Goldberg, Whoopi
1955- · Contribution: 1991
Second Black performer, and second Black woman, to win an Academy Award, for 'Ghost' in 1991, fifty years after Hattie McDaniel's win
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Impact on the world
Won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1991 for 'Ghost,' becoming only the second Black performer ever to win an Oscar, exactly half a century after Hattie McDaniel's groundbreaking 1940 win; she went on to host the Oscars ceremony multiple times, including the historic 2002 broadcast where Halle Berry and Denzel Washington both won lead acting awards in the same year for the first and, to date, only time.
Life & background
Goldberg built a career across comedy, film, and television before winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1991 for her role as a psychic medium in 'Ghost,' becoming only the second Black performer to win an acting Oscar, fifty years after Hattie McDaniel. She went on to host the Academy Awards ceremony multiple times, including the historic 2002 broadcast where she opened the show suspended from the ceiling on a swing, and where Halle Berry and Denzel Washington both won lead acting Oscars in the same year, a first that has not been repeated since; in a notable moment of friction recounted by both women afterward, Goldberg remarked from the stage that she would 'like to thank Halle Berry for opening those doors,' a comment widely read as a pointed reminder that her own win had come over a decade earlier.
Sources
- LAist (Oscars Past: 2002); Gold Derby; Medium (Halle Berry Did Not Open The Door)
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