Happy 48th Birthday Sandra Bullock! See Her Life In Photos

By:Radar Staff

July 26 2012, Published 10:30 a.m. ET

By Leah Ornstein - RadarOnline.com Features Editor

It’s hard to believe that Sandra Bullock is closing in on 50!

The Academy Award winning actress, who has been an international star since the 1994 hit film Speed, is celebrating her 48th birthday Thursday, and RadarOnline.com is honoring America’s sweetheart with photos of her life in the public eye!

Raised in the suburbs of Washington D.C., Sandra started snagging roles in the early 1990s in films such as Demolition Man and The Thing Called Love before landing the career-changing lead in Speed opposite Keanu Reeves.

Article continues below advertisement

Often considered Hollywood’s “girl next door”, Sandra spent the next decade appearing in blockbuster films like Miss Congeniality, A Time to Kill, Two Weeks Notice and Crash and dating hunks like Tate Donovan, Ryan Gosling and Matthew McConaughey.

In 2004, Sandy shocked her fans when she started dating Monster Garage bad boy Jesse James, tying the knot with the tatted up biker a year later.

A frontrunner for the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in The Blind Side, 2010 seemed like it was going to be the best year of Sandy’s life. After secretly adopting an adorable baby boy, Louis Bardo, Sandra was on top of the world as she accepted her Oscar, gushing over James from the stage – so the world was shocked weeks later when it was revealed that the bad boy had been cheating on Bullock with a bevvy of women.