Whoopi Goldberg was born as Caryn Elaine Johnson on November 13, 1955 in New York City and raised in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. She is the daughter of Emma (née Harris), a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson, Jr., a clergyman. Her stage name, Whoopi, was taken from 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. She adopted the traditionally German/Jewish surname Goldberg as a stage name because her mother felt the original surname of Johnson was not "Jewish enough" to make her a star.
While on Broadway performing The Spook Show, Goldberg's performance caught the eye of director Steven Spielberg. He was about to direct the film The Color Purple, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker. Having read the novel, she was ecstatic at being offered a lead role in her first motion picture. Goldberg received compliments on her acting from Spielberg, Walker, and music consultant Quincy Jones. The Color Purple was released in late 1985, and was a critical and commercial success. It was later nominated for 11 Academy Awards including a nomination for Goldberg as Best Actress. The movie did not win any of its Academy Award nominations, but Goldberg won the Golden Globe Award.
Check out one of the more powerful scenes from The Color Purple:
Her work:
Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985) playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the south. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award for her role in the film. In 1990, she starred as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic helping a slain man Patrick Swayze find his killer in the blockbuster film Ghost. This performance won her a second Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Notable later films include Sister Act (1992) and Sister Act 2 (1993), Made in America (1993), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Girl, Interrupted (1999) and Rat Race (2001). She is also acclaimed for her role as the bartender Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
My favorite rendition of Joyful, Joyful was in Sister Act 2:
Check out the video of Whoopie as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost:
She was the co-producer and center square of the latest edition game show Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2002. She has achieved success on Broadway and in the music industry, and is one of 10 people who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony (EGOT) Awards. In addition, she has won a British Academy Film Award, four People's Choice Awards and has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
On September 4, 2007, Goldberg became the new moderator and co-host of The View, replacing Rosie O'Donnell. In 2009, Goldberg earned an Emmy as moderator and co-host of The View.
Awards:
Goldberg has received two Academy Award nominations, for The Color Purple and Ghost, winning for Ghost. She is the recipient of the 1985 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for her solo performance on Broadway. Goldberg has been nominated for 13 (8 daytime, 5 non-daytime) Emmy Awards for her work in television.
She has received three Golden Globe nominations, winning two. She won a Grammy Award in 1985 and 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. Goldberg won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2009, along with her other co-hosts, for her role on The View
Goldberg is one about ten people to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and a Tony (EGOT). She has been seen in over 150 films, and during a period in the 1990s, Whoopi was the highest-paid actress of all time. Her humanitarian efforts include working for Comic Relief, recently reuniting with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams for the 20th Anniversary of Comic Relief.
If you wanna be somebody and you wanna go somewhere you better wake up and pay attention!
For her contributions to her craft and encouraging others to embrace their differences, HUSL Today Salutes Whoopi Goldberg!!
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