Biography

Early life

Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson in New York City on November 13, 1949, the daughter of Emma (née Harris), a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson, a clergyman.

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Goldberg’s mother was a “stern, strong, and wise woman” who raised her and her younger brother Clyde as a single mother after their father had left the family.

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Goldberg changed her name when she decided that her given name was too boring.

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Her stage name was taken from whoopee cushion;
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.”

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She chose the surname “Goldberg” after Jewish ancestors of hers who bore the surname, having said that “Goldberg’s a part of my family somewhere.”

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She referred to herself as a “Jewish-Catholic girl from New York.” She has stated that her mother is Jewish and referred to herself as a “Jewish-American Princess”. However, Goldberg has also said: “My family is  Jewish,  Buddhist,  Baptist and  Catholic. I don’t believe in man-made religions.”

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A DNA test, broadcast in the 2006 PBS documentary African American Lives, traced most of her ancestry to the Papel and Bayote people of modern-day Guinea-Bissau. Her racial admixture test revealed her genetic makeup to be 92 percent sub-Saharan African and 8 percent European.

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Goldberg unknowingly suffered from dyslexia, which affected her studies and ultimately induced her to drop out of high school at the age of 17.

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She worked in a funeral parlor and as a bricklayer while taking small parts on Broadway.

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In an anecdote told by Nichelle Nichols in the documentary film Trekkies, 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!”  This spawned life-long fandom of Star Trek for Goldberg, who would eventually achieve a recurring guest-starring role in 1987’s Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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As it turns out, Whoopi Goldberg has been without eyebrows ever since childhood.  She lost them one day walking home from school.  “It was a windy day, and I guess I just wasn’t being careful…and the next thing I knew…whip…whip…off came my eyebrows,” Goldberg is quoted in a recent interview with Tweezers.com.

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The eyebrows have since been DNA tested and are a positive match to Goldberg.  McGlintock suspects someone found the eyebrows, carefully gathered them and held on to them hoping their rightful owner would come forward to claim them, “That’s what I’d do anyways,” mumbled McGlintock.  “But when no one came forward, I’m guessin’ the eyebrows made a pretty nice birthday or Christmas gift for some lucky summa-bitch.”

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Later in the Tweezers.com interview Goldberg describes how her African American heritage was not the only hurdle she had to overcome in order to make it big in Hollywood.  “I would go to auditions, nail my lines, leave the director and producer with their mouths hanging open, and when it came time for them to choose an actor, I always got the same thing, ‘You know Whoopi, we thought you did a great job in there, but…’ and I’d say, “Let me guess, you want a white woman for the part, right” and they would reply, ‘well, umm, no…not exactly…well, you see…I guess there’s no way around saying this…it’s just that…YOU DON’T HAVE ANY EYEBROWS!!! What the hell’s up with that, who doesn’t have eyebrows?  It’s not right, not normal, not American and frankly it’s not what were looking for in this character, we’re sorry.’ and I’d be out on the street again.”

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Personal life

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In the early 1970s, Goldberg was briefly married to the man who had been her drug counselor. The couple had one child, Alexandra, and divorced in 1974. She was married to cameraman David Claessen from 1986 to 1988. Goldberg then had a high-profile romance with actor Ted Danson in the early 1990s. She has a daughter, Alexandrea Martin, and three grandchildren.

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Career

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Goldberg’s on-screen talent first emerged in 1981-82 in Citizen: I’m Not Losing My Mind, I’m Giving It Away, an avant-garde ensemble feature by San Francisco filmmaker William Farley.

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She moved to California and worked with improv groups, including Spontaneous Combustion, and developed her skills as a stand-up comedienne. She came to prominence doing an HBO special and a one-woman show as Moms Mabley.

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She has been known in her prosperous career as a unique and socially conscious talent with articulately liberal views.

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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 on Broadway, Goldberg’s performance caught the eye of director Steven Spielberg.

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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.

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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.

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It was later nominated for 11 Academy Awards including a nomination for Goldberg as Best Actress. She received much critical acclaim, and an Oscar nomination for her role and became a major star as a result.The movie did not win any of its Academy Award nominations, but Goldberg won the Golden Globe Award.

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Goldberg starred in Penny Marshall’s directorial debut, 1986 Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and began a relationship with David Claessen, a director of photography on the set, and the couple married later that year.

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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.

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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.

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In January 1990, Goldberg starred with Jean Stapleton in the TV situation comedy Bagdad Café. 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 50 years. Premiere Magazine named her character, Oda Mae Brown, the 95th best movie character of all time.

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Goldberg made her mark as a household name and a mainstay in Hollywood for her Oscar-winning role in the box office smash Ghost (1990).

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Goldberg never forgot where she came from, hosting many tributes to other legendary entertainment figures. She contributes her voice to many cartoons, including The Pagemaster (1994) and “Captain Planet and the Planeteers” (1990), as Gaia, the voice of the earth. Alternating between big-budget movies, independent movies, tributes, documentaries, and even TV movies (including Theodore Rex (1995)).

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Goldberg launched her own television talk show, The Whoopi Goldberg Show, in 1992. Featuring Goldberg in one-on-one interviews with prominent political and Hollywood celebrities, the talk show ran for 200 episodes until 1993 when it was cancelled due to low ratings.

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Goldberg 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 US$100 million and Goldberg was nominated for a Golden Globe.

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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.

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From 1994 to 1995, Whoopi appeared in Corrina, Corrina, The Lion King (voice), The Pagemaster (voice), Boys on the Side, and Moonlight and Valentino.

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Goldberg became the first African-American female to host the Academy Awards in 1994. She hosted the Awards again in 1996, 1999, and 2002.

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Goldberg released 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). During the filming of Eddie, Goldberg began dating co-star Frank Langella, a relationship which lasted until early 2000.

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Goldberg wrote Book in October 1997, a collection featuring insights and opinions. In November and December 2005, Goldberg revived her one-woman show on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in honor of its 20th anniversary.

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From 1998 to 2001, Goldberg took supporting roles in the How Stella Got Her Groove Back with Angela Basset, Girl, Interrupted with Angelina Jolie, Kingdom Come and Rat Race with an all-star ensemble cast.

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She starred in the successful ABC-TV versions of Cinderella, A Knight in Camelot, and the TNT Original Movie, Call Me Claus. In 1998, she gained a new audience when she became the “Center Square” on Hollywood Squares, hosted by Tom Bergeron. She also served as Executive Producer, for which she was nominated for 4 Emmys. She left the show in 2002, and the “Center Square” was filled in with celebrities for the last two on-air seasons without Goldberg.

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In 2003, Goldberg returned to television, starring in the NBC comedy, Whoopi, which was cancelled after one season.

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On her 48th birthday, Goldberg was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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During the next two years, she became a spokeswoman for Slim Fast and produced two television sitcoms: Lifetime’s original drama Strong Medicine that ran for six seasons and Whoopi’s Littleburg, a Nickelodeon show for younger children.

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Goldberg made guest appearances on the Hit CW Network comedy, Everybody Hates Chris, as an elderly character named Louise Clarkson. She produced the Noggin sitcom Just For Kicks, in early 2006.

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She was a guest at Elton John’s 60th birthday bash and concert at Madison Square Garden on March 25, 2007.

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Goldberg has said in interviews that she wants to focus on The View and her broadcasting career rather than acting.

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The View

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On September 4, 2007, Goldberg became the new moderator and co-host of The View, replacing Rosie O’Donnell who stated on her official blog that she wanted Goldberg to be moderator. Goldberg’s debut as moderator drew 3.4 million viewers, 1 million fewer than O’Donnell’s debut ratings.After two weeks, however, The View was averaging 3.5 million total viewers under Goldberg, a 7% increase from 3.3 million under O’Donnell the previous season.

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Goldberg’s first appearance on the show was controversial when she made statements about Michael Vick’s dogfighting as being “part of his cultural upbringing” and “not all that unusual” in parts of the South. Another comment that stirred controversy was the statement that the Chinese “have a very different relationship to cats” and that “you and I would be very pissed if somebody ate kitty.”

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Some defended Goldberg, including her co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, saying that her comments were taken out of context by the press, because she repeated several times that she did not condone what Vick did.

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On more than one occasion, Goldberg has expressed strong disagreement and irritation with different remarks made by Elisabeth Hasselbeck. On October 3, 2007, Hasselbeck and Goldberg were involved in a discussion about Hillary Clinton’s new US$5,000 baby entitlement. The discussion became a little heated due to Hasselbeck’s commenting on how it would lead to fewer abortions because of women wanting to keep the money. Goldberg told Hasselbeck to “back off a little bit” and asked her if she “had ever been in that position to make that decision.”

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Goldberg added, “Most people do not want to have abortions. Most women do not have them with some sort of party going on. It is the hardest decision that a woman ever- wait- ever has to make. So, when you talk about it, a little bit of reverence to the women out there who have had to make this horrible decision. And one of the reasons that we have had to make this decision is because so many women were found bleeding, dead, with hangers in their bodies because they were doing it themselves. The idea of this was to make it safe and clean. That was the reason the law came into effect. That was why it was done.”

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Awards:

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* NAACP’s Image award: best actress in a TV movie, miniseries or dramatic special, Good Fences (2004)
* Image Awards: Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie, Mini-Series, or Dramatic Special, GOOD FENCES (2004)
* Gracie Allen Awards: Gracie – Producer for Strong Medicine (2003)
* Daytime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Special Class Special, Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2002)
* Tony Award as a producer for Best Musical, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (2002)
* U.S. Comedy Arts Festival: AFI Star Award (2002)
* Women in Film Crystal Awards: Crystal Award (2001)
* GLAAD Media Awards: Vanguard Award (1999)
* Image Awards: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK (1999)
* Fantafestival: Best Actress, THEODORE REX (1996)
* People’s Choice Awards: Favorite Comedy Motion Picture Actress (1995)
* Image Awards: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture for Sister Act (1994)
* People’s Choice Awards: Favorite Comedy Motion Picture Actress (1994)
* American Comedy Award: Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role), SISTER ACT (1993)
* Hasty Pudding Theatricals: Woman of the Year (1993)
* Image Awards: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture, THE LONG WALK HOME (1993)
* People’s Choice Awards: Favorite Comedy Motion Picture Actress (1993)
* People’s Choice Awards: Favorite Motion Picture Actress (1993)
* ShoWest Award: Female Star of the Year (1993)
* Aftonbladet TV Prize (Sweden): Best Foreign TV Personality – Female (1992)
* Image Awards: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture, GHOST (1992)
* Image Awards: Special Award – Entertainer of the Year (1992)
* Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress, GHOST (1991)
* American Comedy Award: Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Ghost (1991)
* BAFTA Film Award: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, GHOST (1991)
* Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, GHOST (1991)
* Saturn Award: Best Supporting Actress, GHOST (1991)
* Women in Film Crystal Awards: Humanitarian Award (1991)
* Image Awards: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture, FATAL BEAUTY (1990)
* Image Awards: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture, THE COLOR PURPLE (1988)
* Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role-Drama, THE COOR PURPLE (1986)
* Grammy Awards: Best Comedy Album, Whoopi Goldberg (1985)
* National Board of Review: Best Actress, THE COLOR PURPLE (1985)
* Drama Desk Award: Best Solo Performance, Whoopi Goldberg (1984)
* Theater World Award, Whoopi Goldberg (1984)
* Grammy Award for Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From Broadway.