When Muhammad Ali met a 17-year-old Sharon Stone, the boxing champ told her factory worker dad: “You cannot hide that girl under a bushel basket. Her light is too bright." How right he was.
The leggy, blonde, Hollywood icon has appeared opposite a broad range of show business’s best actors and directors—a very long way from her Meadville, Pennsylvania upbringing.
For quite a while, the larger-than-life movie actress was on the bullet train of fame and success when legends such as Shirley MacLaine and Faye Dunaway advised: "It won't last forever, love every single second of it, throw yourself into it."
And she did, running around the world, making big movies, and having fun.
She also learned valuable lessons especially about stardom and what one needs when one is famous: “An unknown address, friends you knew before you were famous, and people who love you enough to tell you you're full of ____.”
15 She Started As A Model
At age 17, the Sphere actress won the Miss Crawford County beauty contest, headed to New York, and was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency doing both in TV commercials and print ads. By 22, she’d made her acting debut as an extra in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories. Her big break came ten years later in Total Recall opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger.
14 She Has Trademark Qualities
In Hollywood, where everyone is beautiful, The Specialist actress stood out with her platinum blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, fabulous figure, sultry voice but also played the femme fatale, and had a knack for self-promotion. “Plan A: living and acting with a lot of integrity. Then there's Plan B, where you sell your soul to the Devil.”
13 She’s An Award-Winning Actress
It was her role as the drug-crazed wife of Robert De Niro in Casino that transformed her from dazzling movie star to respected film actress with a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination. She won the Best Guest Drama Actress Emmy Award for her scene-stealing turn on The Practice.
12 And Producer
Although she produced some of her own acting projects, such as The Quick and the Dead and Agent X, most of her behind-the-scenes work through her production company, Chaos, has been executive producing documentaries. She and her partners went in this direction, rather than feature films, because “We get to talk about things that are important.”
11 She Was A Fashion Icon
The Diabolique star said: “When I go out, I play dress-up,” from animal prints to feathers, and the little black dress to elaborate ball gowns. Her boldest moves though were when she paired her husband’s white shirt with a long, formal skirt, and wore a turtleneck from The Gap with a Valentino skirt and an Armani jacket.
10 She Was The Biggest '90s Sex Symbol
Last Dance star dared to pose for Playboy at 32 which landed her the role of "Catherine Tramell" in Basic Instinct. The infamous interrogation scene is now considered a film classic and gained her the notoriety some actors only dream of—from garnering MTV’s Most Desirable Female and Best Female Performance Awards, to a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
9 She’s Practiced Buddhism
Following her second marriage, she was introduced to Buddhism, supposedly by Richard Gere, with who she starred in Intersection. “I’m religious. Probably, to a lot of people’s thought, I’m extremely religious. My practice is Buddhism, but I believe in God...I’ve really given up my life to God and I know that’s why I’m OK and at peace.”
8 She Was Married Twice
The Gloria actress was married first to producer Michael Greenburg for three years in the early '80s, then to the more high-profile Phil Bronstein, San Francisco Examiner/Chronicle executive editor from 1998 to 2004. “I married two Jewish men probably related to the fact that I prefer dark men [and that] Judaism places emphasis on culture and education, and that's important to me.”
7 She’s The Mom Of 3
The Muse star has three sons: Roan Joseph Bronstein (2000) Laird Vonne Stone (2005) and Quinn Kelly Stone (2006). Says the single parent about dating, “My children need to have someone they can look up to. When I meet people I have to think about are they going to be a good example for my sons.”
6 She Suffered A Brain Aneurysm
"I spent two years learning to walk and talk again." In 2001, the Sliver star had a massive hemorrhage and her brain bled for nine days. Upon returning home from her stroke she stuttered and couldn't read. She now has her full vocabulary back. It's been a humbling journey and she says: "Growing older is my goal."
5 She Was On Law & Order: SVU
15 years after her Oscar-nominated performance, her career was on the downturn. It was “humiliating,” the If These Walls Could Talk 2 star said of her recurring role on the 11th season of the juggernaut series starring Mariska Hargitay. "Having worked with the finest people in the industry, I was like, 'Wow, I'm really at the back of the line here.’”
4 She’s A Song Writer
In addition to acting, the Catwoman star is a talented writer. “The first song that I had published was for Hurricane Katrina. There was an album that came out, Come Together Now, and I wrote the title track. She also penned lyrics about an Argentinian writer and poet who was murdered in his car and a song out in Sweden called "Let’s Kiss."
3 And Stage Actress
Agent X actress/producer had a long run in the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Love Letters, in which two people, who share a lifetime of experiences (boarding schools, lovers, marriages, children, divorce) and reveal their deepest desires, ambitions, dreams, disappointments, heartaches, victories and defeats to each other through handwritten letters.
2 She Got Her College Degree At Age 58
The Laundromat actress entered the Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania at age of 15 but left before graduating to pursue a modeling career. In 2007, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Philosophy in public service by the school, then inspired by Hillary Clinton who she supported in the 2016 presidential election, the star finished her degree online.
1 She’s An Activist
The Basic Instinct bombshell is a dedicated fund-raiser and advocate for AIDS research/awareness and started doing so when, “It was not at all popular,” because words like AIDS, HIV, and even condoms were taboo at the time. “It’s been a long journey. And it did for quite a long time really damage the steam of my career. But ultimately what’s more important?”
Sources: IMBD, SheKnows, Vineyard Gazette, Business Insider, Good Housekeeping, Us,