An Oscar-nominated screen siren who acted in some of the best-remembered movies of the 1990s is unrecognizable in her yearbook photos.
Over the last decade of the 20th century, she acted alongside the top leading men in the industry and was directed by the crème de la crème of world cinema.
But in the 1970s, she was a normal student at the Saegertown Area Junior/Senior High School in western Pennsylvania.
Throwback photos show her as a sophomore at the language arts club and the YCMA-affiliated Tri-Hi-Y club all the way back in 1973.
One snapshot taken in her senior year offers an early glimpse of the career that made her famous around the world – a picture of her in the dramatics club.
Can you guess who she is?
A Hollywood star who acted in some of the best-remembered movies of the 1990s is unrecognizable in her yearbook photos; pictured in her eighth grade portrait in 1971
The photos show the young Sharon Stone, years before she emerged as the reigning Hollywood sex symbol of the 1990s.
She became an instant superstar in the 1992 erotic thriller Basic Instinct, directed by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, in which she played opposite Michael Douglas.
Three years later, she was appearing alongside Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s Casino – the film that landed her an Oscar nod for best actress.
But even fans would be hard-pressed to guess her identity by looking at her yearbook photos from her early years in Pennsylvania.
One especially adorable shot dates back to 1970, when she was a 12-year-old girl entering seventh grade at the school she would remain at until 12th grade.
By her freshman year of high school, her school portrait showed her with a shorter hairdo that was fashionable in the early 1970s.
Three years later, when she entered her senior year, she had switched from her natural brunette hair to the blonde look that later became one of her trademarks as a celebrity.
However her smiling, cheerful appearance in her yearbook pictures masks a childhood that was at times rocked by trauma.
The photos show the young Sharon Stone, years before she emerged as the reigning Hollywood sex symbol of the 1990s; pictured at this year’s Golden Globes
But in the 1970s, she was a normal student at the Saegertown Area Junior/Senior High School in western Pennsylvania; pictured in her junior year photo in 1974
One especially adorable shot goes back to 1970, when she was a 12-year-old girl entering seventh grade at the school she would remain at until 12th grade
By her freshman year of high school, her school portrait showed her with a shorter hairdo that was fashionable in the early 1970s
Even fans would be hard-pressed to guess her identity by looking at her yearbook photos from her early years in Pennsylvania; pictured in her 10th grade portrait
When she entered her senior year, she had switched from her natural brunette hair to the blonde look that became one of her trademarks as a star
At the tender age of 14, she suffered a gruesome neck injury when she was bucked by a horse she was attempting to break.
‘My neck was hanging open, wet and ripped from one ear to the other. There was plasma rolling down the front of my shirt,’ she wrote in her memoir The Beauty Of Living Twice, which was published in 2021.
In the same autobiography, she revealed that her maternal grandfather molested both her and her younger sister Kelly when they were children.
He died when Sharon was 14, and she has recalled the ‘bizarre satisfaction’ of ‘poking’ at his corpse in the casket and and realizing she was now safe from him.
Shortly after Sharon graduated high school, she won Miss Crawford County and was a contestant for Miss Pennsylvania, which launched her into modeling.
Throwback photos show her as a sophomore at the language arts club, where she is pictured serving as secretary (left) alongside the treasurer (right)
She is also pictured (center) in a picture with fellow members of the YCMA-affiliated Tri-Hi-Y club all the way back in 1973, when she was a sophomore
One snapshot taken in her senior year offers an early glimpse of the career that made her famous around the world – a picture of her (back row middle) in the dramatics club
By 1980, she had made her onscreen debut as an extra, and by the 1990 she landed her breakthrough role in Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall.
Two years later, she became an internationally famous face in Basic Instinct and spent the rest of the 1990s as one of the most recognized actresses in the world.
Now 66, the Hollywood icon cheekily shared the two things she never does anymore, thanks to the warnings of a famous writer, via the Times Of London.
Legendary romance novelist Jackie Collins – sister of Joan Collins – had advised Sharon to ‘never get on top’ during sex and ‘never wave goodbye’ after age 40.
‘My underarms have pleats now,’ she joked. ‘I think: “Well, I had beautiful arms and now they’re strong and painting… and like angel wings.” So what if they have pleats? Maybe that’s what makes them wonderful now.’
