Whoopi Goldberg Age, Height, Partner, Net Worth & Biography

Whoopi Goldberg is an American actress, comedian and television host best known as Celie in The Color Purple, as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost and as Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act. Born on November 13, 1955, in New York City, Goldberg, 70, is one of only a handful of performers to have won the EGOT, an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, and she has been a co-host of The View since 2007.

Quick Facts

Who Is Whoopi Goldberg?

Whoopi Goldberg is an actress, comedian and television host whose career has spanned more than five decades. As Celie, a woman who is abused by her husband and who finds her voice, in The Color Purple (1985), a film directed by Steven Spielberg, Goldberg played a character who is quiet, strong and, in the end, triumphant, and her performance, her film debut, earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. She is also known as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic who helps a murdered man communicate with his wife, in Ghost (1990), a performance that won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and as Deloris Van Cartier, a lounge singer who hides in a convent, in Sister Act (1992) and its sequel.

Beyond those roles, Goldberg has shown a wide range. She played Guinan, a bartender who is wise beyond her years, in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988-1993), and she voiced Shenzi, a hyena, in The Lion King (1994). She starred in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986), in Clara’s Heart (1988), in Soapdish (1991), in Boys on the Side (1995), and in How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998). She has been a co-host of The View since 2007, and she is one of the few performers to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, the EGOT. She appeared in The Color Purple alongside Danny Glover, who played Mister, Celie’s husband.

Early Life & Background

Caryn Elaine Johnson was born in New York City, the daughter of Emma, a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson Jr., a clergyman. She grew up in the Chelsea-Elliot Houses, a public housing project in Manhattan, where she attended St. Columba’s Catholic School. She left high school before graduating, and she worked as a waitress, as a bank teller, and as a bricklayer, while performing in theatre. She adopted the stage name Whoopi Goldberg, taking the name Whoopi from a whoopee cushion and Goldberg as a stage surname.

She began performing in theatre, appearing in the one-woman show The Spook Show (1983), a show in which she played several characters, which was brought to Broadway in 1984 as Whoopi Goldberg and which earned her a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album and a Tony Award nomination. She made her film debut in The Color Purple, in which she played Celie, and she went on to work in Jumpin’ Jack Flash, in Clara’s Heart, and in Ghost, which brought her to wide attention as a film actress.

Career

Goldberg’s career in film includes The Color Purple, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Burglar (1987), Fatal Beauty (1987), Clara’s Heart, Ghost, Soapdish, The Long Walk Home (1990), Sister Act, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Made in America (1993), Corrina, Corrina (1994), The Lion King, Boys on the Side, Eddie (1996), How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted (1999), Rat Race (2001), and Toy Story 3 (2010), in which she voiced Stretch. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Ghost, and she has been nominated for the Academy Award for The Color Purple.

On television, Goldberg has played in Star Trek: The Next Generation, in The View, in which she has been a co-host and moderator since 2007, in Bagdad Café (1990-1991), in Strong Medicine (2000-2006), in The Stand (2020), in which she played Mother Abagail, and in Harlem (2021-2023). She was married to Alvin Martin from 1973 to 1979, to David Claessen from 1986 to 1988, and to Lyle Trachtenberg from 1994 to 1995. She has a daughter, Alexandrea Martin, born in 1973, with Alvin Martin. She is known for her work as an actress, as a comedian, as a television host, and for a career that has lasted for more than fifty years.

Facts About Whoopi Goldberg

• She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Ghost (1990).
• She played Celie in The Color Purple (1985) and Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act (1992).
• She is one of the few performers to have won the EGOT: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
• She has been a co-host of The View since 2007.
• She played Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988-1993).

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