SANDRA BULLOCK
After getting her start on stage, this spunky actress with a girl-next-door persona started to land film and TV parts in the late 1980s. She came to prominence in 1993 with a number of flashy movie roles, including an aspiring country singer in The Thing Called Love (in which she performed her own song "Heaven Knocking on My Door") and a perky police officer in the big-budget sci-fi flick Demolition Man. The next year, she was the female lead in the blockbuster Speed. However, it was her performance as a lovelorn token-booth clerk in the surprise 1995 hit While You Were Sleeping that turned her into a romantic-comedy favorite. After releasing a few missteps (Two if by Sea, Practical Magic, 28 Days), Bullock began producing her own vehicles through her company Fortis Films. But her draw as a romantic lead remained and she had more hits on her hands with the fluffy comedy Miss Congeniality (2000) and her collaboration with Hugh Grant in Two Weeks Notice (2002). She then turned in a well-received performance in a supporting role for 2004's ensemble drama Crash. Off screen, the winsome actress was romantically linked with many of her costars, including former fiancé Tate Donovan (Love Potion No. 9), Matthew McConaughey (A Time to Kill) and Ryan Gosling (Murder by Numbers), before marrying tattooed motorcycle maven and Monster Garage star Jesse James in 2005. The next year, she reteamed with her Speed costar Keanu Reeves for the time-traveling romance The Lake House, but it was 2009 that proved to be her biggest year to date. The romantic comedy The Proposal was a smash at the box office, and her role as a devout Christian who takes in a down-on-his-luck teen in The Blind Side had critics buzzing. Indeed, she went on to win the Oscar for her performance, as well as the unusual distinction of winning best and worst actress (she took home the Razzie for All About Steve) in the same year. Sadly, mere days after her Oscar win, stories of Jesse's infidelity emerged, leading to their eventual divorce. However, Bullock still had reason to smile- she brought home her adopted her son Louis in January 2010, keeping it a secret until after the Oscar ceremony.
