Susan Sarandon

Though her film debut was in 1970, Sarandon made her first measurable impression as the wide-eyed, WASP-ish ingénue in the long-running The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), then achieved critical acclaim and an Oscar nod as a casino worker run afoul with the mob in Atlantic City (1980). But it was her performance as the sexy baseball groupie in Bull Durham (1988) that propelled her to stardom. What followed was a string of Oscar-nominated roles in Thelma & Louise (1991), Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and The Client (1994) that paved the way for Academy Award gold with a strong, dignified performance as a Catholic nun fighting for the redemption of a death row inmate (Sean Penn) in Dead Man Walking (1995).