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IMDbPro

Chris Sarandon(I)

  • Actor
  • Soundtrack
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,00074
Chris Sarandon
An extensive look at the making of Fright Night (1985) and Fright Night Part 2 (1988) featuring exclusive interviews with cast and crew members, rare photographs, behind-the-scenes footage and more.
Play trailer4:28
You're So Cool, Brewster! The Story of Fright Night (2016)
31 Videos
94 Photos
The handsome, weird and worldly-looking Chris Sarandon has shown his versatility in everything from vampires to Jesus Christ in hypnotic performances that have been controversial but irresistible. He was born Christopher Sarandon, Jr. and raised in Beckley, West Virginia of Greek heritage on both sides (family surname originally Sarondonethes). His mother Cliffie (Cardullias) and father Christopher Sarandon, Sr. were restaurateurs.

As a teen, Chris appeared locally on the musical stage and played drums and sang back-up with a local band called The Teen Tones. His band toured following high school and backed up such music legends as Bobby Darin, Gene Vincent and Danny and the Juniors. Chris later attended West Virginia University majoring in speech, but appearing in such musical productions as "The Music Man" as Harold Hill. He went on to attend the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he received his master's degree in theater and met first wife Susan Sarandon. They married in 1967.

Touring with improv companies and in regional theater productions, he made his professional debut in "The Rose Tattoo" in 1965 and later joined the Long Wharf Theatre Company for a season. The Sarandons moved to New York in 1968, wherein the dark and handsome charmer immediately nabbed the role of Dr. Tom Halverson on the daytime soap Guiding Light (1952), a part that would last two years. Throughout the 1970s he would be rewarded with rich theater acting roles. On Broadway he appeared in "The Rothchilds" and replaced Raul Julia in "Two Gentlemen from Verona" while appearing elsewhere in various Shakespeare and Shaw festivals both here and in Canada.

Chris made a phenomenally successful film debut in a huge, career-risking part as bank robber's Al Pacino's tormented, gender-confused lover in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), earning the New York Film Critics award and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his supporting turn. He took other sordid roles as well, this time in co-leads, such as opposite Margaux Hemingway in the poorly received exploitative thriller Lipstick (1976) and as a demon in the shocker The Sentinel (1977). To avoid being typed as creepy characters, Chris furthered his range of roles in years to come, including the title role in The Day Christ Died (1980), a critically heralded TV-movie. He then received high marks also for his mesmerizing interpretation of two completely different characters with unique subtlety, intelligence, charisma and profoundness as both Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay in A Tale of Two Cities (1980) and co-starred with Goldie Hawn in the more mainstream Protocol (1984). By the end of the 1970's, he and Susan would divorce and he would remarry (model Lisa Ann Cooper).

Moving into 80s work, Chris endeared himself to a younger generation of film goers with memorable performances in enjoyable roles such as the undeniably sexy, magnetic vampire-next-door in the teen horror classic Fright Night (1985), the cruel, evil-plotting prince in Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride (1987) and as the investigating cop in Child's Play (1988), the first in the "Chucky" series about a murdering doll. In recent years Chris has continued steadily on stage, film and TV but at a lesser pace and in less flashy, high-profiled roles.

In 1991 he co-starred on Broadway in the short-lived musical "Nick and Nora" with Joanna Gleason, the daughter of Monty Hall (Let's Make a Deal (1963)). Again divorced, he and Gleason married in 1994 and reunited on stage in "Thorn & Bloom" in 1998. They have also appeared together in a number of films, including American Perfekt (1997), Edie & Pen (1996) and Let the Devil Wear Black (1999). He found frightful fun and a major cartoon niche as the voice of Jack Skellington in the original Disney movie The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), reprising the role in sequels, video games and Halloween special events.

Into the millennium, Chris' focus has been more on Broadway and off-Broadway theatre with flavorful roles in "The Light in the Piazza," "Cyrano de Bergerac," "Through a Glass Darkly and "The Exonerated." In the 2015 production of "Preludes," he played multiple roles that included Chekhov, Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy. He has also sporadically appeared in films with featured parts in Perfume (2001), Loggerheads (2005), My Sassy Girl (2008), a cameo as a vampire victim in a remake of Fright Night (2011), Safe (2012) and Frank the Bastard (2013), Big Stone Gap (2014) and I Smile Back (2015). He has also uplifted a number of popular TV shows with his presence: "ER," "Charmed," "Cold Case," "Judging Amy," "Law and Order," "The Good Wife," "Orange Is the New Black" and as the voice of Dracula in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
BornJuly 24, 1942
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BornJuly 24, 1942
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,00074
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Nominated for 1 Oscar

Photos94

Chris Sarandon, Catherine Hicks, and Alex Vincent in Child's Play (1988)
Chris Sarandon, Catherine Hicks, and Alex Vincent in Child's Play (1988)
Dennis Hopper, Chris Sarandon, Helen Shaver, and Cassie Yates in The Osterman Weekend (1983)
Chris Sarandon in The Osterman Weekend (1983)
Chris Sarandon in The Osterman Weekend (1983)
Dennis Hopper, Chris Sarandon, and Craig T. Nelson in The Osterman Weekend (1983)
Chris Sarandon and Jan Tríska in The Osterman Weekend (1983)
Neil Patrick Harris and Chris Sarandon in Stark Raving Mad (1999)
Chris Sarandon in The Princess Bride (1987)
Brad Dourif and Chris Sarandon in Child's Play (1988)
Chris Sarandon in The Sentinel (1977)
Chris Sarandon and Stephen Geoffreys in Fright Night (1985)

Known for

Danny Elfman and Chris Sarandon in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
7.9
  • Jack Skellington(voice)
  • 1993

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Sofa Shakespeare (2020)
    Sofa Shakespeare
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    • (voice)
  • Kate Mulgrew, Natasha Lyonne, Selenis Leyva, Laura Prepon, Taylor Schilling, Uzo Aduba, Dascha Polanco, and Danielle Brooks in Orange Is the New Black (2013)
    Orange Is the New Black
  • Ming-Na Wen, Scott Adsit, Drake Bell, Anna Graves, Tom Kane, Nolan North, Adrian Pasdar, Laura Bailey, Josh Gad, Kate Higgins, Tiya Sircar, Matt Sloan, Ross Thomas, and Lloyd Floyd in Disney Infinity 3.0 (2015)
    Disney Infinity 3.0
    • (voice)
  • Christopher Randolph in The Sonnet Project (2013)
    The Sonnet Project
  • Sarah Silverman in I Smile Back (2015)
    I Smile Back
  • Whoopi Goldberg, Ashley Judd, Jenna Elfman, Anthony LaPaglia, Jane Krakowski, John Benjamin Hickey, and Patrick Wilson in Big Stone Gap (2014)
    Big Stone Gap
  • Adrian Pasdar, Fred Tatasciore, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Troy Baker, and Roger Craig Smith in Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes (2014)
    Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes
    • (voice)
  • Frank the Bastard (2013)
    Frank the Bastard
  • Disney Infinity (2013)
    Disney Infinity
    • (voice)
  • Jason Statham and Catherine Chan in Safe (2012)
    Safe
  • Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin in Fright Night (2011)
    Fright Night
  • God in America (2010)
    God in America
  • Julianna Margulies in The Good Wife (2009)
    The Good Wife
  • Mira Sorvino, Stockard Channing, Timothy Hutton, and Dana Delany in Multiple Sarcasms (2010)
    Multiple Sarcasms

Soundtrack

  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge (2004)
    The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge
  • Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall, Chris Sarandon, Stephen Geoffreys, William Ragsdale, and Jonathan Stark in Fright Night (1985)
    Fright Night
    • ("Strangers in the Night", uncredited)

Producer

  • Mariel Hemingway, Dennis Hopper, Peter Coyote, and Chris Sarandon in Road Ends (1997)
    Road Ends

Videos31

Chris Sarandon Short Reel
Demo Reel 4:00
Chris Sarandon Short Reel
The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D
Clip 1:48
The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D
The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D
Clip 1:09
The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D
The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D
Clip 1:59
The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D
The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D
Clip 1:42
The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Clip 1:38
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Clip 1:59
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Official Trailer
Trailer 4:28
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 2:17
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:02
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 2:02
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:34
Trailer

Personal details

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    • memmo.me
    • July 24, 1942
    • Beckley, West Virginia, USA
    • Joanna GleasonJuly 22, 1994 - present
  • Other works
    "The Light in the Piazza," original musical; book by Craig Lucas; music and lyrics by Adam Guettel; based on the novel by Elizabeth Spencer; music orchestrated by Ted Sperling and Adam Guettel; additional orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin; musical direction by Ted Sperling; directed by Bartlett Sher; musical staging by Jonathan Butterell; with Chris Sarandon (portraying Signor Naccarelli, Fabrizio's father).
  • Publicity listings
    • 2 Interviews
    • 1 Article
    • 1 Pictorial
    • 2 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    First wife Susan Sarandon got her big break when Chris brought her along on an audition.
  • Quotes
    Being on stage is a seductive lifestyle. My advice to aspiring actors is think twice. People sometimes go into acting for the wrong reasons - as a shortcut to fame and fortune. If these goals are not attained, they feel a bitter disappointment. Acting should be an end in itself.
    • Often plays doctors

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