Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon

: Photo from Wikimedia Commons / Author of Photo: CommonMan3

Overview

* Actress and leftwing activist
* Supporter of the Communists in Central America during the Cold War
* Supporter of two Revolutionary Communist Party front groups


Susan Sarandon was born Susan Abigail Tomalin in New York City on October 4, 1946. In 1967 she married actor Chris Sarandon (b. 1942); the couple divorced twelve years later.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in drama at the Catholic University of America in 1968, Sarandon pursued a career as an actress. She landed her first significant role in 1975, when she appeared in the cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For a list of all the movies in which Sarandon has acted, click here.

In the early 1980s, Sarandon had a sexual relationship with singer David Bowie.

In the mid-1980s, Sarandon and film director Franco Amurri had a relationship that produced a daughter, Eva.

While on the set of the 1988 film Bull Durham, Sarandon met actor Tim Robbins and started a romantic relationship with him. Although the two never wed, they remained a couple for 21 years and had two children together — the first of whom they named Jack Henry, after Jack Henry Abbott, the convicted murderer and self-proclaimed communist whose infamous release from prison in 1981 was aided by Norman Mailer.[1]

In addition to her film-reated activities, Sarandon is well known for her outspokenness on social and political issues. In 1984 she and a dozen other women from the New York-based organization “MADRE,” of which Sarandon was a founding member, delivered milk and baby food to needy mothers in Nicaragua. This ostensibly humanitarian mission was also intended as a gesture of defiance against the Reagan Administration, which at that time was supporting the Contra rebels in their fight against Nicaragua’s Communist Sandinista government.[2]

In the 1990s, Sarandon served a stint on the advisory board of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. In 1999, she became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.[3]

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Sarandon was part of a campaign that lobbied for the release of the incarcerated Mumia Abu-Jamal – a Marxist icon, convicted cop-killer, and former Black Panther – on grounds that he had supposedly received an unfair trial. “Prison and government officials are trying to censor and silence Mumia Abu-Jamal,” Sarandon said. “I stand as one of many Americans who believe that there is tremendous value in his voice being heard.”[4]

In 2000 Sarandon supported Green Party candidate Ralph Nader‘s run for president, serving as a co-chair of his campaign’s national steering committee.[5]

In 2002 Sarandon became a member and financial supporter of Not In Our Name (NION), the Revolutionary Communist Party-led project that condemned the Bush administration’s “unjust, immoral, illegitimate, [and] openly imperial policy towards the world.”

In October 2002, Sarandon drew a parallel between the respective fanaticisms of committed jihadists and committed capitalists. “Let us find a way,” she said, “to resist fundamentalism that leads to violence; fundamentalism of all kinds — in al Qaeda, and within our government. And what is our fundamentalism? Cloaked in patriotism, and our doctrine of spreading democracy throughout the world, our fundamentalism is business — the unfettered spread of our economic interests throughout the globe.”[6]

Taking an early stance against the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Sarandon spoke at numerous anti-war demonstrations. Charging that “the fear, anger and hurt that this nation experienced after 9/11 has been hijacked to fulfill the [Bush] administration’s agenda,” Sarandon proclaimed: “Let us hate war in all its forms, whether the weapon used is a missile or an airplane.”[7]

In 2003 Sarandon was among the first celebrities to appear in a series of anti-war political ads sponsored by TrueMajority, an organization established by Ben Cohen, founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.[8]

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Sarandon suspended her support for Ralph Nader and signed a petition urging voters to back Democratic Party candidate John Kerry instead, on the theory that Kerry, as the petition put it, had a much better chance of “removing George W. Bush from office” and thereby advancing the cause of “progressive social change in the United States.”[9] Also in 2004, Sarandon took part in “Vaginas Vote, Chicks Rock,” an event aimed at persuading young women to support John Kerry in the presidential election.[10]

In 2005 Sarandon was an endorser of World Can’t Wait, a Revolutionary Communist Party front group whose aim was to drive President Bush out of office.

In 2006 Sarandon joined such notables as Ed AsnerDanny GloverCynthia McKinney, Willie Nelson, Sean Penn, and Lynn Woolsey in staging a “Troops Home Fast” hunger strike to protest the Iraq War. The event was organized by Gold Star Families for Peace founder Cindy Sheehan and was endorsed by Code Pink for Peace.[11]

On Mother’s Day 2006, Sarandon and antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan together took part in an antiwar protest which was organized by Code Pink.

In January 2007, Sarandon participated in an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. to protest the Bush Administration’s planned “surge” of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq.

Prior to the 2008 presidential campaign, Sarandon publicly criticized Hillary Clinton as “a great disappointment” who had “lost her progressive following because of her caution and centrist approach.”[12] Sarandon instead backed the candidacy of John Edwards. “Edwards has very consistently worked for the poor, for labor, for the middle class,” Sarandon said in November 2007. “And Jesus was all about people outside the system. The political machines of both parties are completely beholden to corporate interests. And Jesus was anti-corporate, as we clearly saw in the Temple.”[13] After Edwards dropped out of the race in January 2008, Sarandon supported Barack Obama.

After splitting apart from her longtime companion Tim Robbins in 2009, Sarandon in 2010 began dating 33-year-old Jonathan Bricklin, the son of billionaire Malcolm Bricklin. The couple subsequently separated, but then reunited in 2015.

In 2010-11, Sarandon was a member of Actors and Artists United for the Freedom of the Cuban Five (AAUFCF)—a reference to five constituents of a brutal, KGB-trained Castro spy ring who were serving long prison terms in the U.S. for their convictions on a number of serious crimes. In April 2011, Sarandon and other AAUFCF members sent a letter to former president Jimmy Carter, praising him for speaking out in support of freedom for the Cuban 5. Other signers included Ed Asner, Danny Glover, Mike Farrell, Bonnie Raitt, Pete Seeger, Martin Sheen, and Oliver Stone.[14]

In the fall of 2011 Sarandon supported the anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movemment. “It never changes from the top, it only changes from the bottom, and this is great,” she told an OWS contingent in New York City that September. The following month, Sarandon lauded OWS for striving “to shift the paradigm to something that’s addressing the huge gap between the rich and the poor.”[15]

During a Hamptons International Film Festival interview in October 2011, Sarandon discussed her 1995 film Dead Man Walking, which was based on the anti-death-penalty book by Sister Helen Prejean, a copy of which Sarandon had sent to the late Pope John Paul II. In an effort to clarify that the recipient of the book was in fact John Paul — and not his successor, Benedict XVI — Sarandon said: “The last one, not this Nazi one we have now.” When the interviewer gently reprimanded Sarandon, the actress repeated her remark. (Sarandon was referring to the fact that Benedict had been a member of the Hitler Youth as a child, but only because he was forced to join.)

In 2013 Sarandon signed a letter of support for inmates who were engaged in a hunger strike over the allegedly substandard conditions in the security housing unit (for solitary confinement) at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison in California. The strikers were demanding cleaner facilities, better food, and easier access to the prison library. Prison officials claimed that the hunger strike had “nothing to do with conditions and everything to do with gang leaders wanting to get into the general population so they can more readily conduct their gang business.”

In 2015, Sarandon and Van Jones were among the high-profile individuals who helped New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio draft a new “Progressive Agenda to Combat income Inequality” in America, a 14-point plan that called for massive levels of wealth redistribution.[16]

In the spring of 2015, while in the midst of creating a documentary film about a poor North Carolina teenager who was undergoing a gender transition, Sarandon scoffed at the notion that the political atmosphere in Hollywood is liberal. Claiming that “Hollywood is not political,” she cited Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger as two former movie stars who subsequently became politically influential, “and you don’t get any more right-wing than them.” Sarandon also dismissed the idea that conservatives in Hollywood were at a disadvantage: “Why, because there’s a lot of transgender people in powerful positions?” she said sardonically.

Sarandon embraces the notion that the greenhouse gases associated with human industrial activity are a major cause of potentially catastrophic climate change. In July 2015 she tweeted that “97% of scientists agree, climate change is real and humans are a significant contributor.”

On September 6, 2015, Sarandon participated in an event memorializing her close friend, the late counterculture icon Timothy Leary (1920-96), who was known for advocating the use of psychedelic drugs like LSD, and for promoting the maxim “turn on, tune in, drop out” in the 1960s. The memorial event took place at “Burning Man,” an annual week-long festival held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, where participants promote such values as “radical inclusion,” “radical self-expression,” “radical self-reliance,” and “communal effort.” In the tribute to Leary, Sarandon—who was one of a handful of people who had been given some of the ashes from Leary’s cremated body shortly after his death—led a procession in which she carried those ashes into a temporary church that had recently been erected as an art installation. The festivities concluded with the ceremonial burning of the church, with Leary’s ashes therein. “I think he’d be so happy,” Sarandon said of Leary. “I think he would have loved the chaos [of Burning Man]. He would have loved it. And all these people honoring him with LSD.”

Sarandon believes that the U.S. should take in large numbers of refugees from Syria, despite the fact that it is virtually impossible to properly vet migrants from that war-torn, terrorism-infested nation. In December 2015 Sarandon sought to draw public attention to the issue by spending a week on the Greek island of Lesbos, where she worked with a number of grassroots organizations that were assisting Syrian refugees. “My main goal was to humanize the issue and have them be real people, not politicize it,” Sarandon said when she returned to the U.S. Lamenting that the “people who had the loudest voices” in opposing the importation of Syrians “were the most xenophobic and un-American,” Sarandon recalled her meeting in Lesbos with a sixteen-year-old girl and her five-day-old baby. “I smile and approach her, but without a translator our conversation is basic and friendly,” Sarandon said. “She takes the bundle next to her and opens it up to me. Inside is a perfect, rosy newborn. Wasn’t Mary just a kid too when she and Joseph took to the road? So far, there is no manger for this Syrian baby — no room at the inn.”[17]

In 2016, Sarandon was an outspoken supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. She mocked Sanders’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, for being “a very good Republican candidate,” meaning that Clinton was insufficiently progressive for Sarandon’s taste. Moreover, Sarandon accused Republican nominee Donald Trump of having “legitimized racism and homophobia and everything else, in order to get that very discontented base.” After Sanders lost to Clinton in the Democratic primary, Sarandon endorsed Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. “Fear of Donald Trump is not enough for me to support Clinton, with her record of corruption,” said Sarandon. Further, Sarandon cited nearly a dozen specific reasons why she could not support Clinton, including Clinton’s failure to support the $15 minimum wage, her seemingly neutral stance on marijuana legalization, and her “unconditional” support of Israel’s military engagements.[18]

In August 2017, Sarandon joined approximately 1,000 supporters of National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick in a “United We Stand” demonstration outside the NFL’s headquarters in New York City. The protesters claimed that Kaepernick, who was no longer under contract with any NFL team, was being blackballed by the league because of his political outspokenness. In recent times, he had sparked controversy by kneeling during the playing of the national anthem prior to his team’s games, in protest of what he described as widespread police brutality and racial injustice in America.[19]

On May 31, 2020 — just six days after the death of George Floyd in an altercation with Minneapolis police had had set off a nationwide spree of rioting and arson — Sarandon tweeted in all-capital letters: “DEFUND THE POLICE.”

In a May 26, 2021 tweet, Sarandon wrote: “I stand with the Palestinian People fighting against the apartheid government of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and pray for the Israeli people that they too, will enjoy peace.”

An outspoken opponent of capital punishment, Sarandon in 1995 won an Oscar for her work in the film Dead Man Walking, where she played the role of a nun who sympathized with a convicted killer on death row. Sarandon claims that the death penalty is bad public policy because it is “arbitrary and capricious,” “not a deterrent” “not fair,” and “extremely expensive.” “If that money were put to other use,” she says, “you could have better education and better infrastructure in this country.” Moreover, Sarandon asserts that: “If you’re poor the chance of you getting any kind of decent representation is pretty small. The prison system has become an industry and is pretty racist.”[20]

On February 1, 2022 — just two days after the funeral of murdered New York City police officer Jason Rivera — Sarandon posted a tweet that featured a screenshot of a January 29 tweet from independent journalist Danny Haiphong. The Haiphong tweet showed a photo of the massive procession of NYC cops attending River’s funeral, below a caption that read: “I’m gonna tell my kids this is what fascism looks like.” Another part of Sarandon’s tweet said: “So, if all these cops weren’t needed for CRIME that day, doesn’t that mean they aren’t needed ANY day?”

At daybreak on October 7, 2023 — which was the major Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah — the Islamic terror group Hamas carried out a massive, multi-front, surprise attack against Israel, firing thousands of rockets from Gaza into the Jewish state, while dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the Israeli border in a number of locations by air, land and sea. The attack had been planned in conjunction with officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with agents of three other Iran-sponsored terrorist groups. “In an assault of startling breadth,” reported CBS News, “Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles from the Gaza border. In some places they gunned down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response.” By October 8, at least 600 Israelis had been killed and 1,800 wounded, making it the bloodiest day Jews had experienced since the Holocaust. Moreover, Hamas took more than 240 Israelis hostage, including dozens who were American citizens, and moved them to the Gaza Strip. The terrorists also paraded Israelis’ mutilated bodies in Gaza, to cheering crowds of Palestinians. By October 19, the official casualty toll in Israel had reached more than 1,400 dead (including at least 32 Americans) and 4,500 injured.

On November 4, 2023 in the District of Columbia, Sarandon, condemning Israel’s military response against Hamas, spoke at an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian rally where she placed Hamas’ October 7 attack in the context of an allegedly long line of Israeli transgressions and usurpations. “So many people don’t understand the context in which this October 7 assault happened,” said the actress. “They don’t understand the history of what has been happening to the Palestinian people for 75 years. So this is an opportunity to educate people if they can have an open mind.” “You don’t have to be Palestinian to understand that [Israeli] war crimes are being delivered every single day, according to the UN and other humanitarian groups,” she added. Sarandon also used her X (Twitter) account to post a photo of herself onstage at the rally. “You don’t have to be Palestinian to care about what’s happening in Gaza,” she wrote as a caption to the image. “I stand with Palestine. No one is free until everyone is free.”

On November 17, 2023, Sarandon participated in a large anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian rally in New York City, where the participants waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans like: (a) “From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada!”; (b) “Intifada intifada. Long live the intifada!”; and (c) “We don’t want no two-state, we want 48!” — a reference to the 1948 United Nations Partition Plan which created the modern State of Israel. Sarandon also joined the crowd in chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a slogan implying the permanent and complete destruction of Israel – before addressing the attendees herself. “There are a lot of people that are afraid, that are afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country,” said Sarandon in her address. “It’s important to listen, it’s important to have facts — you don’t have to go through the entire history of that region, you just have to show the babies that are dying in incubators,” she added.

Over the years, Sarandon has made campaign contributions to numerous political candidates, all Democrats. Recipients of her donations have included Tammy BaldwinBarbara BoxerTom HarkinHillary ClintonElizabeth WarrenBill Richardson, Bill Bradley, Howard Dean, Tammy DuckworthJohn EdwardsAl Franken, Harvey Gantt, Kirsten GillibrandTed KennedyBarbara LeeGwen MooreRalph NaderBarack ObamaCharles RangelBernie SandersKen Salazar, and Patty Murray.

Sarandon also has given money to such organizations as America Coming TogetherEMILY’s ListMoveOn Political Action, Progressive Majority, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Green Party of the United States, and Progressive Voters of America.

Footnotes:


  1. Bull Durham — 9 Things You Didn’t Know about the Film” (EW.com, 7-15-2012); “Idolizing a Cop Killer: Susan Sarandon” (UsefulStooges.com).
  2. Actress Susan Sarandon Flies Aid to War-Torn Nicaragua but Denies She’s Fonda Redux” (People, 4-9-1984); Susan Sarandon: Actress-Activist (by Marc Shapiro, 2001).
  3. Whitewash: Racialized Politics and the Media (by John Gabriel, 1998, pp. 89-90); “Susan Sarandon” (Biography.com).
  4. Death Row Inmate Defended by Stars Admits Cop Killing” (The Guardian, 7-9-1999); “One Problem in Abu-Jamal Crusade: He’s Guilty” (Los Angeles Times, 12-21-2001); PrisonRadio.org.
  5. ‘After Trump, Our Turn!’” (Slate.com, 3-29-2016).
  6. Can America Survive? (by Ben Stein & Phil Demuth, 2004, Chapter 2).
  7. Iraq: Antiwar Voices” (Washington Post, 2-13-2003).
  8. Activists Using Internet to Spread Word Against War” (Cause Communications, 2-8-2003); “Anti-Iraq Ad Features Leader of Bush’s Church” (Fox News, 1-31-2003).
  9. Nader 2000 Leaders United To Defeat Bush” (Free Press, 9-14-2004).
  10. Latest Lunacy from Ensler: ‘Vaginas Vote’” (8-18-2004).
  11. Susan Sarandon” (Biography.com).
  12. Hillary’s No Shoo-in with This Crowd” (Los Angeles Times, 4-4-2006).
  13. WWJD in ’08? Ask Sarandon” (NYMag.com, 9-21-2007).
  14. Susan Sarandon” (KeyWiki.org).
  15. Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon Make Appearances at Wall Street Protests” (Hollywood Reporter, 9-27-2011); “Now Susan Sarandon Joins In!” (Daily Mail, 10-21-2011).
  16. The Left Is Eating Itself” (by Daniel Greenfield, 6-21-2015).
  17. Susan Sarandon’s Christmas with Refugees: ‘I Want to Humanise the Issue’” (The Guardian, 12-29-2015).
  18. Susan Sarandon” (Biography.com); “Susan Sarandon Prefers Donald Trump’s Wall to Hillary Clinton’s ‘Moral Judgment’” (by Kipp Jones, 4-28-2016); “Susan Sarandon: Donald Trump ‘Legitimized Racism and Homophobia’” (by Daniel Nussbaum, 5-16-2016); “Susan Sarandon Endorses Jill Stein, Blasts Clinton’s ‘Record of Corruption’” (by Jerome Hudson, 11-2-2016).
  19. Susan Sarandon Joins More Than 1,000 at Kaepernick Rally at NFL Offices” (CBS Sports, 8-24-2017).
  20. Susan Sarandon Fights to Save a Death Row Inmate’s Life” (People, 8-26-2015).

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