Whoopi Goldberg

She has thrice been married and divorced till date. First marriage was with Alvin Martin with whom she has a daughter. After separating from him, she married David Claessen but the unison did not last long and later went into the wedlock with Lyle Trachtenberg. They separated after a year.

She has been in a romantic relationship with a couple of men including Frank Langella and Ted Danson.

She has admitted to being a ‘high functioning’ drug addict initially. She also suffered from dyslexia.

Whoopi Goldberg was born as Caryn Elaine Johnson to Emma and Robert James Johnson in Manhattan. Her mother was a nurse and a teacher while her father served as a clergyman.

She was raised in the Chelsea-Elliot Houses by her mother alone after her father disbanded the family when she was young. She studied until her teen years and later dropped out of school.

Her tryst with acting started young. It was during her stage performance that people complimented her by saying that she looked like whoopee cushion. It was from there that she took the stage name Whoopi and adopted Goldberg as her surname to sound more Jewish. Her stage name, Whoopi Goldberg stayed with her for the rest of her life.

In 1974, she moved to California and thereafter lived in various cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. It was during this time that she honed her acting skills and developed her talent as a stand-up comedienne.

Her first shot to fame was as a comedienne Mos Mabley in a one-woman show. She won an award for the same.

Soon, thereafter, she returned to New York and started receiving training under acting coach Uta Hagen. Her first ever appearance on screen was for William Farley’s feature, ‘Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away’

In 1983, she created, starred and directed the one-woman show, ‘The Spook Show’. The show addressed the issue of race in American but in a unique and innovative style. The show was much liked by the audience.

Following the success of ‘The Spook Show’, she created other off-Broadway productions such as ‘Little Girl’ an African-American child obsessed with having blond hair and ‘Fontaine’ a junkie who also happens to hold a doctorate in literature.

She has won several awards during her glittering career. These include: two Daytime Emmy Awards, one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, one Grammy Award, a Tony Award, three People’s Choice Award and five American Comedy Awards.

Additionally, she has received the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Vanguard Award, the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center as well as the Women in Film Crystal Award.

She was named the Black Entertainer of the Year by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1990. Same year, she was credited with the Excellence Award at the Women in Film Festival.