Early life
Bullock was born in Arlington County, Virginia to John W. Bullock, a Pentagon contractor and part-time vocal coach from Alabama, and Helga D. Meyer, a German opera singer who died of cancer on April 4, 2000; Bullock's maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg. Bullock lived in Nuremberg until age twelve, where she sang in the opera's childrens' choir at the Staatstheater Nürnberg. She frequently traveled with her mother on her opera tours, and lived in Germany and other parts of Europe for much of her childhood. Bullock studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, taking small parts in her mother's opera productions.
Bullock attended Washington-Lee High School where she was a cheerleader, participated in high school theater productions and dated a football player. She graduated in 1982 and enrolled in East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. During this time she worked as a waitress at a restaurant. She left school during her senior year (Spring 1986), three credits short of graduating, to pursue an acting career. She went to Manhattan to try to get auditions and supported herself with a variety of odd jobs (bartender, cocktail waitress, coat checker).
Sandra Bullock later completed her coursework and was awarded a bachelor's degree from East Carolina University. She is fluent in German. When appearing on German TV shows, she prefers to speak English (the TV hosts speak German though).
Career
While in New York, Bullock took acting classes at The Neighborhood Playhouse. 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 made-for-tv movie Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989). After filming the movie, Bullock stayed in Los Angeles, California, and was 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 appeared in several films such as Love Potion No. 9 (1992), The Thing Called Love (1993) and Fire on the Amazon (where she agreed to appear topless if the camera did not show that much, she covered herself with duct tape which apparently was somewhat painful to take off).
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. Bullock received 11 million dollars for Speed 2 and 17 1/2 million dollars for Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous.
Bullock has been selected as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1996 and 1999, and has also been ranked #58 in Empire magazine's Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list. She was presented with the 2002 Raul Julia Award for Excellence for her efforts, as the executive producer of the sitcom The George Lopez Show, in helping expand career openings for Hispanic talent in the media and entertainment industry.
Bullock runs her own production company, Fortis Films; her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, is president of the company and her father, John Bullock, is its CEO.[6] She was an executive producer of George Lopez Bullock 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.[7] The story 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. Bullock later appeared in The Lake House, a romantic drama also starring her Speed co-star, Keanu Reeves; it was released on June 16, 2006. Because their film characters are separated throughout the film (due to the plot revolving around time travel), Bullock and Reeves were only on set together for two weeks during filming.[8] The same year, Bullock appeared in Infamous, playing author Harper Lee. Bullock also stars in Premonition with Julian McMahon, which was released in March of 2007.[9]
Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 24, 2005. In January 2007, Bullock was named the 14th richest woman in entertaiment by Forbes, with a net worth of $80 million.[10]
Personal life
Bullock was once engaged to actor Tate Donovan who she met while filming Love Potion No. 9. Their relationship lasted four years. She had previously dated football player Troy Aikman, blues guitarist Guy Forsythe, Steve Buscemi, Austin musician Bob Schneider (for two years) and film co-stars, Ryan Gosling and Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey and Bullock met each other while filming A Time to Kill and became friends. They dated for a while.
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. On her husband and her marriage, Bullock has commented:
“
So basically through a courtship of letters... I learned about a human being. It was not something I wanted, needed, or looked for, but because he was a stronger person than I was, spiritually and on a tolerance level, I was lucky enough that he educated me... I always thought of marriage as a death sentence, that there'd be a ball and chain, and you'd be told, 'You need to stop doing these things and become a good little wife.' Now people say 'Oh my God you're going to have sex with one person the rest of your life!' I hope I have sex with him for the rest of my life - because I like it!)[11]
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On December 20, 2000, Bullock survived the crash of a chartered business jet at Jackson Hole Airport. The aircraft hit a snowbank instead of the runway, resulting in both the nose gear and nose cone being ripped off, the right wing partially separated from the aircraft and the left wing bent back. When the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred, Bullock was staying at the Soho Grand hotel, twelve blocks from the World Trade Center. She saw the attacks from her hotel bedroom window and went 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.
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.[12]
In October 2004, Bullock won a multimillion dollar judgment against Benny Daneshjou, the builder of her Lake Austin Texas mansion; the jury ruled the house was uninhabitable. It has since been torn down and rebuilt, and her beloved Porsche 911 Turbo replaced by a Toyota Prius.[13] Bullock also owns a house on Tybee Island, Georgia, which is a few miles from Savannah, Georgia. After four years of preparation, Bullock's first restaurant, Bess,[14] opened in November 2006 in Austin, Texas.
Bullock was voted "Most Likely To Brighten Up Your Day" in high school. Although she loves horses, she is allergic to them. She has a scar on her head which she received when she fell into a lake and cut her head on a rock.Sandra Bullock
