Sharon Stone facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sharon Stone
Stone at the 2024 Berlinale
Born	Sharon Vonne Stone (1958-03-10) March 10, 1958 (age 66) Meadville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater	Pennsylvania Western University, Edinboro
Occupation	Actress former model
Years active	1976–present
Works	Filmography
Spouse(s)	Michael Greenburg ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 1990)​ Phil Bronstein ​ ​ (m. 1998; div. 2004)​
Partner(s)	William MacDonald (1992–1994) Bob Wagner (1994–1995)
Children	3
Awards	Full list

Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress and painter. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a nomination for an Academy Award. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995 and was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2005 (Commander in 2021).

After modeling in television commercials and print advertisements, Stone made her film debut as an extra in Woody Allen's dramedy Stardust Memories (1980) and played her first speaking part in Wes Craven's horror film Deadly Blessing (1981). In the 1980s, she appeared in such pictures as Irreconcilable Differences (1984), King Solomon's Mines (1985), Cold Steel (1987), and Above the Law (1988). She had a breakthrough with her part in Paul Verhoeven's science fiction action film Total Recall (1990), before rising to international recognition when she portrayed Catherine Tramell in another Verhoeven film, the thriller Basic Instinct (1992), for which she earned her first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

Stone's performance as a trophy wife in Martin Scorsese's epic crime drama Casino (1995) earned her the best reviews of her career, the Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her other notable films include Sliver (1993), The Specialist (1994), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Sphere (1998), The Mighty (1998), The Muse (1999), Catwoman (2004), Broken Flowers (2005), Alpha Dog (2006), Bobby (2006), Lovelace (2013), The Disaster Artist (2017), Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019), and The Laundromat (2019).

On television, Stone has had leading and supporting roles in productions such as the ABC miniseries War and Remembrance (1987), the HBO television film If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000), Steven Soderbergh's Mosaic (2017) and Ryan Murphy's Ratched (2020). She made guest appearances in The Practice (2004) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2010), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for the former.

Early life and education

Sharon Vonne Stone was born on March 10, 1958, in Meadville, Pennsylvania, to Dorothy Marie (née Lawson), an accountant, and Joseph William Stone II, a tool and die manufacturer and former factory worker. She has three siblings: Michael, Kelly, and Patrick. She is of part Irish ancestry. In a 2013 interview with Conan O'Brien, she stated that her Irish ancestors arrived in the United States during the Great Famine. She has a reported IQ of 154. Stone was considered academically gifted as a child and entered the second grade when she was five years old. At 14, her neck was badly injured while breaking a horse when the animal bucked as it charged toward a washing line.

She graduated from Saegertown High School in Saegertown, Pennsylvania, in 1975. Stone was admitted to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania on a creative writing scholarship at age 15, but quit college and moved to New York City to become a fashion model. Inspired by Hillary Clinton, Stone later went back to Edinboro University to complete her degree in 2016.

Career

Modeling and early screen appearances (1976–1989)

While attending Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Stone won the title of Miss Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and in 1976, was a candidate for Miss Pennsylvania. One of the pageant judges told her to quit college and move to New York City to become a fashion model. Stone left Meadville and moved in with an aunt in New Jersey, and by 1977, she had been signed by Ford Modeling Agency in New York City. She soon moved to Europe, living for a year in Milan and then in Paris. While living there, she decided to quit modeling and pursue acting. "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. At 20, Stone was cast for a brief role in Allen's dramedy Stardust Memories (1980) and had a speaking part a year later in the horror film Deadly Blessing (1981).

French director Claude Lelouch cast Stone in the musical epic Les Uns et les Autres (1982), starring James Caan, but she was on screen for two minutes and did not appear in the credits. She secured guest-spots on the television series Silver Spoons (1982), Bay City Blues (1983), Remington Steele (1983), Magnum, P.I. (1984), and T. J. Hooker (1985); played a starlet who breaks up the marriage of a successful director and his screenwriter wife in the drama Irreconcilable Differences (1984), opposite Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long and a young Drew Barrymore; and starred as a resourceful woman teaming up with a fortune hunter (played by Richard Chamberlain) in the action-centered King Solomon's Mines (1985) and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986), a light, comedic take on the Indiana Jones film series, which were poorly received by critics and audiences. In his review for King Salomon's Mines, Walter Goodman of The New York Times considered that Stone was "up to date as a spunky, [...] smart-talking heroine with an effective right hook" but felt that the story was "lost in the effects". For her performance in Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, she received her first Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actress.

Stone obtained the role of Janice Henry in the ABC miniseries War and Remembrance (1987), the sequel to the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War, based on the 1978 novel of the same name written by Herman Wouk. Through the remainder of the 1980s, she appeared as a reporter in the comedy Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987), an attractive but mysterious woman with a hidden agenda in the thriller Cold Steel (1987), the wife of an ex-CIA agent in the crime film Above the Law (1988) and the ill-fated wife of a successful businessman in the action film Action Jackson (1988).

Breakthrough and Basic Instinct (1990–1992)

Stone at the Deauville American Film Festival in 1991

In Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall (1990), a science fiction action film opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stone played the seemingly loving wife of a construction worker. The film received favorable reviews and made $261.2 million worldwide, giving Stone's career a major boost. For instance, she was cast in five feature films released throughout 1991. She played in the romantic comedy He Said, She Said, in the psychological thriller Scissors, in the crime drama Diary of a Hitman, in the thriller Year of the Gun and in the neo-noir Where Sleeping Dogs Lie.

In another Verhoeven film, the thriller Basic Instinct (1992), she took on the role that made her a star, playing Catherine Tramell. Several actresses at the time turned down the role.

Critical response towards Basic Instinct was mixed, but Stone received critical acclaim for her "star-making performance". For the part, Stone earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and four MTV Movie Awards nominations. The film also became one of the most financially successful productions of the 1990s, grossing US$352.9 million worldwide.

Leading lady status (1993–1999)

In 1993, Stone played a femme fatale in Sliver, based on Ira Levin's eponymous novel. The film was heavily panned by critics and earned Stone a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actress but became a commercial success, grossing US$116.3 million at the international box office. She also made a cameo appearance in the action film Last Action Hero (1993), reuniting with Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 1994, Stone appeared as the wife of an architect opposite Richard Gere in the drama Intersection. She played alongside Sylvester Stallone in the action thriller The Specialist. While Intersection found limited success, The Specialist made US$170.3 million worldwide.

In The Quick and the Dead (1995), Stone took on the role of a gunfighter who returns to a frontier town in an effort to avenge her father's death. She served as a producer on the film and had some creative control over the production; she chose director Sam Raimi, after being impressed by his work on Army of Darkness, and co-star Russell Crowe after watching Romper Stomper. She paid Leonardo DiCaprio's salary herself after a reluctance from Sony, the film's studio, over his casting. The Quick and the Dead was a modest profit and earned Stone a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress. Stone starred opposite Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's epic crime drama Casino (1995), where she took on the role of Ginger McKenna, the scheming, self-absorbed wife of a top gambling handicapper (De Niro). The film, based on the non-fiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, received widespread critical acclaim, made US$116.1 million globally, and earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1996, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6925 Hollywood Blvd, and was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.

Stone also played in the psychological thriller Diabolique (1996), in the drama Last Dance (1996), and in the suspense film Sphere (1998). The three aforementioned films were panned by critics and failed to find an audience in theatres. In 1998, Stone also lent her voice for the successful animated film Antz, and played the mother of a 13-year-old boy suffering from Morquio syndrome in the drama The Mighty, which garnered a positive critical response. Stone was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the lattermost.

Her turn as a street-wise, middle-aged moll in Gloria (1999), a remake of the 1980 film of the same name, proved to be a critical and commercial misfire. A titular role followed in 1999 with the comedy The Muse, playing the inspiration of an esteemed screenwriter. Wade Major, a critic for Boxoffice, found her portrayal of a “dizzy Muse” to be “the film’s most delightful surprise”, but most reviews were ultimately lukewarm. Helmut Voss, then president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who give the annual Golden Globe Awards, ordered all 82 of its members to return gift luxury watches sent by either Stone or October Films (now merged into Focus Features) as this was considered promotions for a nomination for Stone's performance in the film. She ultimately received the nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical.

Hiatus and downturn (2000–2004)

Stone at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

In 2000, Stone played a lesbian trying to start a family, opposite Ellen DeGeneres, in the HBO television film If These Walls Could Talk 2 and starred as an exotic dancer, alongside Billy Connolly, in the comedy Beautiful Jo. While she was recognized by Women in Film with her second Lucy Award for her performance in If These Walls Could Talk 2, Beautiful Jo premiered on cable television instead of receiving a theatrical release in North America. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club, who had been critical of Stone's previous films, wrote that "nothing she's done has been quite as shameless or appalling as Beautiful Joe, a toxic piece of whimsy that ranks among the worst films of 2000".

Following her September 2001 hospitalization for a subarachnoid hemorrhage, Stone took a hiatus from screen acting. She faced professional challenges as she was in the process of recovery. She felt that she had "lost [her] place"in Hollywood, and during a 2015 interview with USA Today, she remarked: "[When] you find yourself at the back of the line in your business, as I did, [you] have to figure yourself out all over again." She returned to the screen in 2003, when she took on a three-episode arc as Sheila Carlisle, an attorney who believes she can communicate with God, in the eight season of The Practice. For her performance, she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

Stone attempted a return to the mainstream with roles in the films Cold Creek Manor (2003), with Dennis Quaid, and Catwoman (2004), with Halle Berry. In the mystery psychological thriller Cold Creek Manor, she and Quaid played a couple terrorized by the former owner of the rural estate they bought in foreclosure. Variety magazine remarked in its review for the film that both actors "fish in vain to find any angles to play in their dimension-free characters". The superhero film Catwoman saw her play the age-obsessed CEO of a cosmetic company and the story's antagonist. While both films flopped at the box office, Catwoman is considered by many critics to be one of the worst movies of all time.

Independent films and ensemble dramas (2005–2017)

Her next film release was Jim Jarmusch's dramedy Broken Flowers (2005), in which Stone took on the role of a grasping and overly eager closet organizer who re-connects with a former womaniser (played by Bill Murray). Unlike her previous few film outings, Broken Flowers was met with critical acclaim, upon its premiere at Cannes, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix. Far Out Magazine ranked Stone's role among one of her "10 best performances", while New York Magazine remarked: "Sharon Stone, playing a widow who's half-hippie, half-working-class-tough, demonstrates that, given the right part, she's still [...] knockabout funny and sly". In 2005, she was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

After years of litigation, Basic Instinct 2 was released on March 31, 2006. Despite an estimated budget of US$70 million, Basic Instinct 2 placed only tenth in gross on its opening weekend with a meager US$3.2 million and finished with a total domestic gross of under US$6 million. Stone appeared in Nick Cassavetes's crime drama Alpha Dog (2006), opposite Bruce Willis, playing Olivia Mazursky; she wore a fatsuit for the role. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was an arthouse success. She made part of an ensemble cast in Emilio Estevez's drama Bobby (2006), about the hours leading up to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Stone received favorable comments for her performance, particularly a scene alongside Lindsay Lohan. As a member of the cast, she was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, but won the Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Ensemble Cast.

Stone at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival

Stone took on the role of a clinically depressed woman in the independent drama When a Man Falls in the Forest (2007), which premiered in competition at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival where it was nominated for the Golden Bear. All of her late 2000s films —If I Had Known I Was a Genius (2007), The Year of Getting to Know Us (2008), Five Dollars a Day (2009) and Streets of Blood (2009)— were direct-to-DVD releases in North America. In 2010, Stone made guest-appearances in four episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, portraying Jo Marlowe, a former cop turned prosecutor. Entertainment Weekly included in a review such descriptions of her performance as a "great presence", and having "had to revive her best [...] tone to sell hokey lines" in a series it described as "mawkish and overwrought". She took on the leading female role in the French action sequel Largo Winch II as a United Nations investigator named Diane Francken. Her first theatrical-released production since 2007, the film premiered on February 16, 2011, in France, where it opened in second place at the box office. She next starred as a hard-hitting journalist in the thriller Border Run (2012), which received a direct-to-DVD release.

In 2013, Stone played in the biographical drama Lovelace. The film was released in limited theatres to a decent critical reception. In 2014, she starred as an actress-turned-publisher, opposite Riccardo Scamarcio, in the Italian dramedy A Golden Boy (Un ragazzo d'oro), directed by Pupi Avati, and portrayed America's first female Vice President in the TNT action drama series Agent X, which only aired for one season. Stone next played an adoptive mother in the drama Mothers and Daughters (2016). She portrayed a "lineman widow" in the action film Life on the Line (2016). Stone also played a greedy billionaire in the drama Running Wild (2017). These three films all received a VOD release, to varying responses. James Franco's biographical comedy The Disaster Artist (2017), which featured Stone as Iris Burton, the agent of actor Greg Sestero, was a critical and commercial success, and was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2017.

Film and television balance (2018–present)

Stone returned to television in 2018, when she portrayed a children's book author and illustrator in Steven Soderbergh's HBO mystery production Mosaic, which was released as an iOS/Android mobile app serving as an interactive film and as a television drama. She received positive reviews for her performance. Maureen Ryan of Variety felt that the actress "displays terrific range and depth" and "holds the screen with effortless charisma", and Nick Schager of The Daily Beast wrote that "Stone's turn is something close to masterful." She earned the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film.

In Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019), a pseudo-documentary film covering Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour, Stone played an exaggerated version of herself. The film was released on Netflix, to critical acclaim. Owen Gleiberman described her appearance as a “marketing hook” and further stated: “The presence of Sharon Stone embodies the spirit of [the Hollywood] machine. She has always been a good actress (probably better than many know; just watch her in Casino), but her fame will forever rest on a certain crudely riveting but debased high-budget exploitation thriller”. She reunited with Soderbergh for The Laundromat (2019), in which she played a harried realtor, opposite Meryl Streep.

In Netflix's psychological thriller series Ratched (2020), a prequel to Miloš Forman's 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest developed by Ryan Murphy, Stone portrayed a wealthy heiress. Intrigued by Murphy's pitch for her character, which he wrote for her, Stone described the part as "completely insane". The series garnered a decent critical response and was viewed by 48 million people in its first four weeks of release. In 2020 Stone appeared as herself in an introduction to the fifth episode of The New Pope, where she had an audience with John Malkovich as Pope John Paul III.

In 2021, she also appeared as herself in the dramedy Here Today, directed by Billy Crystal, and was cast in the romantic drama Beauty, directed by Andrew Dosunmu for Netflix.

Public image

Stone at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival

In media and fashion

Stone has appeared on the covers and pictorials of over 300 celebrity and fashion magazines throughout her four-decade acting career. She graced the June–July 1986 cover of French Vogue. Following Basic Instinct, photographer George Hurrell took a series of photographs of Stone, Sherilyn Fenn, Julian Sands, Raquel Welch, Eric Roberts, and Sean Penn. Stone, who was Hurrell's reportedly last sitting before his death in 1992, is also a collector of the photographer's original prints and wrote the foreword to the book Hurrell's Hollywood. In 1993, she appeared in Pirelli's commercial, Driving Instinct, in 2005, became the face of Dior's Capture skincare line, and in 2016, starred with Paul Sculfor in Airfield's (de) Fashion Is a Lovestory short film.

Stone's public and professional profiles have been strongly tied to her perceived beauty. She has ranked among the "50 most beautiful people in the world" by People in 1992. She has also been the subject of four television documentary specials, and several biographies have been written about her.

Personal life

Stone at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival

Stone is a Tibetan Buddhist, having been converted to Buddhism when Richard Gere introduced her to the Dalai Lama. She has said she believes in God.

Relationships and family

In 1984, she met television producer Michael Greenburg on the set of The Vegas Strip War, a television film he produced and she starred in. They married the same year. In 1986, Greenburg was her line producer on Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold. The couple separated three years later, and their divorce was finalized in 1990.

Stone and comedian Garry Shandling were students of acting coach Roy London and dated briefly. She appeared on his show The Larry Sanders Show in the episode "The Mr. Sharon Stone Show". They remained close friends until Shandling's death in 2016. In the documentary Special Thanks to Roy London, interviews with Stone and Shandling discuss their relationship.

In 1993, Stone met William J. MacDonald on the set of the film Sliver, which he co-produced. MacDonald left his wife Naomi Baca for Stone and became engaged to her. They separated one year later in 1994. After they separated, Stone returned the engagement ring via FedEx. While working on the film The Quick and the Dead in 1994, Stone met Bob Wagner, a first assistant director, and they became engaged.

On February 14, 1998, Stone married Phil Bronstein, executive editor of The San Francisco Examiner and later San Francisco Chronicle. Stone suffered several miscarriages due to an autoimmune disease and endometriosis and was unable to have biological children. They adopted a son, Roan Joseph Bronstein, in 2000. Bronstein filed for divorce in 2003, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce became final in 2004, with a judge ruling that Roan would remain primarily with Bronstein and Stone would have visitation rights.

Stone adopted her second son, Laird Vonne, in 2005 and her third son, Quinn Kelly Stone, in 2006. As of 2018, Stone resides with her three sons in West Hollywood, California, in a home once owned by the actor Montgomery Clift.

Activism

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. In 2013, she referred to Peres as her "mentor". On October 23, 2013, Stone received the Peace Summit Award for her work for people with HIV/AIDS.

In 2015, Stone was guest of honor at the Pilosio Building Peace Award in Milan. She began an impromptu auction on stage in front of a crowd of CEOs from the construction industry and other dignitaries. She gained enough pledges to build 28 schools in Africa.

Selected filmography and accolades

In a career spanning over four decades, Stone has had over one hundred acting credits in film and on television. She has won 10 awards from 41 nominations, including one Golden Globe Award (for Casino), one Primetime Emmy Award (for The Practice), and two MTV Movie Awards (for Basic Instinct). Her top-billing roles and most notable films as of 2019^[update] include:

See also

In Spanish: Sharon Stone para niños