Whoopi Goldberg

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Whoopi Goldberg
Born
Caryn Elaine Johnson
Height5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Spouse(s)Lyle Trachtenberg (October 1, 1994 - October 1995) (divorced)
David Claessen (September 1, 1986 - October 1988) (divorced)
Alvin Martin (1973 - 1979) (divorced) 1 child

Whoopi Goldberg (born Caryn Elaine Johnson, November 13, 1955),[1] is an American comedian, film actress and radio DJ.

Goldberg is one of only a few individuals (including Barbra Streisand, Mel Brooks, Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn and Helen Hayes) who have won an Academy Award, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy. She also is the second African American female performer to win an Academy Award for acting (the first being Hattie McDaniel), and she has also won a Golden Globe for her supporting role in Ghost.

Biography

Caryn Elaine Johnson was born on November 13, 1955 (although many sources list 1949 or 1950[citation needed]), in the Chelsea Projects of New York City. Later in life, a DNA test would trace her ancestry to the Papel and Bayote peoples of Guinea-Bissau.[2] Raised by a single white woman, Caryn and her older brother, Clyde K. Johnson, found themselves in harsh conditions. Her father's name was Robert James Johnson, who died on May 25, 1993. An outlet for Caryn was performing with the Children's Program at the Hudson Guild Community Center as well as the Helena Rubenstein Children's Theatre. Due to her reading and writing deficiency, the 14 year-old dropped out of high school.[citation needed] Later, she would discover that she had dyslexia.

In the 1970s she worked odd jobs as a bricklayer, funeral make-up artist, and garbageman. During this time, she became a drug addict.[citation needed] She entered drug rehabilitation in early 1973 and after completing a program, became romantically involved with Alvin Martin, her drug counselor. They married and had a baby girl, Alex Dean. However, they separated soon after, and at age 18[citation needed], Johnson became a single mother. With her daughter, she moved to the west coast to pursue an acting career. Over the next ten years, Johnson worked around the area as a stand-up comedian and occasional actress, appearing in the movie Angel Heart under the name Viola Dunbar.[citation needed] She also changed her name to "Whoopi Goldberg."

Her stage name was taken from "whoopie cushion", which she initially wanted as her name, but chose the last moniker of Goldberg after her mother pointed out that her initial name pick would not look dignified enough to take seriously. According to an 2006 interview, she stated that, "If you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from."[3] Her name has also been used in reference to a beauty treatment offered in some new age spas. "Getting the Goldberg" involves a procedure in which the eyebrows are completely removed, and the face is gently buffed with a thin layer of wax.

The Color Purple

Whoopi Goldberg performing stand-up at a benefit for Rainforest Action Network.

Goldberg created "The Spook Show", a one-woman show devised of different character monologues, in 1983. Director Mike Nichols was instantly impressed and offered to bring the show to Broadway. The self-titled show ran from October 24, 1984 to March 10, 1985 for a total of 156 sold-out performances. While performing on Broadway, Goldberg's performance caught the eye of director Steven Spielberg. He was about to direct the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple written by Alice Walker. Having read the novel, she was ecstatic at being offered a lead role in her first motion picture. She later stated, that "I would have taken any role in that movie — including dirt on a venetian rug."[citation needed] Goldberg received compliments on her acting from Spielberg, Walker, and music consultant Quincy Jones, and became a bona-fide movie star.[citation needed]The Color Purple was released in the winter of 1985 and was a critical and commercial success. It was later nominated for 11 Academy Awards including a nomination for Goldberg as Best Leading Actress. The movie did not win any of its Academy Award nominations, but Goldberg won the Golden Globe for Best Lead Actress.

A Comedic and Dramatic Balance 1986-2007

Goldberg starred in Penny Marshall's directorial debut, 1986's Jumpin' Jack Flash, and she began a relationship with David Claessen, a director of photography on the set, and the couple married later that year. The movie was a success and during the next two years three additional motion pictures featured Goldberg, Burglar, Fatal Beauty, and The Telephone. Though not as successful as her prior motion pictures, Goldberg still garnered awards from the N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards. Claessen and Goldberg divorced after the box office failure of The Telephone which Goldberg was under contract to star in. She tried to sue the producers but with no luck. The 1988 movie, Clara's Heart, was critically acclaimed and featured a young Neil Patrick Harris. As the 1980s concluded, she participated in the numerous HBO specials of Comic Relief with fellow comedians Robin Williams and Billy Crystal.

In January 1990 Goldberg starred with Jean Stapleton in the TV situation comedy Baghdad Cafe. The show ran for two seasons on CBS. Simultaneously, Goldberg starred in The Long Walk Home, portraying a woman in the Civil Rights Movement. She played a psychic in the 1990 film Ghost, and became the first African-American female to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in nearly 40 years.[citation needed] Premiere Magazine named her character, Oda Mae Brown, the 95th best movie character of all time.[4]

Goldberg then starred in Soapdish and had a recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Guinan which she would reprise in two Star Trek movies. On May 29, 1992, Sister Act was released. The motion pictured grossed well over $100 million dollars and Goldberg won a Golden Globe. [citation needed] Next, she starred in Sarafina!. During the next year, she hosted a late-night talk show, The Whoopi Goldberg Show and starred in two more motion pictures Made In America and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. A relationship with Made in America co-star Ted Danson would last for a year. From 1994 to 1995, Whoopi appeared in Corrina, Corrina, The Lion King (voice), The Pagemaster, Boys on the Side, and Moonlight and Valentino. Goldberg also became the first female and the first African-American to host the Academy Awards in 1994[citation needed]. She hosted the Awards again in 1996, 1999, and 2002. "The Year of Whoopi," as referred to by fans[citation needed], coincided with the release of four motion pictures in 1996: Bogus (with Gerard Depardieu and Haley Joel Osment), Eddie, The Associate (with Dianne Wiest) and Ghosts of Mississippi (with Alec Baldwin and James Woods). The latter two movies won multiple awards. [citation needed]. During the filming of Eddie, Goldberg began dating co-star Frank Langella, a relationship which lasted until early 2000.

Goldberg wrote Book in October 1997, a collection featuring insights and opinions about her life. In August 2005, Goldberg announced that she would be reviving her one-woman show on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in honor of its 20th anniversary.

From 1998 to 2001, Goldberg took supporting roles in the Angela Bassett vehicle How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Kingdom Come. She also starred in the successful ABC versions of Cinderella, A Knight in Camelot, and the TNT Original Movie, Call Me Claus. In 2003, Goldberg returned to television starring in the NBC comedy, Whoopi. It was canceled after one season due to low ratings. On her 48th birthday, Goldberg was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. During the next two years, she became a spokeswoman for Slim Fast and produced two television sitcoms: Lifetime's original drama Strong Medicine which ran for six seasons and Whoopi's Littleburg, a Nickelodeon show for younger children. She also produced the Noggin sitcom Just For Kicks, in early 2006.

On the radio

The radio program Wake Up With Whoopi premiered in 2006. In August 2006, after multiple disruptions of her radio show by the fanbase of the Opie and Anthony Show, Goldberg had a good-natured on-air discussion with the "shock jocks," which quelled any possible "war" between the two shows.[citation needed]

Although her mother was a Protestant preacher, Goldberg says that her family is of mixed religious heritage — including Buddhist and Jewish traditions [citation needed], hailing from a "West Indian" immigrant community. Although she has a religious family heritage, she does not consider herself in any religious denomination.

Her catch phrase is "honey child, please."

Awards

Goldberg has received two Academy Award nominations (The Color Purple and Ghost) winning one. She has received five Daytime Emmy nominations, winning one. She has received five Emmy nominations. She has received three Golden Globe nominations, winning two. She has won one Grammy Award in 1986. She also won a Tony Award as a producer of the Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. She has won three People's Choice Awards. In 1999, she received the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Vanguard Award for her continued work in supporting the gay and lesbian community. She has been nominated for five American Comedy Awards with two wins. In 2001, she won the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center Awards.

Goldberg is one of few individuals to win an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony, and an Emmy. She has starred in over 150 films, and during a period in the 1990s, Whoopi became the highest-paid actress of all time. Her humanitarian efforts should also be noted as she recently reunited with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams for the 20th Anniversary of Comic Relief. She is the first African American woman to win a Golden Globe award,[citation needed] followed by Halle Berry and recently, Jennifer Hudson.

Other Media Appearances

Goldberg hosted a short "Peanuts" documentary called, "The Making Of A Charlie Brown Christmas" (2001).

In July 2006, Goldberg became the main host of the Universal Studios Hollywood Backlot Tour, in which she appears multiple times in video clips shown to the guests on monitors placed on the trams.

  • Lack of eyebrows is one of her trademarks.[5]

Filmography

TV work

She has made numerous guest appearances on Sesame Street, and guest hosting Live with Regis and Kelly.

Awards won

  • Grammy Award - Whoopi, Direct from Broadway (1985)
  • National Board of Review - The Color Purple (1985, Best lead actress)
  • Golden Globe - The Color Purple (1986, Best lead actress)
  • Image Award - The Color Purple (1988, Outstanding lead actress)
  • Image Award - Fatal Beauty (1990, Outstanding lead actress)
  • Academy Award - Ghost (1991, Best supporting actress)
  • Golden Globe - Ghost (1991, Best supporting actress)
  • Saturn Award - Ghost (1991, Best supporting actress)
  • Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award - Ghost (1991, Best supporting actress)
  • Image Award - Ghost (1992, Outstanding lead actress)
  • American Comedy Award - Ghost (1991, Funniest supporting actress)
  • Bafta Award - Ghost (1991, Best supporting actress)
  • Image Award - Special Award, Entertainer of the Year 1992
  • Aftonbladet TV Prize, Sweden (1992, Best Foreign TV personality)
  • Image Award - The Long Walk Home (1993, Outstanding lead actress)
  • American Comedy Award - Sister Act (1993, Funniest lead actress)
  • People's Choice Awards - Favorite Comedy Motion Picture Actress (1993)
  • People's Choice Awards - Favorite Motion Picture Actress (1993)
  • Hastings Pudding Theatricals (1993, Woman of the Year)
  • Image Award - Sister Act (1994, Outstanding lead actress)
  • People's Choice Awards - Favorite Comedy Motion Picture Actress (1994)
  • People's Choice Awards - Favorite Comedy Motion Picture Actress (1995)
  • Fantafestival - Theodore Rex (1996, Best Actress)
  • Image Award - How Stella got her groove back (1999, Outstanding supporting actress)
  • Walk of Fame - Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame (2001, Motion Picture)
  • Tony Award - Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002, Best Musical, Producer)
  • Gracie Allen Awards - Strong Medicine (2003, Producer)
  • Daytime Emmy - Beyond Tara: The extraordinary life of Hattie Mcdaniel (2002, Outstanding special class special)
  • Image Award - Good Fences (2004, Outstanding Actress in a TV movie, Mini-series or Dramatic special)
  • MVP of the 2003 Kinko's Celebrity Softball Game

Discography

See also

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Whoopi Goldberg.
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  1. ^ Many sources indicate 1949 as her year of birth. However, this is thought to be because of her trying to appear older early in her career, to get better roles as she dropped out of high school at an early age. All recent sources, including New York birth records and Goldberg herself, say that 1955 is correct.
  2. ^ canada.com. "Tiny West cheeseheads nation tries to lay claim to Whoopi Goldberg." AP, 8 February 2007.
  3. ^ Interview, August 20, 2006 Sunday New York Times Magazine
  4. ^ http://www.premiere.com/article.asp?section_id=6&article_id=1539&page_number=12
  5. ^ according to IMDB
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