzania, turning a panel on African poverty into an impromptu fund-raiser at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Many observers, including UNICEF, criticized her actions by claiming that Stone had reacted instinctively to the words of Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, because she had not done her research on the causes, consequences and methods of preventing malaria; if she had done so, she would have found out that most African governments already distribute free bed nets through public hospitals.
Of the $1 million pledged, only $250,000 was actually raised. In order to fulfill the promise to send $1 million worth of bed nets to Tanzania, UNICEF contributed $750,000. This diverted funds from other UNICEF projects. According to prominent economist Xavier Sala-i-Martín, officials are largely unaware of what happened with the bed nets. Some were delivered to the local airport. These reportedly were stolen and later resurfaced as wedding dresses on the local black market.
Stone hosted the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
AIDS research support
In April 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 and performed
Can't Get You Out of My Head with Kylie Minogue in Cannes for AIDS research. She was presented the award by San Francisco, California Mayor Gavin Newsom.
It has been said that her parents raised her with Feminism values. "My dad never raised me to believe that being a woman inhibited any of my choices or my possibilities to succeed. To be a feminist like Dad in that blue-collar, middle class world is a big stand."
Religion
In the early 1990s, Stone became a member of the Church of Scientology. Stone remained with the religion until recently when she converted to Tibetan Buddhism, after fellow actor Richard Gere introduced her to the Dalai Lama. She is an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church.
Relationships
She was first married briefly to George Englund Jr., however she left him for television producer Michael Greenburg. In 1984, she broke up the marriage of Michael Greenburg, who became her second husband. That marriage lasted three years. She married 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. They separated three years later, and their divorce was finalized in 1990.
She was engaged to producer Bill McDonald after they met on the film
Sliver (film) (1993). McDonald left his wife, Naomi Baca, for Stone. The tabloids initially labeled her a homewrecker, but their attention turned to Baca after she got involved with
Basic Instinct screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, who would leave his wife for her. Soon after her fling with Eszterhas, she began a secret affair with her married bodyguard Joe Swigart. Swigart, her bodyguard since 1988, was married with 2 children. He and Stone had a secret relationship until 1995 when tabloids found out about the affair while Stone was filming the movie "The Quick and the Dead." During the film stone relieved Swigart of his duties as her bodyguard and stated he needed to be home with his family as the reason he was let go. Stone still denies to this day that either one had a passionate relationship. Swigart has not been seen in hollywood since 1995.
On February 14, 1998, she married Phil Bronstein, executive editor of the
San Francisco Examiner and later
San Francisco Chronicle. Stone and Bronstein were divorced in January 2004, after he had suffered a severe myocardial infarction. They have an adopted son named Roan Joseph Bronstein, born on May 22, 2000. She also adopted her second son, Laird Vonne Stone on May 7, 2005. On June 28, 2006, Stone adopted her third son, Quinn Kelly.
In 2005, during a television interview for her movie
Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction, Stone hinted an interest in bisexuality, stating "Middle age is an open-minded period". Stone has said that in the past she's "dated" girls. While filming Basic Instinct, her best girlfriend was there to hold her hand out of camera range during some of the scenes. And in a biography,
Naked Instinct, author Frank Sanello details a sexual liaison with a woman in the bathroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel . In an interview on the Michael Parkinson talk show in England on March 18, 2006, she said she was "straight". However, in January 2008, she was quoted as saying, "Everybody is bisexual to an extent. Now men act like women and it's difficult to have a relationship because I like men in that old-fashioned way. I like masculinity and, in truth, only women do that now".
It has been rumored that Stone has recently been dating Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson, host of
The Late Late Show (CBS).
Mensa controversy
For many years it was believed that Sharon Stone was a member of Mensa, but in April 2002, she admitted she was not, and had never been, a member of the high-IQ society. Jim Blackmore of Mensa said, "It's delightful to finally see Ms. Stone admit that she's not and never has been a member of our society. But then she goes on to say, 'I went to a Mensa school.' Not so."
- 1994 -
Sliver (1993) Razzie Award Worst Actress
- 1995 -
The Specialist (1994) Razzie Award Worst Actress (Won)
- 1995 -
The Specialist (1994) Razzie Award Worst Screen Couple (Won)
- 2000 -
Gloria (1999) Razzie Award Worst Actress
- 2004 -
Catwoman (2004) Razzie Award Worst Supporting Actress
- 2004 -
Catwoman (2004) Razzie Award Worst Screen Couple