Bullock was born in Arlington County, Virginia, to John Bullock (a Pentagon contractor and part-time vocal coach from Alabama) and Helga Meyer (a German opera singer who died of cancer on April 4, 2000); her maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg. Bullock frequently traveled with her mother on her opera tours, and lived in Germany and other parts of Europe for much of her childhood. She studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, taking small parts in her mother's opera productions, and later attended Washington-Lee High School, where her graduating class voted her "Most Likely to Brighten up Your Day".
Bullock majored in drama at East Carolina University. She left university during the spring semester of her senior year in order to pursue acting in New York City; Bullock had been only three credits short of graduating, and later received an honorary degree. In New York City, Bullock had difficulty establishing herself in the theater community, and eventually took a job as a waitress.
Bullock subsequently moved to Los Angeles, California, and was cast in a series of small roles in several independent films as well as in the lead role of the television version of the film Working Girl. One of Bullock's first notable movie appearances was in Demolition Man (1993), which led to her breakthrough performance in Speed the following year. She became a high-level movie star in the late 1990s, carrying a string of successes, including While You Were Sleeping (she replaced actress Demi Moore, who was originally scheduled to star), Miss Congeniality and Two Weeks Notice.
She has been selected as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1996 and 1999, and has also been ranked #58 in Empire magazine's Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list.
Bullock runs her own production company, Fortis Films; her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado,[1] is vice-president of the company. Bullock tried to produce a film based on F.X. Toole's short story Million-Dollar Baby, but couldn't interest studios in a female boxing drama.[2] The story was eventually made as the Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby (2004).
In 2005, Bullock had a supporting role in the film Crash. She received positive reviews for her performance, with some critics suggesting that it was the best performance of her career. Bullock's latest film is The Lake House, a romantic drama also starring her Speed co-star, Keanu Reeves; it was released on June 16, 2006. Because their film characters are separated throughout the film (due the plot revolving around time travel), Bullock and Reeves were only on set together for two weeks during filming.[3] Bullock will next appear in Infamous, in which she will play author Harper Lee; Bullock will also play author Grace Metalious, who was best known for the controversial novel Peyton Place, in an upcoming film.
Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James on July 16, 2005; they met when Bullock arranged for her ten-year-old godson to meet James as a Christmas present. On her husband and her marriage, Bullock has commented "So basically through a courtship of letters... I learned about a human being. It was not something I wanted, needed, or looked for, but because he was a stronger person than I was, spiritually and on a tolerance level, I was lucky enough that he educated me... I always thought of marriage as a death sentence, that there'd be a ball and chain, and you'd be told, 'You need to stop doing these things and become a good little wife.'" Now, "People say, 'Oh, my God, you're going to have sex with one person the rest of your life.' I hope I have sex with him for the rest of my life, because I like it!"[4] Bullock was once engaged to actor Tate Donovan, and had previously dated football player Troy Aikman, blues guitarist Guy Forsythe, Austin musician Bob Schneider and film co-stars, Ryan Gosling and Matthew McConaughey.
When the September 11th, 2001 attacks occurred, Bullock was staying at the Soho Grand hotel, twelve blocks from the World Trade Center. She saw the attacks from her hotel bedroom window, and went to a nearby hospital to offer help. As all phone lines in New York City were down, she spent the rest of the day using her Palm Pilot to send e-mails on behalf of patients wanting to contact their families.[5]
Bullock has twice donated $1 million 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.
In October 2004, Bullock won a multi-million-dollar judgment in a lawsuit against Benny Daneshjou, the builder of her Lake Austin, Texas, mansion; the jury ruled that the house was uninhabitable and it has since been torn down.
