Full name: Oprah Gail Winfrey
Date of birth:
January 29, 1954
Zodiac sign:
Aquarius
Age:
66 years old
Place of birth:
Kosciasco, Mississippi, USA
Nationality:
American
Height:
169 cm, Weight: 77 kg
Education:
Tennessee State University (TSU)
Occupation:
American television presenter, actress , producer
Marital status:
Married
Spouse:
Stedman Graham
Father:
Vernon Winfrey (b 1933, 87 years old)
Mother:
Vernita Lee (1935-2018)
Childhood
Oprah Winfrey's biography is filled with various events. Her real name is Orpah, after the biblical heroine. The midwife mixed up the letter and spelled the girl Oprah. The baby was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciasko, Mississippi.
Oprah's parents are Baptists and they were not married. Mom, Vernita Lee, worked as a maid. Father, Vernon Winfrey, was a miner, then a barber, and a failed member of the municipal council. Her mother was forced to go to work in Milwaukee, so Oprah was left with her grandmother. Already as an adult, Oprah will notice that it was the elderly woman who became the closest and most important person to her.
The girl spent six years in the rural wilderness. Her grandmother began teaching her to read and write at the age of three. The lessons turned out to be very valuable. After kindergarten, the girl went to first grade, and from there she went to third.
Oprah was very smart. In preschool, her grandmother always took her to church. The little girl easily recited chapters of the Bible to the parishioners.
Vernita Lee took her daughter when she was six years old. Together they moved into the Milwaukee ghetto. This period of life was the most difficult for the girl. Poverty and the low social status of the parents made life dreary. She began performing in poetry competitions.
At the age of eight, Oprah went to stay with her father. To do this, she stole money from her mother and ran away, but only lasted a year and returned.
At home, she was molested by her brothers, uncle and his friends. At the age of nine she was raped by her cousin, after which he regularly satisfied his needs and at the age of 14 she became pregnant. The baby was born dead.
A year before this event, she tried to return to school, but due to racial oppression she was unable to study there. She was humiliated, insulted and mocked. After Oprah's stillbirth, Vernita Lee was furious and kicked out her daughter. The girl went to her father in Nashville. Vernon insisted that his daughter continue her studies. At the same time, Oprah studied public speaking and was able to win the competition. This gave her the opportunity to go to university. The state of Tennessee, a historical institution for black Americans. She studied communication and successfully completed her diploma.
Brutal ghetto
At the age of 6, Oprah was taken by her mother to the brutal ghetto of Milwaukee. There, the girl continued to attend church and religious meetings, but in between, she was constantly harassed by her uncle and his sons. At the age of 9, she was raped by her cousin, and in exchange for her silence he bought her sister ice cream.
Like many teenagers in the 60s, Oprah ran away from home several times to the streets, where she was also repeatedly raped, but her mother constantly returned her home. Despite all the difficulties, the talented Oprah began attending a suburban school at the age of 13. But at 14, after another rape, she became pregnant and was sent to Tennessee, to her father. There she gave birth, but the child did not survive, and she herself could no longer have children, although she had been living with her partner Stedman Graham for more than 20 years.
Photo from Peopletalk
Path to glory
Oprah Winfrey's success story is filled with ups and downs. The future popular TV presenter had many difficult trials in childhood, but this only strengthened her character. Her career began with the Miss Black America pageant. After winning it, she received an offer from the CBS television channel.
At the time, Oprah became the first black female staffer to assist a news commentator. But she was let down by excessive sentimentality. When talking about tornadoes or floods, her voice trembled. She lasted just under a year and was fired.
The next place of work was the WJZ-TV channel. She tried herself as a news announcer, then as the host of the morning show “Baltimore Talks.” She seriously raised the program's ratings. In 1985, she starred in the film The Color Purple. For her role she received two awards: a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
Afterwards she had experience participating in the American film “Native Son” and several TV series. But her dream was not acting. In her heart she wanted to become a TV presenter.
The Oprah Winfrey Show launched in 1986. Already in 1993, her television show was recognized as popular not only in the United States, but also in 64 countries.
The guests of the show were:
- actors;
- musicians;
- businessmen;
- politicians and many others.
Over the entire existence of the project, more than 5 thousand episodes were filmed. Among the most famous guests were Michael Jackson, who attracted 85 million viewers. This could be considered a record. Tom Cruise allowed himself unusual behavior during filming.
A separate series of programs “Master Class from the Stars” was released, where guests told stories of their success. The Oprah Winfrey Show was canceled in 2011. Oprah herself explains this act by saying that she wanted to focus on the development of personal projects.
Oprah Winfrey now
In 2020, Oprah Winfrey's filmography was expanded with two more films. This year, the Oprah Winfrey Network channel released the dramatic television series Greenleaf, in which Oprah Winfrey played the role of Mavis MacReady and acted as a producer of this serial film. Also in 2020, Oprah became the creator of another series, “Queen of the Sugar Plantations,” which aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
TV presenter Oprah Winfrey
At the beginning of 2020, Oprah Winfrey released her first personal work, the cookbook Food, Health and Happiness: Top-notch Recipes for Great Meals and a Better Life. It was originally planned that Oprah Winfrey would write her own biography and describe her success story, but the TV presenter later changed the concept of the book.
In 2020, Oprah Winfrey will play the role of Mrs. That is in a family science fiction film based on the book “A Crack in Time” by American writer Madeleine L'Engle.
Real work
After the show was closed, Oprah did not stop living actively. The role of a housewife did not interest her. In 2008, she actively supported Barack Obama - with joint trips and money. Experts do not rule out that it was her participation that helped attract a large number of votes.
In 2020, Winfrey supported Hillary Clinton. In Russia, several women wanted to put themselves forward as candidates for the presidency. However, Ekaterina Gordon quickly dropped out of the game, leaving four more representatives of the fairer sex.
Oprah Winfrey herself did not want to participate as a candidate for the presidency. Polls showed that she had a high chance of winning, but the woman refused. Politics didn't interest her that much.
Winfrey wrote a cookbook and published it . Initially, she wanted to write an autobiography, but decided to entrust this task to someone else. In 2008, Helen S. Garson wrote a biography of the famous television presenter. The book was published in English, but it also appeared in Russian.
Oprah's speeches are dissected into quotes. She knows what it means to be an outcast, to have no protection in life. Her story inspires many people.
Personal life
Oprah has been living with one man in a civil marriage for almost twenty years. Their joint household includes two cocker spaniels and two retrievers. Steadman Graham really wanted children, but the couple's child died, after which she never gave birth again. For a long time, many media outlets “relished” the story about their son, but Winfrey debunked this myth in one of her interviews.
Winfrey said that the boy has a real mother; Oprah herself acted only as an assistant (she bought an apartment, found the child’s mother a job, and got the boy into school).
The billionaire founded a school for girls, whom she continues to care for. Oprah does not hide from the public; she has an account on the social network Instagram, which already has more than 10 million subscribers. Now the famous presenter has invested money and herself became the producer of a multi-part film and one series.
Miscellaneous data
The secret to Oprah's appeal is not her looks. She has a unique gift - a sense of interlocutor. Her speech is filled with such charisma that the most reserved person began to feel free and relaxed.
Oprah does not hide her feelings; her hyper-emotionality benefits her guests. They begin to easily answer questions and tell some stories from their life. It was this unusual state of mind that made the TV presenter so popular.
Oprah's external data:
- height: 169 cm;
- weight: 88 kg;
- hair color: dark brown.
Even as a child, she loved to perform in front of toys. She sat them down in front of me and interviewed them. In her youth, Oprah dreamed of becoming not just a presenter, but also someone significant. The woman is actively involved in charity work. For example, after the devastating Hurricane Katrina, the US President openly gave in to the crisis. The media was confused and asked a black TV presenter to speak. It wasn't easy for her to do a series of reports, but she also donated $10 million.
Later she will be invited to take part in a trip to Afghanistan. The delegation was supposed to organize a girls' back-to-school celebration, but Winfrey refused for ideological reasons. She didn't hesitate to participate in the show "Islam 101" and take the side of Muslims. The woman negatively assessed the actions of US politicians and this could bring her problems. But she was never afraid to speak her mind, making Winfrey a symbol of independence.
Oprah is first in everything
“Think like a queen. The Queen is not afraid of failure. Failure is another step on the path to success,” says Oprah. And it’s hard not to believe her. She became the first African-American woman to create and produce her own talk show, the first black woman on the Forbes list of richest people, the richest African-American woman of the 20th century, the first black woman billionaire, and the highest paid television personality in the United States. Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world. She appeared on this list as many as ten times over the years, second only to Barack Obama (he was on it 11 times). Many publications call her the queen of media, and Forbes named her the most powerful celebrity a whopping five times.
Thanks to the incredible popularity of the presenter, the so-called Oprah effect appeared, when a few of her words could help entire industries. On her show, she sometimes talked about certain products that she personally liked, which caused their sales to skyrocket. However, this was not an advertisement, but a personal choice of the presenter. Also, as part of the program, she began to talk about her favorite books, thanks to which she taught more than one generation of Americans to read. During Barack Obama's first presidential campaign, Winfrey publicly endorsed him, earning him up to 1.6 million votes, according to economists.
