Caryn Elaine Johnson, best known as Whoopi Goldberg (pron.: /ˈhwʊpi/, (born November 13, 1955) is an American comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.
[>>]

Source: Wikipedia

Caryn Elaine Johnson, best known as Whoopi Goldberg (pron.: /ˈhwʊpi/, (born November 13, 1955) is an American comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.
Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985), playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award for her role in the film. In 1990, she played Oda Mae Brown, a wacky psychic helping a slain man (Patrick Swayze) save his lover (Demi Moore) in the blockbuster Ghost. This performance won her a second Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; this made Goldberg only the second black woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win an acting Oscar—the first being Hattie McDaniel who won for Gone With the Wind in 1939. Notable later films include Sister Act and Sister Act 2, The Player, Made in America, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted and Rat Race. She is also acclaimed for her roles as the bartender Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Terry Doolittle in Jumpin' Jack Flash, and as Carmen Tibideaux in Glee, as well as the voice of Shenzi the hyena in The Lion King.
Goldberg has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television. She was co-producer of the popular game show Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2004. She has been the moderator of the daytime talk show The View since 2007. Goldberg has a Grammy, two Daytime Emmys, two Golden Globes, a Tony (for production, not acting), and an Oscar. In addition, Goldberg has a British Academy Film Award, four People's Choice Awards, and has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is one of the few entertainers who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.

Early life [edit]
Goldberg was born in Manhattan and raised in the Chelsea neighborhood, the daughter of Emma (née Harris), a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson, Jr., a clergyman. Goldberg has described her mother as a "stern, strong, and wise woman" who raised her as a single mother after Goldberg's father had left the family. Goldberg's recent ancestors migrated north from Faceville, Georgia, Palatka, Florida, and Virginia.
Her stage name, Whoopi, was taken from a whoopee cushion; she has stated that "If you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from." She adopted the traditionally German/Jewish surname Goldberg as a stage name because her mother felt that Johnson was not "Jewish enough" to make her a star. According to an anecdote told by Nichelle Nichols in the documentary film Trekkies, a young Goldberg was watching Star Trek, and upon seeing Nichols' character Uhura, exclaimed, "Momma! There's a black lady on TV and she ain't no maid!" This spawned lifelong fandom of Star Trek for Goldberg, who would eventually accept a recurring guest-starring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Between the years of 1979 and 1981, she lived in communist East Germany, working in a number of theater productions. During her travels, she would smuggle various items into the country for the artists she stayed with.
[<<]

This text is based on a article from the open encyclopedia Wikipedia and stands under GNU license for free documentation. On Wikipedia there is List of the authors Available. Image: Georges Biard