Helen Prejean her best-selling book, "Dead Man Walking" (1993), based on her experiences with two convicts on Death Row for whom she served as spiritual adviser before their executions. In her book, she explored the effects of the death penalty on everyone involved. The book was adapted as a 1995 film of the same name, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. It was also adapted as an opera, first produced in 2000 by the San Francisco Opera. Helen Prejean was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the daughter of Augusta Mae (née Bourg; 1911–1993), a nurse, and Louis Sebastian Prejean (1893–1974), a lawyer.
Susan Sarandon Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Tomalin, better known as Susan Sarandon (born October 4, 1946) is an American actress and activist. She has received an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards and nine Golden Globe Awards. She is known for her social and political activism for a variety of causes. She was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award in 2006. Sarandon began her career in the 1970 film "Joe", before appearing in the soap opera "A