Tag: Chris Sarandon

July 24, 1942: Actor Chris Sarandon, Jr. Born in Beckley

Actor Chris Sarandon Jr. was born in Beckley on July 24, 1942. He graduated from Beckley’s Woodrow Wilson High School and from West Virginia University with a degree in theater.

While earning his master’s degree from Catholic University, he met and married Susan Tomalin, who later became famous as actress Susan Sarandon. Since 1994, he’s been married to actress Joanna Hall Gleason.

Chris Sarandon has a lengthy screen and stage resume. His films include Fright Night, The Princess Bride, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, in which he voiced the lead character of Jack Skellington. In 1976, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and a Best Acting Debut Golden Globe Award for his memorable performance in the film Dog Day Afternoon, with Al Pacino. In 1980, Sarandon starred as Jesus Christ in the television movie The Day Christ Died. He’s also appeared on the TV shows Judging Amy, Felicity, and ER.

More recently, he’s been in a number of Broadway productions, including The Light in the Piazza and in Cyrano de Bergerac, along with West Virginia native Jennifer Garner.

Actor Chris Sarandon Returns to WVU for Staged Reading

Notable actor and Beckley-native Chris Sarandon will be in Morgantown this week presenting a play to the public, for free …about physical and sexual abuse.

The play Not Someone Like Me is a collection of monologues about the real experiences of physically and sexually assaulted women, and how they deal with life afterwards. Sarandon explains, it’s meant to be read and performed to benefit rape crisis centers. He’s been working for several years with his friend and the playwright Susan Rice to develop the show.

“Susan actually approached me and said, I’d love for you to direct this. I said, ‘Oh Susan, shouldn’t it be a woman?’ And she said, ‘No, actually, the audience of the play should be men,’” Sarandon remembered.

This week’s readings at West Virginia University will be the college premiere of the show. Sarandon is the first College of Creative Arts alumnus to take part in the college’s new Alumni Residency Series, during which alumni of the schools of art and design, music, and theatre and dance are returning to work with students. The cast will include students and faculty members from the School of Theatre and Dance.

The staged readings will take place Sept. 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Creative Arts Center’s Antoinette Falbo Theatre. Following each performance, Sarandon and the cast will also take part in a “talk back” with the program coordinator for WVU’s Sexual Assault Prevention Program.

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