Sharon Stone: throwback to a stormy personal life and career

This world famous actress was born on March 10, 1958 in the small Pennsylvania town of Meadville. After combining her studies with beauty pageants, she decided to try her luck as a model in New York. And that's where the amazing success story of Sharon Stone began.

In 1977, Sharon Stone moved from Pennsylvania to her aunt's house in New Jersey. Closer to the world of fashion and showbizz, she would go on to become a star in Hollywood.

Behind the actress's brilliance lay profound personal tragedy, however. In her 2021 autobiography, 'The Beauty of Living Twice,' Sharon Stone recounts how as a child she was forced to watch her grandfather abuse her sister Kelly while she was paralysed with fear and astonishment. All this with the complicity of her grandmother who locked them in the same room.

When she was 14 years old, Sharon Stone's grandfather died. She says in her autobiography that it gave her a "bizarre satisfaction" to poke his body and make sure he was dead.

Later, as the actress recalls in her autobiography, she would apply the rage she felt towards her grandparents into her acting.

It was especially helpful for the thriller 'Basic Instinct': "Letting myself process that rage was magnificent, and I think letting others feel that release was a bit therapeutic for the audience," she writes. "I know it's not just me."

Before she got to that point, Sharon Stone had to make tiny steps in her acting career though. After Woody Allen (of all people) spotted her acting talents, he cast her for a fleeting scene in "Stardust Memories" (1980, photo), but he did not credit her.

A little later, Claude Lelouch selected Sharon Stone for an extra scene in the French film "Les Uns et les Autres" (Bolero, 1981) that lasted only two minutes. All this goes to say that success did not immediately knock at her door.

Another role in Sharon Stone's early career was in the 1985 action movie 'King Solomon's Mines' with Richard Chamberlain.

It was in 1992 with the release of 'Basic Instinct' that Sharon Stone became the Hollywood star she still is today. The charisma she displayed on screen won over critics and audiences alike.

The famous scene of Stone crossing her legs was not planned, though. Sharon Stone recalls in her autobiography - as she had done before - that she was "tricked" into doing this scene the way it ended up on the screen. She fought director Paul Verhoeven about it but did not sue him. "It didn't matter anymore. It was me and my parts up there."

Read about Sharon Stone and other actors who regret certain intimate scenes

In the 1990s, Sharon Stone achieved her definite glory. We saw her in numerous leading roles, such as 'Intersection' (1994) and 'Last Dance' (1996).

While some movies didn't work out very well - remember 'Sliver'? - others had considerable success. An example was her tough part in the western 'The Quick and the Dead' (1995).

Another success was 'Casino,' directed by Martin Scorsese and with co-stars Robert DeNiro and Joe Peski, in 1995. Sharon Stone was nominated for an Oscar for this movie. In her autobiography, she says that Robert De Niro "taught me more by the example of his incredible work ethic than any other actor." In addition, she calls Martin Scorsese "the greatest director of my life."

On a personal level, Sharon Stone has had two marriages and several steady relationships. The men who have most marked her life are television producer Michael Greenburg, whom she married in 1984 and separated three years later, and 'San Francisco Examiner' editor Phil Bronstein, whom she married in 1998 and divorced in 2004.

With Phil Bronstein, Sharon Stone adopted a son in 2000: Roan Joseph Bronstein (photo). After their separation, Sharon Stone had two more adopted children: Laird Vonne (2005) and Quinn Kelly Stone (2006).

The year 2001 was one of the most difficult in Sharon Stone's life. First, she had benign tumours removed from her breasts. Then, she suffered a stroke and nearly died.

About the stroke, the actress recalls that she suffered intense headaches and went to the doctor to have it checked out. Diagnosed with a brain haemorrhage, caused by an aneurysm, Stone had to get immediate medical care. She would later tell 'Paris Match' that she saw "the white light on the other side" in a near-death experience. She also saw her deceased father.

The treatment for her tumors, in that same year, had been a mixed experience, the actress reveals in her autobiography. "I left there bandaged, and when unbandaged, discovered that I had a full cup-size bigger breasts." Her surgeon would tell the actress that they "go better with your hip size - I'm certain you look better now."

In her autobiography, two decades later, Sharon Stone denounces this unwanted plastic surgery. "He, in all of his self-determined knowledge, had changed my body without my knowledge or consent."

In March 2002, Sharon Stone was asked to present a section of the Oscar ceremony. She reveals in her autobiography that she was still having problems seeing, hearing, and speaking, and she had only recently started walking again. Pictured here with her husband Phil on the red carpet, she didn't want people to notice.

"I floated down that stage and looked into the faces of all of my talented, amazing fellow Academy members," she writes about her entrance on the stage with John Travolta. "They were smiling, laughing, and digging the moment. All of us uplifted. They didn't need to know why."

For a time, Sharon Stone was typecast as a hypersexualised woman. In 2014, she told Oprah Winfrey that it's not a big deal to her: "I'm 56 years old and a certain audience still likes me. It's fine."

Sharon Stone gave Harper's Bazaar magazine the exact definition of what she considers to be a beauty icon: "Being attractive is liking yourself enough to be liked by whoever wants to be with you".

Despite life's adversities, Sharon Stone presents herself as a woman of vitality and optimism. She is often seen sponsoring social and solidarity causes. For several years, the actress has supported charitable foundations such as the AIDS Research Foundation, Lupus LA, the Dalai Lama Foundation and Habitat for Humanity.

Before having to pause filming due to COVID-19, Sharon Stone signed some interesting roles in movies and television. She played in 'The Disaster Artist' in 2017 and in the series 'Mosaic' two years later. For the latter performance, she got very good reviews and the support of the public.

In 2020, Stone signed a small (but interesting) role in 'Ratched', the Netflix series starring Sarah Paulson. It focuses on the character of nurse Mildred Ratched from the film 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and features a serene and calm Sharon Stone as a millionaire widow with hilarious tendencies and a pet monkey.

Sharon Stone is a living Hollywood legend who, in her mid-60s, continues to reap both personal and professional success. "I'm more comfortable in my job than I've ever been," she said in an interview with El País. "I don't feel the same stress, nerves or anxiety as when I used to go to work."