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 playing Patrice Kahlman and Sarah Fairbanks, respectively. In 1975, she appeared in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". That same year, she also played the female lead in "The Great Waldo Pepper", opposite Robert Redford. She was twice directed by Louis Malle, in "Pretty Baby" (1978) and "Atlantic City" (1981). The latter earned Sarandon her first Academy Award nomination. Her most controversial film appearance was in Tony Scott's "The Hunger" (1983), a modern vampire story in which she had a lesbian sex scene with Catherine Deneuve. She appeared in the comedy-fantasy "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987) alongside Jack Nicholson, Cher, and