Sandra Bullock

Sandra Annette Bullock (born July 26, 1964) is an American actress and producer. She rose to fame in the 1990s with roles in films such as Demolition Man (1993), Speed (1994), The Net (1995), While You Were Sleeping (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), and Hope Floats (1998). In the new millennium, Bullock starred in Miss Congeniality (2000), Two Weeks Notice (2002), The Lake House (2006), The Proposal (2009), and the critically acclaimed Crash (2004) and Gravity (2013). In 2007, she was ranked as the 14th richest woman in the entertainment industry with an estimated fortune of $85 million. In 2009, Bullock starred in two of the more financially successful films of her career, The Proposal and The Blind Side. Bullock was awarded the BFCA Award, SAG Award, Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for her leading role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side. She is listed in the 2012 edition of Guinness World Records as the highest-paid actress, with $56 million. In 2013, she starred in The Heat, financially the most successful comedy of the year at the domestic box office, and the science fiction thriller Gravity. As one of the highest grossing films of the year, Gravity is Bullock's most successful film critically and commercially. For her role in it, Bullock was nominated a second time for the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with the BFCA, Golden Globe and SAG awards and also received her first BAFTA nomination. Early life Bullock was born in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Her father, John W. Bullock (born 1925), was a United States Army employee and part-time voice coach; her mother, Helga Mathilde Meyer (1942–2000), was an opera singer and voice teacher. Bullock's father was from Birmingham, Alabama, and had English, Irish, German, and French ancestry, while Bullock's mother was German. Bullock's maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg, Germany. Bullock's father, then in charge of the Army's Military Postal Service in Europe, was stationed in Nuremberg when he met his wife. They married in Germany and moved to Arlington, where John worked with the Army Materiel Command, before becoming a contractor for The Pentagon. She has a younger sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, who was formerly the vice-president of Bullock's production company Fortis Films. Bullock was raised in Nuremberg, Germany for twelve years and grew up speaking German. She attended the humanistic Waldorf School. As a child, Bullock frequently accompanied her mother on European opera tours. Bullock studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, taking small parts in her mother's opera productions. She sang in the opera's children's choir at the Staats theater Nürnberg. The scar above her left eye was caused when she fell into a creek as a child. Bullock attended Washington-Lee High School, where she was a cheerleader and performed in high school theater productions. After graduating in 1982, she attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where she received a degree in drama in 1986. While at ECU, she performed in multiple theater productions, including "Peter Pan" and "Three Sisters." She then moved to Manhattan and supported herself as a bartender, cocktail waitress, and coat checker while auditioning for roles. Until the age of eighteen, Bullock held American/German dual citizenship. In 2009, she reapplied for German citizenship. Career While in New York, Bullock took acting classes with Sanford Meisner. She appeared in several student films, and later landed a role in an Off-Broadway play No Time Flat. Director Alan J. Levi was impressed by Bullock's performance and offered her a part in the TV movie Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989). This led to her being 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 went on to appear in several films, such as Love Potion No. 9 (1992), The Thing Called Love (1993) and Fire on the Amazon (1993). Breakthrough / Speed A prominent supporting role in the science-fiction/action film Demolition Man (1993) was followed by her breakthrough performance in Speed the following year. Speed was a huge hit that took in $350 million at the box office worldwide, making it her second most successful picture to date. A string of successes during the mid-1990s included While You Were Sleeping (1995), for which she received her first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, The Net (1995) and A Time to Kill (1996). Bullock received $11 million for Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), which she agreed to star in for financial backing for her own project, Hope Floats (1998), and has revealed she regrets making the sequel. She 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. The year 2009 proved to be especially good for Bullock, giving the actress two record highs in her career, as earlier in the year she released The Proposal, with co-star Ryan Reynolds, a huge hit that took in $317 million at the box office worldwide, making it her third most successful picture to date. She received her third Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress role for Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The Blind Side In November 2009, Bullock starred in The Blind Side, which opened at #2 behind New Moon with $34.2 million, making it her second highest opening weekend ever. The Blind Side is unique in that it had a 17.6% increase at the box office its second weekend, and it took the top spot of the box office in its third weekend. The film cost $29 million to make according to the Box Office Mojo. It grossed over $309 million, making it her domestic highest grossing film, her fourth highest grossing film worldwide, and the first one in history to pass the $200 million mark with only one top-billed female star. Gravity Bullock starred in the science fiction film Gravity, opposite George Clooney.  The premiere was in August, at the 70th Venice Film Festival, and the film was released on October 4, 2013 to coincide with the beginning of World Space Week. The film was originally scheduled to be released on November 21, 2012, before being re-scheduled for a 2013 release in order to complete extensive post-production effects work. Gravity received universal acclaim among critics and a standing ovation in Venice. The movie was called "marvelous, the most realistic and the most beautifully choreographed movie ever set in space". Bullock's performance was praised, with some critics saying that Gravity is the best work of her career, and many calling her out as a major frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Variety wrote that "Bullock inhabits the role with grave dignity and hints at Stone's past scars with sensitivity and tact, and she holds the screen effortlessly once Gravity becomes a veritable one-woman show... the actress remains fully present emotionally, projecting a very appealing combo of vulnerability, intelligence and determination that not only wins us over immediately, but sustains attention all the way through the cathartic closing reels." As of February 25, 2014, Gravity, took in $715 million at the box office worldwide, making it Bullock's most successful picture to date. For her role as Dr. Ryan Stone, Bullock was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role and Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress. By August 2014, Bullock was the highest earning actress in the movie business. Public image By 2009, Bullock's films had grossed over $3.1 billion worldwide. According to The Numbers, her total domestic gross stands at $1.7 billion, placing her among the Top 100 Stars at the Box Office. Since her debut as an actress, Bullock has been dubbed in the media as "America’s sweetheart," due to her nature which has been described as "friendly and direct and so unpretentious." On March 24, 2005, Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Whereas critics praised her screen persona, some have been less receptive towards her films. At the 2009 release of The Proposal, Mark Kermode said she has made only three "good" films in her career—Speed, While You Were Sleeping, and Crash, and says "she's funny, she's gorgeous, it's impossible not to love her and yet she makes rotten film after rotten film after rotten film." As of December 2009, Bullock has appeared on three Entertainment Weekly covers. She was selected by People magazine as its "Woman of the Year" for 2010 and ranked #12 on People '​s Most Beautiful 2011 list. In 2010, Time magazine included Bullock in its annual TIME 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World." In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter named Bullock among the most powerful women in entertainment. Bullock joined Hollywood legends at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard by attaching her hand and footprints in cement in the forecourt of the theater in September 2013. In November 2013 it was announced that Bullock won Entertainment Weekly's"Entertainer of the Year," mostly due to the success of her roles in The Heat and Gravity, which Entertainment Weekly believed would earn her an Oscar nomination. Bullock shares the Entertainment Weekly "Entertainer of the Year" title with other distinguished people in the industry such as the 'masterminds' behind the television show Breaking Bad, Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Lawrence, "Grumpy Cat," among several others. In 2014, Bullock ranked No. 2 on Forbes '​s most powerful actresses and was honored with the Decade of Hotness Award by Spike Guys' Choice Awards. Personal life Relationships Bullock was once engaged to actor Tate Donovan, whom she met while filming Love Potion No. 9; their relationship lasted three years. She previously dated football player Troy Aikman, and actors Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Gosling. Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James on July 16, 2005. They first met when Bullock arranged for her ten-year-old godson to meet James as a Christmas present. In November 2009, Bullock and James entered into a custody battle with James' second ex-wife, former pornographic actress Janine Lindemulder, with whom James had a child. Bullock and James subsequently won full legal custody of James' five-year-old daughter. In March 2010, a scandal arose when several women claimed to have had affairs with James during his marriage to Bullock. Bullock cancelled European promotional appearances for The Blind Side citing "unforeseen personal reasons." On March 18, 2010, James responded to the rumors of infidelity by issuing a public apology to Bullock. He stated, "The vast majority of the allegations reported are untrue and unfounded" and "Beyond that, I will not dignify these private matters with any further public comment." James declared that "There is only one person to blame for this whole situation, and that is me", and asked that his wife and children one day "find it in their hearts to forgive me" for their current "pain and embarrassment." James' publicist subsequently announced on March 30, 2010, that James had checked into a rehab facility "to deal with personal issues" and "save his marriage" to Bullock. However on April 28, 2010, it was reported that Bullock had filed for divorce on April 23 in Austin. Their divorce was finalized on June 28, 2010, with "conflict of personalities" cited as the reason. Children Bullock announced on April 28, 2010, that she had proceeded with plans to adopt a son born in January 2010 in New Orleans. Bullock and James had begun an initial adoption process four months earlier. Bullock's son began living with them in January 2010, but they chose to keep the news private until after the Oscars in March 2010. However, given the couple's separation and then divorce, Bullock continued the adoption of her son Louis Bardo Bullock, as a single parent.