Sharon Stone

Sharon Stone is an American Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actress, producer, and former fashion model. She came to international attention for her performance in the 1992 Hollywood blockbuster film Basic Instinct, and in 1996 Stone was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Martin Scorsese’s Casino, and won a Golden Globe for that same role.

Born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, Stone was regarded by many as bright and a quick study while growing up. It was when a pageant judge suggested she quit school and move to New York to become a fashion model that Stone quickly packed her bags and moved in with an aunt in New Jersey. Within four days, she was signed by Ford Modeling Agency in New York. After signing with Ford, Stone spent a few years modeling and appeared in TV commercials for such companies as Clairol and Maybelline.

Over the next few years, Stone was cast in small, but memorable roles in films, and by the late 80s had appeared in Irreconcilable Differences, starring Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long, and a young Drew Barrymore, Action Jackson, King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, and Above the Law. She appeared in a two-part episode of Magnum, P.I., titled "Echoes of the Mind," where she played identical twins, one a love interest of Thomas Magnum.

In 1990, Stone’s appearance in Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger gave her career a much-needed jolt. Yet, it was the role two years later that really made her a star, when she was cast as “Catherine Tramell,” a brilliant, bisexual serial killer, in Basic Instinct.

Following this film, she was listed by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world, and in November of 1995, Stone received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, Empire magazine chose her as one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history, and later in 1997, they ranked her among the top 100 movie stars of all time.

Stone starred opposite actress Ellen DeGeneres in the 2001 HBO movie If These Walls Could Talk 2, in which she played a lesbian trying to start a family. In 2003, she appeared in three episodes of The Practice as “Sheila Carlisle.” For her performances, she received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction was released in March, 2006, and a subsequent film role came in the drama Alpha Dog opposite Bruce Willis, playing “Olivia Mazursky,” the mother of a real-life murder victim. In February, 2007, Stone was cast as a clinically depressed woman in her most recent film When a Man Falls in the Forest.

Stone was awarded the National Center for Lesbian Rights Spirit Award in San Francisco in 2004 for her support and involvement with organizations that serve the lesbian, gay and HIV/AIDS community.