February 28, 2010This year has been a sterling year for talented actress and very capable business woman, Sandra Bullock. So far she has garnered the following prestigious awards: (1) Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama for The Blind Side, (2) Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for The Blind Side, (3) People’s Choice Award – Favorite Movie Actress, (4) Critics’ Choice Award Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Blind Side (Tied with Meryl Streep), and (5) Academy Award nomination Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Blind Side.Sandra Bullock was born on July 26, 1966 in Arlington, Virginia. She is the eldest daughter of her father John, a voice coach, from Alabama, and Pentagon official, and mother Helga, a German opera singer. Sandra spent the first twelve years of her life living between Salzburg, Austria (during opera season) and Arlington, Virginia, as her mother’s work required her presence in both cities. At the young age of eight, Sandra performed on stage for the first time, assuming the role of a gypsy child in a play with her mother. Helga claims that by the sixth grade, Sandra had already set her mind on acting. She acquired the scar on her forehead (above her right eye) after tumbling into a creek at age eleven.
Sandra and her sister, Gesine, lived a number of their childhood years in Nuremberg, Germany. She and her sister spent endless hours listening to their mother perform. Sandra not only developed a deep appreciation for opera, and also learned to speak fluent German.
It was an exciting time in her young life, and perhaps it was seeing her mother up on stage that influenced her to become a performer herself. When Sandra was eight, she had her first taste of a stage performance when she played the role of a gypsy child in a play with her mother.
Sandra’s family moved back to the United States when she was around ten years old. She was an ugly duckling, and was teased mercilessly by her schoolmates. Instead of becoming resentful however, she vowed she would never treat anyone the way she had been treated, and her generous and kind qualities manifest themselves in both her personal and professional lives.
Sandra, an above-average student, went on to become a cheerleader at Washington Lee High, being voted “Most Likely to Brighten Your Day” by her senior class. After high school graduation, she continued her education, at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina, where she majored in Drama. Bullock’s decision to enroll at ECU was made just as quickly. “It all happened in about a week,” she said. “My friend had an extra application.”
Bullock never regretted choosing ECU over a performing arts school since “a traditional college experience–football games, fraternity parties and the like–was what she was after.”
“At ECU I could go through everything a kid should go through in college,” she said. “Some of my best memories are of East Carolina.”
During this time, she helped support herself by entering and winning dance contests, a passion that has stayed with her. Sandra dances at every possible opportunity, and it has been said that if she ever gave up acting, she could easily take up dance as a second professional career.
Bullock was active in theater as a student, appearing in ECU Playhouse productions of Peter Pan , Stage Door and The Three Sisters and Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
“She has a kind of tomboy quality,” said associate professor Donald H. Biehn. “And she was always refreshingly herself. So many times students at a young age try to imitate other actors and actresses. But she relied on her own sense of reality and her own sense of truth. She allowed herself to be herself, which is a very hard thing.”
Edgar Loessin, chairman of the theater arts department, also remembered Bullock fondly. “She has tremendous energy and definitely has talent,” he said. “She’s one of those people that the camera loves.
After graduation from East Carolina, it was off to New York with her life savings, dog and meager possessions to seek her career.
Sandra’s persistence finally paid off when she got the lead in the off-Broadway play No Time Flat. Sandra received glowing reviews for her work in the off-Broadway play, and this led to the TV movie The Bionic Showdown, opposite Lindsay Wagner. The only worthwhile things that came from this work, was the professional experience and an Actors Guild union card. Sandra moved to Los Angeles where she got the role of a spunky cop in the Sylvester Stallone sci-fi action film, Demolition Man. This was a role that drew the attention of director Jan De Bont, who cast her in the hit movie Speed, practically making her an overnight success.
The two mega hits, The Net and While You Were Sleeping followed, sending Sandra on a skyrocket ride to “A” list status, improving her financial situation considerably. The success of these films made it possible for her to start her own cinema production company, Fortis Films. Sandra appointed her sister Gesine, a graduate law student as executive vice-president, and her father John, as her business advisor.
Edgar Loessin, chairman of the theater arts department, also remembers Bullock fondly. “She has tremendous energy and definitely has talent,” he said. “She’s one of those people that the camera loves.
“I know she loves the stage, and she’s very strong on stage. She has a real presence,” he added. “But she’s on a roll now and ought to stick with film for the time being.” Sandra now ranks as one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood.
Bullock was once engaged to actor Tate Donovan, whom she met while filming Love Potion No. 9; their relationship lasted four years. She previously dated football player Troy Aikman, Austin musician Bob Schneider (for two years), and actors Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Gosling.
Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James on July 16, 2005. They met when Bullock arranged for her ten-year-old godson to meet James as a Christmas present.
Sandra Bullock is one of those rare celebrities like Bonnie Hunt, James Stewart, Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, and Tom Hanks, who have, on screen, and in real life, that boy or girl-next-door quality. It’s a quality that endears the viewer to the celebrity. These celebrities seem like old friends–down-to-earth, likable and lovable. Oh, by the way, did I mention that she’s easy on the eye, too?
I’ll see you in the by and by—maybe—at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards , Sunday, March 7th, 2010, broadcast live at 8 EST and 7 CST, on the ABC network, held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The event will be co-hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. That alone should be worth the price of admission.
Allen (I’m pulling for Bullock) Ball