Whoopi Goldberg Biography and Life Story



Whoopi Goldberg has assiduously assembled more than a decent acting resume to really shine out as a genuinely special and recognizable star in Hollywood, a genius actress who is able to light the screen any time she appears, whether it is humor or drama. Originally called Caryn Elaine Johnson, after the departure of her father, Robert James Johnson, she was raised entirely by her mother, Emma Johnson, in the Manhattan Chelsea housing projects, shortly after she was born in New York City on November 13, 195From the age of 8 at the Hudson Guild Youth Center and the Helena Rubinstein Children’s Theatre, the actress started her interest with acting early, improving her talents when she took 

influence from Nichelle Nichols who portrayed Lt. Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek film. She later set her mind to seek a profession in the area rather than completing her studies at Washington Irving High School in New York, so concluded that she will drop out of the university and then confidently head to California with the expectation of seeking greater prospects there.

The decision of California Whoopi, who first landed her foot in San Diego, luckily did not prove in vain because she soon managed to enter an improvisational theater collective named Spontaneous Combustion while helping to create the San Diego Repertory Theater that gave her opportunity to taste experience on stage through her productions of Mother Courage plus Getting Out among others. It was during the time that she started to use her stage name of Whoopi Goldberg after altering it from Whoopi Cushion on the advice of her mother, taking the first one from her state of being excessively flatulent and the last from her family’s Jewish hand, more to be seen from this period. The young actress worked optimistically on her journey with this unique name to eventually enter the Blake Street Hawkeyes Theatre in Berkeley, where she effortlessly found her way to develop a reputation as a glowing stand-up comic that gave her enough confidence to establish her own 1983 one-woman comedic performance piece named The Spook Show.

To Whoopi’s delight, when it was performed at the Dance Theatre Studio in New York, The Spook Show suddenly left director Mike Nichols with such a profound impression that he quickly offered her to carry the project to Broadway without any hesitation. Presented in 1984 clearly under the title of her own name, the display effectively shocked both reviewers and viewers alike, including famous filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who in his 1985 photo of The Color Purple alongside Danny Glover enthusiastically asked her to portray the main role. While it was actually her big film movie debut, as an oppressed woman called Celie, she was incredibly able to give a very touching performance there, causing HFPA to present her a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an actress in a Motion Picture Drama category along with AMPAS awarding her a year later an Oscar nod in Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Also scoring an Emmy nomination in the same year through her enactment in an episode of “Moonlighting” in the Outstanding Guest Star in a Drama Series category, Whoopi unmistakably found herself shot directly after the glorious achievement that really helped her to step forward in the industry to widespread recognition. The brilliant actress beautifully did not wait long to reach the frame afterwards in a variety of films such as Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986), Fatal Beauty (1987), Clara’s Core (1988), plus Homer and Eddie (1989), this time striking even harder as she fantastically earned triple Oscar, BAFTA Prize, and Golden Globe Award honors in endorsing her memorable role category in 1991 (1990). The accomplishment continued happily as her next film, Sister Act (1992), attempted to attain excellent results both critically and commercially, also gave her another Golden Globe nod in 1993 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical genre.