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ACME Whoopi! Biography
Yahoo Movies' Whoopi Biography E! Online's Whoopi Biography William Morris Agency's Whoopi Biography Biography.com's Whoopi Biography women of color women of words's Whoopi Biography Academy of Achievement's Whoopi Biography Filmbug's Whoopi Biography Moviefone's Whoopi Biography For further details, check out the various books by and about Whoopi. This brazen, unabashed comedienne, who moves effortlessly between comedy, television and feature films, first made her mark with the movie-going public as Celie in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985) for which she earned an Academy Award nomination. She was born November 13, 1955 in the Chelsea projects of Manhattan. [Some sources claim she was born in 1949 or 1950, but that is because she lied about her age to get jobs after she dropped out of school at 14.] At the precocious age of eight, Caryn Elaine Johnson — her real name — was performing with the Children's Program at the Hudson Guild Community Center and the Helena Rubinstein Children's Theatre. She dropped out of high school after just two weeks. She would later learn that she had suffered from dyslexia, which is why she was often regarded as retarded by her teachers. Between long periods of unemployment, she toiled as a bricklayer and funeral parlor make-up artist. At this time she also became a drug addict. That's how she met her first husband, Alvin Martin, a drug counselor. Between 1973 and 1974 they married, separated and had a daughter, Alexandrea. She officially divorced Martin in 1979. Starting a new life at age 19, Whoopi took Alex and headed west in 1974, landing in San Diego. She joined the fledgling San Diego Repertory Theatre and appeared in productions of Brecht's Mother Courage and Marsha Norman's Getting Out. Most importantly, her comedic skills were honed with an improv group called Spontaneous Combustion, where she paired up with Don Victor to form the comedy duo, "Victor and Goldberg." They even sent an audition tape to Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels. Sadly the tape was mangled before it reached Michaels and he never got a chance to hear this proto-Whoopi. While in San Diego, she also adopted her unique stage name. Because of a reputation for flatulence, she wanted to call herself "Whoopi Cushion" or "Whoopi Cushone." Her mother nixed those, saying that no one would take her seriously as an actress. Caryn insisted on keeping the "Whoopi" part and her mother suggested it sounded good with "Goldberg," so she settled on "Whoopi Goldberg." Later, the proverbial trunks were again packed and then tagged "The Bay or Bust." Once arrived, Whoopi joined the Blake Street Hawkeyes Theatre in Berkeley, partnered with David Schein. Developed her distinctive character monologues, Goldberg created The Spook Show, which first played San Francisco and then toured the United States and Europe. Glorious dues were quickly being paid off. While performing Spook Show at the Dance Theatre Workshop in New York (1983), she was discovered by director Mike Nichols, who mounted her breakthrough solo Broadway production in 1984. An one-woman show of original material, written and created by Whoopi, Whoopi opened at the Lyceum Theatre to thunderous critical acclaim. Hungry audiences unable to feast on the New York show were treated to the HBO special, Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From Broadway. The record album of her Broadway show won a Grammy Award as Best Comedy Recording of the Year in 1985. Whoopi briefly returned to San Francisco to star as the legendary Moms Mabley in Moms, a one-woman show which she also co-wrote, based on the late comedienne's original material. The next year, she made a dazzling dramatic debut in Steven Spielberg's film version of Alice Walker's The Color Purple, a performance that earned her the Best Actress Golden Globe, an Academy Award nomination, and the NAACP's Image Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture. She has since appeared in a steady stream of popular motion pictures, including Jumpin' Jack Flash, Fatal Beauty (a second NAACP Image Award), Clara's Heart, Ghost, for which she took home a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, a Golden Globe, a third Image Award, the British Academy Award, an American Comedy Award and the Saturn Award (presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films). The Long Walk Home (a fourth Image Award), Soapdish, The Player, Sister Act which garnered her yet another Golden Globe Award nomination, the NAACP Image Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture and the Image Award for Motion Picture of the Year, Sarafina, Made in America and Corrina, Corrina. The phenomenal, surprising success of the featherweight Sister Act led to a reported $8 million salary in the sequel. Yet, Whoopi still had time for TV's "Moonlighting" for which she received an Emmy Award nomination as Best Guest Performer in a Dramatic Series in 1986. Whoopi starred with Jean Stapleton in CBS' Bagdad Cafe. For five television seasons, she also managed to navigate her way across the universe as Guinan, on the hit syndicated series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, for which she was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Whoopi also appeared in the CBS Schoolbreak Special, "My Past Is My Own," for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, and she starred in the CBS telefilm, Kiss Shot. In 1991, Whoopi guest starred on the NBC series, A Different World, which resulted in another nomination for a Prime Time Emmy Award, this time as Best Guest Actress on a Comedy Series. She also starred in "Dead Wait," an episode of HBO's horror anthology series, Tales from the Crypt. In 1992, Whoopi made her debut as a talk show host with "The Whoopi Goldberg Show," her own syndicated half-hour late night talk show. In addition to the Oscar, A Grammy, two Golden Globe Awards, and multiple NAACP Image Awards, Whoopi has won a Tony for bringing Thoroughly Modern Millie to Broadway, along with the prestigious Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, six People's Choice Awards and an unprecedented five Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards as Favorite Movie Actress. One can only wonder where she puts the many awards and honors which she has earned. And when did she have time to write her children's book, Alice, (1992) and her autobiography, Book (1997)? A champion for the homeless, children, human rights, substance abuse, gay rights, the battle against AIDS, and other worthwhile causes, Goldberg received the NAACP's 1991 Entertainer of the Year and was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2003. In 1987, Whoopi, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams co-hosted HBO's now-historic Comic Relief benefit for the nation's homeless. Following the equally successful Comic Relief II, the three have hosted Comic Relief III, IV, V, VI and VII which have cumulatively raised more than $30 million. Always there for people in need, Whoopi also participated in the televised Hurricane Relief benefit to aid victims of Hurricane Andrew. In 1999, she became one of Essence Magazine's "Women of the Year." Whoopi fullfilled a childhood fantasy and became part of Hollywood history in February, 1995, when prints of her hands, feet and dreadlock braids were placed in cement in the forecourt of Mann's Chinese Theatre. She received her star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on her birthday, November 13, 2001. No stranger to hosting, Whoopi has done the honors for the 1992 34th Annual Grammy Awards and ABC's A Gala For the President at Ford's Theatre in 1993 and in 1994. On March 21, 1994, Whoopi hosted The 66th Annual Academy Awards - the highest rated special of the 1993-1994 television season - for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. That was also the first time a woman or an African-American had ever been solo host. She hosted the Academy Awards show again in 1996, 1999 and 2002. And from 1998-2002 she placed herself at the center square of a highly successful resurrected Hollywood Squares. Whoopi has moved back to New York, where she grew up. She extracted herself from her responsibilities with Hollywood Squares and insisted that her new NBC sitcom be filmed in New York City. She was creator, executive producer and star of her own NBC-TV show, Whoopi. On its 20th anniversary, Whoopi updated her one-woman Broadway show, returning to the Lyceum Theater for a limited engagement, again under the auspices of Mike Nichols. Because she has been getting fewer roles offered to her, she has been making development deals with USA Networks, Lifetime, and others. On July 31, 2006 Whoopi embarked on a new career as a morning radio host. Currently, her show, Wake Up With Whoopi is syndicated on 16 stations nationwide. In July 2004 Whoopi bought a 745-acre farm in Vermont. The property includes a Colonial style clapboard house, a barn, wooded trails, mountain views, a pond, a stream and a river. She also maintains a SoHo loft apartment with her hairless cat, Oliver, and is occasionally visited by her mother, Emma Johnson, daughter Alexandrea Martin, granddaughters Amarah Skye (born on Whoopi's 34th birthday) and Jerzey Martin and grandson Mason. She also remains close to her brother Clyde, often hiring him as her driver on film locations. A recent DNA test traces Caryn Johnson's ancestry to the Papel and Bayote peoples of Guinea-Bissau. Her great-great grandparents, William and Elsie Washington, were among a very small number of African Americans who became landowners through homesteading in the years following the Civil War. Two generations later, her grandparents were living in Harlem, her grandfather working as a Pullman porter. Whoopi has been married three times: She has also been romantically linked to It is clear that Whoopi has assumed a unique position in the Hollywood hierarchy.
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