Sandra Annette Bullock (born July 26, 1964 in Arlington County, Virginia) is an American film actress. Sandra majored in drama at East Carolina University. She left ECU during the spring semester of her Senior year at ECU, only three credits short of graduating, to pursue acting in New York City, but found it difficult to establish herself. She later received an honorary degree from ECU. She moved to Los Angeles, California and landed a series of small roles in several independent films and, eventually, she got the lead role in the TV version of the movie Working Girl. Bullock's first notable movie appearance was in Demolition Man in 1993, which led to her breakthrough performance in Speed the following year. She became a bona fide star in the mid–late 90s, carrying a string of successes on the strength of her name alone. She also runs her own production company, Fortis Films. Bullock was born to the late German opera singer Helga Meyer, who died of cancer on April 4, 2000, and the Alabama-born voice teacher John Bullock. Growing up, Bullock lived for 12 years in Fürth, Germany, where she began singing as a child, performing small parts in her mother's operas. Later she attended Washington-Lee High School where she was a cheerleader, voted "Most Likely to Brighten up Your Day" by her class. Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James on July 16, 2005. She previously dated Troy Aikman, Matthew McConaughey, blues guitarist Guy Forsythe, and actor Ryan Gosling. She was engaged to actor Tate Donovan. In October 2004, she won a multi-million-dollar judgment in a lawsuit against Benny Daneshjou, the builder of her Lake Austin, Texas mansion, a home in which she had never lived, claiming it is uninhabitable. The builder denied any wrongdoing and is appealing. Bullock publicly donated $1 million twice to the American Red Cross, first to its Liberty Disaster Relief Fund and four years later, in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis.
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