Karin Elaine Johnson (pseudonym Whoopi Goldberg) was born on November 13, 1955. Whoopi is one of the largest and brightest Hollywood stars , theater and film actress, TV presenter, screenwriter and producer. He has a number of prestigious awards, including the Oscars, Grammys, Golden Globes, Emmys. In Los Angeles, on the Walk of Fame, is the Whoopi Goldberg Star. At the age of eight, the girl began performing at the Helen Rubenstein Children's Theater, where she received her first acting lessons. Whoopi was talented, she grabbed everything on the fly, flexible children's thinking helped her navigate in difficult dramatic situations that arise on the stage. However, at school, the girl studied unevenly, was constantly among the lagging behind, and then completely stopped attending classes. The younger sister of Whoopi Goldberg - Maggie - studied diligently and could be an example for her older sister, but she still dropped out of school. As a minor, Whoopi met with representatives of the hippie movement and joined their community. Soon, the girl left home and began to live in the commune, receiving a small unemployment benefit. I tried to forget, to escape from hopelessness with the help of marijuana, and then harder drugs.
Youth and drugs
Addiction completely mastered the consciousness of a young girl. Whoopi tried to fight drug addiction, but to no avail. Only when she met in 1970 with Alvin Martin, a volunteer from the organization “Against Drugs,” did positive changes take shape in her fate. The young man helped Whoopi to overcome the craving for drugs, and the mutual feelings brought them closer. Common interests appeared, the girl completely forgot about drugs, was constantly in the company of her friend. After breaking up with the hippies, she devoted all her time to Alvin. He also tried to be closer to Whoopi, to support her and to ensure that the girl did not return to marijuana. In the end, the young people got married, and a year later they had a daughter, who was named Alexandra. The family was a safe haven for both Whoopi and Alvin, a common child united young people, they got up together at night to the baby, during the day walked shoulder to shoulder in the park, rolling a stroller in front of them. But Alvin’s salaries became scarce, and the lack of money increasingly became a cause of quarrels. The young mother was very upset by the need, it seemed to her that the child was eating poorly, and the girl’s clothes left much to be desired.
Divorce
In the end, Katherine Whoopi got a job as a night watchman, and laid bricks at a construction site during the day. The young woman was not afraid of work, so she began to make good money. In 1974, the fate of Whoopi Goldberg changed dramatically, she found in the newspaper an advertisement for a vacancy in the new theater in the city of San Diego. I immediately remembered the children's performances of Helen Rubenstein, and Whoopi again wanted to go on stage. However, Alvin did not support his wife in her aspirations, he was not going to leave New York. But a young woman, already full of ambitious plans, showed character and, having parted with her husband, moved to California with her daughter.
Single Actor Theater
The theater career of actress Whoopi Goldberg began in San Diego successfully, she harmoniously blended into the troupe of the newly created Repertory Theater Theater. After working in it for some time, the actress then moved to San Francisco at the invitation of the owner of the Black Street Theater. After a while, Whoopi was entrusted with the main role in the play “Mother Courage”, and soon she became a leading actress, played the roles of the main female characters in almost all the performances. However, she soon became cramped in the theater, and Whoopi set out to create her own solo performance, in which she could play all the roles. So, in 1983, the project "Ghost Show" appeared, in which 6 female roles were played by actress Goldberg. The performance of "one actor" was wildly successful, while the theater audience was bored with academic performances, and Whoopi's lively, slightly grotesque performance captivated the audience.
Broadway
Thus began the triumphal procession of the young actress in theaters of the USA and Canada. In 1984, the show Whoopi Goldberg was visited by director Mike Nichols, who offered the actress an engagement in one of the theaters on Broadway. She agreed, temporarily left her solo performance and began to rehearse the roles received from the directors. Several performances in New York made Whoopi feel like an accomplished actress. And in one of the plays, she played in a duet with Timothy Dalton, her favorite actor. The melodramatic production was called “Love Letters”. And ahead of the actress was waiting for the career of a Hollywood movie star and the best films with Whoopi Goldberg.
First movie role
In 1985, Whoopi heard about the upcoming film adaptation of Alice Walker's novel, "Flowers of the Purple Field," similar in script to "Gone With the Wind." She immediately sent a letter to the writer asking for her role. Alice was familiar with the theatrical works of the actress and recommended her to film director Steven Spielberg. Without thinking twice, he decided to give the candidate the main role of Celia Johnson, a Negro woman of American descent, who in the course of the film evolved from a battered housewife to a completely independent, decisive woman. By the color of her skin, Whoopi was ideally suited for this role and, thus, she had a film debut, which was awarded the Golden Globe, as well as a nomination for an Oscar. Whoopi Goldberg, whose filmography began her reckoning with such a serious role in "Flowers of the Purple Fields", continued to act in films, but in the entertainment genre, comedies and detectives, family and crime series. Comedy with Whoopi Goldberg was a huge success.
Drama and Comedy
The most famous films with the participation of the film actress are “The Ghost”, “The Knight of Camelot”, “Jack Poprygun”, “Fatal Beauty”, “The Thief”. Thus, Whoopi Goldberg, whose filmography was rapidly replenished, formed her own role as a charming, slightly eccentric woman who does not recognize any conventions, and this role fully corresponded to her image in life. However, along with comedy roles in the cinema, there were other films with Whoopi Goldberg, she played a lot of dramatic roles. The actress was easily rebuilt, she could alternate serious roles with comedic ones, she did not need breaks in the shooting. The most memorable works are the films The Long Way Home, The Ghosts of Mississippi, in which Whoopi Goldberg played. The main roles obliged the actress to work with full dedication. The film "Homer and Eddie" directed by Andrei Konchalovsky received the main prize at the International Film Festival, which took place in the city of San Sebastian.
117 actress films
But not only the main roles in the films were played by Whoopi Goldberg (her filmography already included a number of significant films). In 1991, she received an Oscar for her supporting role in Jerry Zucker's Ghost film. And at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, the actress received a prize for her role in the movie Seraphina. Whoopi, like most of her other colleagues in the workshop, occasionally dubbed cartoons or read narration behind the scenes. She even starred in a short Michael Jackson music video Liberian Girl. The list of films with Whoopi Goldberg consists of 117 paintings of different genres.
TV series
Whoopi Goldberg did not stop working in the cinema, she began to participate in television projects. For several years in a row she was a regular participant in the show "Comic Assistance", regularly acted as the host of her own talk show. She starred in the television series "Star Trek", set according to the script in the genre of adventure fiction. Other series also could not do without the participation of a colorful actress, where she appeared as an invited guest. And in 1994 she was entrusted with conducting the ceremony of awarding and nominating for an Oscar, and since then Whoopi Goldberg, whose filmography also deserved several Oscars, was in demand as a host of such events.
Personal life
The personal life of actress Whoopi Goldberg was developing relatively well. She had three legitimate husbands - this is Alvin Martin, father of Alexandra, her only daughter, photographer David Kassen and businessman Michael Trachtenberg. All three marriages were short-term and lasted from one year to two years. Whoopi also had several civil marriages with Hollywood actors and cinema workers. Alexander's daughter made Whoopi a grandmother at 34, having given birth to a child at 16. The granddaughter named Amara was the firstborn, and after her Alexandra gave birth to two more children.