American actress Whoopi Goldberg began her professional career in the early 80s and within a few years managed to become the first Hollywood star. The 80s and 90s are considered the peak of her popularity, although the artist continues to delight fans with her creativity. Whoopi works and develops in several directions at once and has already become famous not only as an actress, but also as a producer, TV presenter and writer, writes Joinfo.ua.
Childhood
Caryn Elaine Johnson, who is now known under the creative name Whoopi Goldberg, began her life's journey on November 13, 1955 in New York. The girl’s parents had nothing to do with art - her father was a priest, and her mother worked as a nurse. The future artist was not very interested in studying school subjects, which cannot be said about classes in a children's theater club.
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Whoopi Goldberg on Cosmo.ru
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Troubled teenager
Caryn was never able to obtain a school certificate, because as a teenager she stopped attending classes, which is why she was expelled. The future Hollywood star left his home and became a follower of the hippie movement. For some time she lived in a commune, where she gradually became dependent on heavy illegal substances. At the age of fourteen, the girl had to use traditional methods to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy, which greatly undermined her health.
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Fateful meeting
In the early 70s, the life of the future artist changed dramatically. Alvin Martin, who was an activist in the Anti-Drug organization, helped her in this. Thanks to him, the girl overcame her addiction and went to work. Caryn managed to change several jobs before she managed to get into the troupe of a small theater in the city of San Diego. Thus, in 1974, the girl took a creative pseudonym and began her acting career.
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Whoopi's childhood
Whoopi Goldberg, then Caryn Elaine Johnson, was born into a poor family of priest Robert James Johnson Jr.
Whoopi's mother Emma worked as a nurse and teacher. The nickname "Whoopee" comes from whoopee cushion - "fart pillow". And the surname Johnson seemed to the future actress not European enough to become a star. At her mother's suggestion, she took the pseudonym Goldberg. Already at the age of eight, Whoopi made her debut on the stage of the children's theater.
Whoopi never received a general education, was always among the laggards, and then was forced to leave school. Due to financial shortages, the young girl had to work as a night watchman, lay bricks, and put makeup on the dead in the morgue, until finally, in 1974, she managed to find an acting vacancy in the new theater in San Diego.
Later, in the 70s, she worked in theaters in San Francisco and toured Europe and America.
Long-awaited success
For several years the actress performed on the stages of small provincial theaters, and then decided to stage her own one-woman show. In the play “Ghost Show,” Whoopi played all the roles on her own, which allowed her to fully reveal her talent to the audience. It was this performance that made the actress in demand, but great popularity still awaited Goldberg.
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Whoopi and Alex's relationship
During a mother-daughter appearance on The Wendy Williams Show in 2015, Alex revealed that she and her mom "talk several times a day." She talks to Goldberg about almost everything. True, Whoopi clarified: “There is something I don’t want to know. She’s married, that’s very bad... If he’s angry, she’s angry, it’s not for me.” Despite these jokes, it's easy to see how close mother and daughter are.
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Alex Martin was married three times... to the same man, Bernard Dean. The woman herself explained that she and Dean eloped when she was 20, then had another wedding later, and then got married for the third time after their divorce. In fact, she has been faithful to only Dean all her life, and they love each other, just like many years ago.
Film career of Whoopi Goldberg
It was cinema that helped the actress become famous throughout the world. Her screen debut took place in 1982, and just 3 years later, the lead role in the film “The Color Purple” made Goldberg a star. In 1991, the film “Ghost” brought the name of Whoopi Goldberg to the list of the first stars of Hollywood and brought her a number of significant awards, including an Oscar.
Over the many years of her career, Whoopi has managed to play more than a hundred roles and secure the title of a universal actress. She copes brilliantly with absolutely any role and continues to expand her filmography.
The Great Goldberg and her daughter
At the age of 18 in 1973, Whoopi Goldbreg gave birth to Alexandra Martin with her medical consultant, Alvin Martin. Having learned about the patient's pregnancy, the man married her, but the marriage did not last long. The couple separated a few years later, in 1979.
Many years later, Alex “outdid” her mother by giving birth to her first child at age 16. Now she is the mother of three children - Amara, Mason and Jersey. Whoopi Goldberg once told guests at her daughter's 40th birthday party in 2014, "Alex is a better mother to her three children than I ever was to her alone."
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Working on television
In her busy work schedule, Whoopi also finds time to work as a TV presenter. Natural charm and charisma helped Goldberg become a people's favorite, which is why her projects always show high ratings. For a long time, the artist led an original project, and then began to host the Oscar awards ceremony. For several years now, Goldberg has remained the host of the daytime talk show The View.
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Career
Theater
Goldberg at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992
She began her theatrical career under the pseudonym Whoopi Goldberg
. In San Diego, she participated in the creation of the city's Repertory Theater, then moved to the Black Street Theater (San Francisco). She also played in several amateur troupes.
One of her first works was the main role in the play “Mother Courage”. After one evening, Whoopi had to replace one of the sick actors while playing the main role, she came up with the idea of a one-woman show in which she herself would play six roles - from a beggar to a millionaire.
This project, implemented in 1983, was called the “Ghost Show” and was a great success. With him, Whoopi toured not only across America, but also in Canada and Europe. The performance was noticed by director Mike Nichols, who helped Whoopi organize a performance on Broadway in 1984. Here she received an invitation to a number of productions, in particular, she took part in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
In subsequent years, her work in cinema left her practically no time for the theater, but several of her works are known, in particular, she plays in the melodrama “Love Letters” in a duet with T. Dalton.
Movie
Whoopi Goldberg's hand and foot prints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater
In 1985, having heard about preparations for the film adaptation of Alice Walker's epic novel The Color Purple (which was called the African-American equivalent of Gone with the Wind), Whoopi sent the writer a letter asking for an invitation to appear in the film. in this film. Alice Walker, already familiar with Whoopi's theatrical work, approached director Steven Spielberg with this proposal, and the actress received the leading role of Celia Johnson, a black American woman who spiritually evolves throughout the story from a downtrodden housewife to an independent-minded, determined woman. Whoopi Goldberg's striking film debut earned her an Oscar nomination.
Starting with a deeply dramatic role, Whoopi Goldberg continued her film career mainly in entertainment genres: comedies, crime comedies, detective stories, TV series, and science fiction. Among the most famous films with her participation are “Jumping Jack”, “The Thief”, “Fatal Beauty”, “Act, Sister”, “Ghost”, “Knight of Camelot”, etc. The role of a charming and eccentric character has been assigned to her , an independent woman who does not give a damn about any conventions, which was greatly facilitated by her own everyday image cultivated by her.
However, her dramatic film works are also widely known, for example, in such films as “Ghosts of Mississippi”, “The Long Way Home”, and in Andrei Konchalovsky’s film “Homer and Eddie”, which received the Grand Prix at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
In 1991, Whoopi Goldberg received Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for her supporting role as psychic Oda Mae Brown in Jerry Zucker's film Ghost. At the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, the films Seraphine, starring Whoopi Goldberg, and Robert Altman's The Player, a harsh satire on Hollywood morals, aroused great interest.
Whoopi Goldberg also took part in dubbing cartoons and read narration in non-fiction films. She starred in Michael Jackson's "Liberian Girl" music video.
Whoopi Goldberg at the Proposition 8 protest in New York (2008)
A television
Along with her work in films, Whoopi Goldberg is also conquering television. For several years she was a regular participant in the comedy show “Comic Help” and hosted her own talk show.
She starred in the science fiction television series Star Trek for several seasons, and appeared as a guest in some other series (Moonlight Detective Agency, season 2, episode 18).
In 1994, Whoopi Goldberg made her debut as host of the Academy Awards; Since then, she has had tremendous success as a host of various ceremonies.
She is currently the host of the American morning show The View on ABC.
