Helen Prejean inmates on Death Row and witnessed several more executions. She served as National Chairperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1993 to 1995. She published "Dead Man Walking" (1993), an account of her relationship with Sonnier and other inmates on death row, and the factors related to her growing opposition to the death penalty. The book was adapted for a 1995 feature film of the same name; she was portrayed by Susan Sarandon. Her book was also adapted as an opera, first produced in 2000; and as a play. For her book, she drew from her
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