Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), better known by her stage name Whoopi Goldberg, is an American actress, comedian, writer, social critic, and television host. She has been
nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television, and is one of the few entertainers who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. She was the second black woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win an acting Oscar.
Goldberg was born in Manhattan and raised in the Chelsea-Elliot Houses, the daughter of Emma Johnson (née Harris; September 21, 1931 – August 29, 2010),[3] a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson Jr. (March 4, 1930 – May 25, 1993), a clergyman.[4][5]Most sources give her birth year as 1955, but some, like a New York Times article from 1984,[6] cite her year of birth as 1949. Goldberg has described her mother as a "stern, strong, and wise woman" who raised her as a single mother[7] with her brother Clyde (1949 – May 11, 2015[8]). Her recent forebears migrated north from Faceville, Georgia, Palatka, Florida, and Virginia.
nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television, and is one of the few entertainers who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. She was the second black woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win an acting Oscar.
Goldberg was born in Manhattan and raised in the Chelsea-Elliot Houses, the daughter of Emma Johnson (née Harris; September 21, 1931 – August 29, 2010),[3] a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson Jr. (March 4, 1930 – May 25, 1993), a clergyman.[4][5]Most sources give her birth year as 1955, but some, like a New York Times article from 1984,[6] cite her year of birth as 1949. Goldberg has described her mother as a "stern, strong, and wise woman" who raised her as a single mother[7] with her brother Clyde (1949 – May 11, 2015[8]). Her recent forebears migrated north from Faceville, Georgia, Palatka, Florida, and Virginia.
Goldberg dropped out of Washington Irving High School.She worked as a phone sex operator, working from home at night.[13]
Her stage name, Whoopi, was taken from a whoopee cushion; she has 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.The name Goldberg is an alternative family name which she says she chose to use to be taken more seriously.
According to an anecdote told by Nichelle Nichols in the documentary film Trekkies (1997), a young Goldberg was watching Star Trek, and upon seeing Nichols' character Uhura, exclaimed, "Momma! There's a black lady on TV and she ain't no maid!"[17] This spawned lifelong fandom of Star Trek for Goldberg, who would eventually ask for and receive a recurring guest-starring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Between the years of 1979 and 1981, she lived in East Germany, working in a number of theater productions. During her travels, she would smuggle various items into the country for the artists she stayed with.
Her breakthrough role was playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South in the period drama film The Color Purple(1985), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Goldberg played Oda Mae Brown, an eccentric psychichelping a slain man (Patrick Swayze) save his lover (Demi Moore), in the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990), for which she won theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was co-producer of the television game show Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2002. She has been the moderator of the daytime television talk show The View since 2007.
THROWBACKTHISDAY; makes it 60 years and TBT Blog wishes her a happy birthday.
No comments:
Post a Comment