Trivia

By starring in The Blind Side (2009) she became the only actress to date to have a film marketed with her name solely above the title (i.e. based on her star power alone, and not a franchise or tent pole picture) pass the $200 million mark in domestic gross.

Known for her generous donations, she donated $1 million to the American Red Cross after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Did the same, again donating $1 million to the Red Cross, after the tsunami disaster in Asia in 2004. She again donated $1 million, this time to Doctors Without Borders, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Lived briefly in Vienna and Salzburg, Austria as a child.

Says she has been "deathly afraid of flying" since surviving a plane crash in Wyoming in 2000 when her jet missed the runway and it sustained major damage.

Her father has been her manager since 1996.

Wrote and performed her own song "Heaven Knocking On My Door" in The Thing Called Love (1993).

Lived in Nuremberg, Germany until the age of 12, where her mother performed at the Staatstheater Nürnberg.

When she "won" the Razzie Award as Worst Actress for All About Steve (2009), Bullock became one of the few in the awards' 30 year history to accept the $4.97 dis-honor in person.

Her parents met in Nüremberg, Germany, while her father was doing a civil work for the Pentagon and her mother was his secretary.

Is one of four actresses to win both, the Oscar for Best Actress and the Razzie for Worst Actress, along with Halle Berry, Faye Dunaway and Liza Minnelli. Bullock is the only one to be nominated for and win both awards in the same year (for The Blind Side (2009) and All About Steve (2009)). She was presented with the awards within two days in 2010.

She holds German and American citizenship and can speak fluent English and German.

Voted "Most Likely to Brighten Up Your Day" by her high school class.

Revealed in People magazine in April 2010 that she started to adopt a one-week-old baby boy, named Louis Bardo Bullock, from New Orleans in January 2010. Initially began adoption proceedings with husband Jesse James before they split in April 2010 and going on to adopt Louis as a single parent after they divorced.

Her maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg, Germany.

Said that if she had not been an actress, she would have been a romantic novelist.

Can dance flamenco, salsa and tango.

Was a gymnast and cheerleader in high school.

Uses the ancient Chinese technique of acupuncture as a form of weight loss.

She replaced Demi Moore in While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Used to reside in the same Los Angeles apartment where actor Ashton Kutcher resided when he moved to Los Angeles. He found out because he used to get her mail.

Has designed special seat-belts so her pet dogs, Ruby and Poppy, can ride safely in her car. (April 8, 2009)

Would not do the Speed (1994) sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), after knowing that Keanu Reeves had passed on it, but accepted it in a deal with 20th Century Fox in which they would endorse her upcoming movie, Hope Floats (1998).

Adopted baby boy named Louis Bardot Bullock from New Orleans, Louisiana (April 2010)

She loves horses, but is extremely allergic to them.

Has directed only one movie, Making Sandwiches (1998) (which she also wrote). Bullock said in a Reader's Digest interview that she directed the film to "educate herself" about directing and came away concluding that while she enjoys producing and acting, she does not have the talent to "lead" a movie by being a director.

Attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina (1982-1986).

Miss Congeniality (2000) was filmed in her home city of Austin, Texas.

Her performance in the off-Broadway play "No Time Flat" got her an agent and a very important audition. The audition was for Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989), and theatre critic John Simon also praised her performance. (1988)

Her father, John W. Bullock (1925-2018), a voice coach, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, to Jesse Burch Bullock and Mary LaBlanche Wilson, of German descent. Her mother, Helga Bullock (née Helga Mathilde Meyer; 1942-2000), an opera singer and voice teacher, was German, and was born in Nuremberg, Germany, to Eugen Meyer and Elisabeth Wilhelmine Böhnert.

Donated the dress she wore, for the Practical Magic (1998) premiere, to be auctioned at Charity Auction at eBay in benefit of the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade. (October 2001)

Received the scar on her head when she fell into a lake and cut her head on a rock.

Took her parents to the While You Were Sleeping (1995), Practical Magic (1998) and Forces of Nature (1999) premieres.

Good friends with Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Aniston, Renée Zellweger, Octavia Spencer, Samantha Mathis, Heidi Klum, George Clooney, Keanu Reeves, Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum.

Played the piano since she was age 8.

Sandra and her husband, Jesse James, were unhurt after a head-on crash with a drunken driver in Massachusetts on April 18, 2008. Both vehicles were totaled but no one was hurt.

As a child, she was bullied in school for wearing frumpy clothes bought in Germany.

Spent time at a Rehabilitation Clinic to research her role in 28 Days (2000).

Has a house on Tybee Island, Georgia.

Is one of 14 actors to win the Academy Award for playing a real-life person who was still alive on the evening of the award ceremony for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side (2009).

Introduced to salsa by Robert Duvall.

Hates musicals and vows to never participate in one.

Shared her house with her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, while she was attending law school. (1995)

Her younger sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, broke Sandy's nose with her elbow while opening a garage door when they were kids.

After college, she moved to New York to waitress.

Earned a diving certification before shooting Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) (1996).

She has appeared in four films that have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Crash (2004), The Blind Side (2009), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) and Gravity (2013). Crash won in the category.

Canceled her appearances at the British and German movie premiere of The Blind Side (2009), in the wake of model Michelle McGee's claims that she had an affair with Bullock's husband, Jesse James, while she was working on the set of The Blind Side (2009). After she backed out of the premieres, both events were canceled as a red carpet event. (March 2010)

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on March 24, 2005.

Was jokingly thrown in a pool by George Clooney and Tom Cruise at Joel Schumacher's birthday party in 2000. She talked to InStyle magazine about this story in 2005 and also mentioned it in her Oscar acceptance speech in 2010.

Owns a house in Austin, Texas where she filmed some scenes in Miss Congeniality (2000).