Susan Sarandon: Actress-Activist [Hardcover]

Marc Shapiro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001

The very talented, intelligent, and beautiful Susan Sarandon is anything but the typical Hollywood actress. A woman for whom commitment and causes are equally important as her next starring role, Sarandon has been passionately promoting political and social change from the start of her illustrious career. This first biography of Susan Sarandon highlights the real person behind the screen image, exploring her idealism, values, and combative spirit in the service of higher goals, while also celebrating her stunning film career. Renowned celebrity biographer Marc Shapiro traces Sarandon's life from her strict Catholic upbringing in suburbia and her early days of protest in high school for civil rights and against the Viet Nam War to her more recent involvement with women and children's rights in Nicaragua, the AIDS quilt project, ACT UP, the disruption of an Academy Awards ceremony to protest the internment of Haitians with HIV, and many other ongoing projects. Shapiro also discusses her first career successes through high-profile roles in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", "Pretty Baby", "Atlantic City", and "Thelma and Louise", as well as her openly unconventional relationships with directors Louis Malle and Franco Amuri, and actor Tim Robbins. So motivated is Sarandon by her convictions that she often chooses roles to reflect larger issues. She agreed to play in the film "Dry White Season" to draw attention to the evils of apartheid, and her opposition to the death penalty resulted in her Academy Award-winning performance in "Dead Men Walking". Over the years she has paid a price for her activist positions, and supposedly she has accumulated a sizable FBI file. Nonetheless, she has proved time and again that she is always ready to speak out and act up whenever she believes it will do some good. No ordinary biography, this is a captivating page-turner about a sexy, alluring, and passionately committed actress who has broken every conventional rule.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

rolific biographer Marc Shapiro's Susan Sarandon: Actress-Activist offers fans of the Oscar-winning actress the first full-length biography of the star of Thelma & Louise, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dead Man Walking, The Hunger, Bull Durham and others. Charting both her film work and her liberal political activism with husband Tim Robbins, the author of J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter gets the dates and names right in this workmanlike effort, but there's very little insight from such a distance (the bibliography lists one interview for the book and that's with ACLU executive director Ira Glasser). The filmography and TV/documentary credits at the end are sketchy (i.e., film title, year and Sarandon's character's name).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

From the looks of Shapiro's body of work, he plies his trade writing mostly unauthorized biographies of "celebrities of the moment," such as Carlos Santana, Lauryn Hill, Mariah Carey, J.K. Rowling, and Freddie Prinze Jr. Though this is the first biography of Susan Sarandon, it has a mechanical quality, as if it were produced by a machine designed to cash in on a star's current success. Shapiro neatly charts Sarandon's growth from a strict Catholic childhood to accidental actress to activist, but the writing lacks eloquence, and little is here that can't be found in Current Biography and other secondary sources. In fact, the bibliography shows that Shapiro interviewed only one person, Ira Glasser of the American Civil Liberties Union. The rest of the quotes and stories come from previously published books and articles. Unless your patrons are clamoring for a biography of Sarandon, wait until she authorizes one or writes her own book. Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Libs., Salinas, CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157392928X
• ISBN-13: 978-1573929288
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,255,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Susan Rulezzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!!1, May 28, 2002

By 

eva kuijken (the Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Susan Sarandon: Actress-Activist (Hardcover)

This Biography of Susan Sarandon Is the most wonderful book I've ever read.
Marc Shapiro has done a great job writing this book. It's shows all the sides of susan. You don't even have to be a Susan fan to like this book.Most people only know she's a great actress but she's so much more. She's a wonderful activist, a mother and a beautiful woman.

It's really cool to read. Shapiro derscribes her whole life from her childhood till this moment.

This book shows the life story of a never comparable beautiful woman.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pulitzer-quality writing, March 15, 2006

By 

Navy Bean "Navy Bean" (Amsterdam/Dayton, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Susan Sarandon: Actress-Activist (Hardcover)

The fact that this title wasn't considered for the Pulitzer the year is came out is a sham. Susan Sarandon is hot, white hot. Trying to chronicle and describe her dynamic life is like trying to explain a unicorn to a blind man. You can try, but you'll both end up confused. Shapiro has this woman down! Those of you looking for nudity will be disappointed. I've read it 5x and each time I pick up on some of the allegory and subtleties that Shapiro mixes into the biography. Very skillful!