Whoopi Goldberg

Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (/ˈhwʊpi/), is an American actress, comedian, author and television host. She has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television and is one of the few entertainers who has won an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. She was the second black woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win an acting Oscar. In the period drama film The Color Purple (1985), her breakthrough role was playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990), Goldberg played Oda Mae Brown, an eccentric psychic who helped a slain man (Patrick Swayze) save his lover (Demi Moore), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 1992, she starred as a pretend nun in the comedy Sister Act. From 1998 to 2002, she was co-producer of the television game show Hollywood Squares. Since 2007, she has been the moderator of the daytime television talk show The View. 2Early life Caryn Elaine Johnson was born in Manhattan, New York City on November 13, 1955, the daughter of Robert James Johnson, Jr. (March 4, 1930 – May 25, 1993), a clergyman, and Emma Johnson (née Harris; September 21, 1931 – August 29, 2010), a nurse and teache