Sandra Bullock

She has donated $1 million to the American Red Cross at least four times. She also donated the same amount to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake and to Japan after the 2011 Japan earthquake.

She was born to John Bullock a United States Army employee and his wife Helga Meyer who was an opera singer and voice trainer. She is of mixed ancestry.

She began performing in small roles in her mother’s opera’s from the time she was five. This created in her a love for the stage. She also performed regularly with a children’s opera.

She went to Washington-Lee High School where she was a cheerleader. She actively participated in the school’s stage productions and graduated in 1982.

She enrolled in East Carolina University to study acting but quit before graduation. She moved to New York in 1986 in search of acting jobs. She took acting lessons at the Neighborhood Playhouse Theatre.

During her initial days as an actress she appeared in a number of student films. She acted in a stage production of ‘No Time Flat’. This performance got her noticed and she was offered film roles.

In her first film role, she appeared as Lisa Edwards in the 1987 film ‘Hangmen’ which revolves around the assassination of a U.S. Senator and its aftermath.

Over the late 1980s and early 1990s she appeared in films like ‘Love Potion No. 9’ (1992), ‘The Thing Called Love’ (1993) and ‘Fire on the Amazon’ (1993).

Her breakthrough role came in 1994 when she was selected to play Annie Porter in the action film, ‘Speed’ which also starred Keanu Reeves and Dennis Hooper. The film was a huge commercial success.

In 1996, she appeared in a film adaptation of John Grisham’s novel, ‘A Time to Kill’ which also had Kevin Spacey, Samuel Jackson and Oliver Platt in its star cast. The story dealt with a black man who avenges his daughter’s rape by shooting the white rapists.

Her movie ‘The Blind Side’ which focused on the story of Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL is considered one of her best. Her performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy was highly praised and won her several awards.

She was nominated for an Academy award for her role in the science fiction thriller ‘Gravity’. She played a medical engineer and Mission Specialist on her first mission in space.