Inside the Actors Studio
Guests 
Sharon Stone
Season 5, Episode 501
Original Airdate: January 10, 1999
Sharon Stone was born March 10, 1958 in Meadville, Pennsylvania. At the age of 19, she decided to leave her small hometown behind, and head for New York's renowned Ford Modeling Agency. She worked as a model throughout the 1970s, and made her screen debut in a brief role as the Pretty Girl on the Train in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980).
She went on to play several small TV and movie roles including Blake Chandler, the reason for the breakup between Drew Barrymore's parents in Irreconcilable Differences (1984). What followed then were several films better left forgotten including Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol and Allen Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold (both 1987).
Stone finally became noticed as an actress with the role of Arnold Schwarzenegger's tough, scheming wife in the sci-fi thriller Total Recall (1990), directed by Paul Verhoeven. She rocketed to instant fame with her next Verhoeven film Basic Instinct (1992), on a role other actresses passed on. She played Catherine Trammell, a psychopathic bisexual murderess, opposite Michael Douglas in the blockbuster hit that very nearly got an NC-17 rating.
She followed with another sexy role in Sliver (1993), and a serious drama, Intersection (1994), with Richard Gere before producing and starring in her next film, The Quick and the Dead (1995). This film saw Stone as a female gunslinger in the Old West, co-starring Gene Hackman. At Stone's insistence, two other young actors were also cast: Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in his first American film.
That same year, Stone also won the role of Ginger in Martin Scorsese's epic Casino. Her strong performance, alongside Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci, garnered her first Academy Award nomination. Though she lost the Oscar to Susan Sarandon, she did won the Golden Globe that year.
She has since starred in the re-make of Diabolique (1996), as the voice of the princess in Antz (1998) and as Albert Brooks' inspiration in The Muse (1999). She and her husband adopted a son in 2000.
