Sharon Stone was born on March 10, 1958 in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Highly intelligent in addition to being a local beauty pageant queen, she won a scholarship to Pennsylvania's Edinboro University when she was 15. After studying creative writing and fine arts, she decided to pursue a modeling career, and, after moving to New York, she signed on with the Eileen Ford agency. Sharon became a successful model by the late 1970s, appearing in print and television ads for Clairol, Revlon, and Diet Coke.

In 1980, Sharon branched out into acting, making her screen debut in "Stardust Memories". Following this role, she spent the 1980s appearing in one forgettable film after another, often cast as the stereotypical blonde bimbo.
Sharon finally got a break in 1990, when she appeared as Arnold Schwarzenegger's kickboxing secret agent wife in "Total Recall". Any recognition she gained for that role, however, was more than eclipsed by the notoriety she earned for her starring turn in "Basic Instinct". The 1992 film, in which Stone portrayed a bisexual author/sexual adventurer who may or may not be a serial killer, did her a huge favor by making her a star, but also a sizable disservice by further typecasting her in blonde seductress roles. Sharon's subsequent effort, the erotic thriller "Sliver" (1993), was an example of this: the actress attracted notice less for her acting than for her willingness to simulate masturbation. Her role in "The Specialist" (1994) was also fairly limiting, an action flick co-starring Sylvester Stallone, it called for Sharon to run around in a tight dress in heels when she wasn't seducing various characters.

In 1995, Sharon Stone managed to break into the "serious actress" arena with her performance in Martin Scorsese's "Casino". Cast as an ex-prostitute, she won an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for her work. Sharon branched out further that same year with "The Quick and the Dead", a revisionist western directed by Sam Raimi in which she starred as a tough-talking, hard-drinking broad bent on revenge. Unfortunately, the film was a relative flop, as were here subsequent 1996 films, "Diabolique", a remake of the 1954 French film, and "Last Dance", a drama that featured Sharon as a woman on death row. By this point winning more notice for her off-screen role as an arbiter of fashion and old-school Hollywood glamour than for her on-screen acting work, Stone next lent her voice to the animated "Antz" in 1998. The film proved to be a success, unlike the actress's other projects that year, the sci-fi thriller "Sphere" and "The Mighty". The latter film, which Sharon produced as well as starred in, was a heartfelt story about two adolescent misfits, although it did win a number of positive reviews, audiences largely stayed away from it. The same couldn't be said of her next film, a 1999 remake of "Gloria". Not only did audiences stay away from it, critics savaged it with vituperative glee. Never one to let a bad review get her down, Sharon soon rebounded, receiving a more positive reception for her performance in "The Muse" and starring as Nick Nolte's long-suffering wife in "Simpatico".

Misspellings & aliases:
Sheron, Sharron, Sherron, Sharone, Sharonn, Sharonne, Sherone, Stoun, Stoune, Stonn, Stonne, Stoen, Stoenne, Stoenn, Steun.