Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg is an American actress and comedienne.http://www.biography.com/articles/Whoopi-Goldberg-9314384 She was born with the name Caryn Elaine Johnson on November 13,1955, in New York City. Goldberg has a younger brother named Clyde. Their single mom raised them in the housing projects of Manhattan. Goldberg suffers from dyslexia which made her school work suffer. She later dropped out of school at the age of 17.http://www.biography.com/articles/Whoopi-Goldberg-9314384

While trying to find work as an actor, Goldberg moved to California and took odd jobs including working as a mortuary beautician and a bricklayer.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000155/bio In 1994, Goldberg was the first black woman and the first woman to ever host the Academy Awards.http://www.takepart.com/news/2008/02/28/academy-to-whoopi-goldberg-whoops-whoopis-top-10-most-exciting-oscars-moments/

After appearing in a one-woman show on Broadway in the mid-1980s, director Steven Spielberg asked Goldberg to take the role of Celie Harris in his film adaptation of the Alice Walker novel, The Color Purple. The performance, her first on-screen appearance, netted her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She won her first Oscar in the year 1991 for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the movie Ghost.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000155/awards

She would later appear in hit films such as Jumpin' Jack Flash, Sister Act, and How Stella Got Her Groove Back. In 2007, Goldberg replaced Rosie O'Donnell on the morning talk show The View.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000155/bio