Halle Berry

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actress

Personal Information

Born August 14, 1968 (some sources say 1966); daughter of Judith (a registered nurse) Berry; married David Justice (a professional baseball player), 1993, divorced, 1997; married Eric Benet (an R&B singer), 2001, divorced, 2004.
Education: Attended Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, OH.

Career

Actress and model; appeared on Bob Hope's USO Tour; television appearances include "Living Dolls," ABC, "Knots Landing," CBS, "Queen," CBS TV miniseries, "Solomon and Sheba," made for cable television movie, "Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding," ABC, "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," HBO, "Oprah Winfrey Presents: Their Eyes Were Watching God," ABC; motion picture appearances include Jungle Fever, Strictly Business, and The Last Boy Scout, all 1991, Boomerang, 1992, Father Hood, 1993, The Program, The Flintstones in 1994, Losing Isaiah, 1995, Executive Decision, Rich Man's Wife in 1996, B.A.P.S., 1997, Bulworth, Why Do Fools Fall In Love? in 1998, X-Men, 2000, Swordfish, Monster's Ball in 2001, Die Another Day, 2002, X2, Gothika in 2003, Catwoman, 2004, Robots (voice), 2005; has competed in beauty pageants. Volunteer, Juvenile Diabetes Association.

Life's Work

"I don't want to be just a sex goddess," film and television actress Halle Berry divulged to Lawrence Chua in Elle, "but then I don't want to play just crackheads either." Notable whether playing ingénues or junkies, she has performed roles in films as diverse as Boomerang, which starred Eddie Murphy, and filmmaker Spike Lee's controversial Jungle Fever. A former model and first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant, Berry, who also appeared on television as Debbie Porter on Knots Landing, postulates that planning helped her leap to leading lady status in the film industry. The actress told Chua, "Preparation, luck and opportunity seemed to come together at the same time."

Born to a white mother and black father, Berry grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents separated when she was four years old. Halle and her sister Heidi were raised by their mother, Judith, a registered nurse. Throughout her childhood, Berry recalled, she was so shy her mother had to coax her to leave home to go downtown. Being the offspring of a biracial couple, Berry had her initial encounter with prejudice as a youngster, when her family moved from an inner-city neighborhood to suburban Cleveland. "People would call me 'zebra' and leave Oreo cookies in our mailbox," she recounted to Chua. When she questioned her mother about these incidents, Berry related in Ebony, her mother explained, "I'm white, and you are Black.... What do you see when you look in the mirror? You see what everyone else sees. They don't know that you're biracial. They don't know who your mother is, and they aren't going to care."

From the time she was in grade school, Berry wanted to be an actress. She related to Laurie Werner in USA Weekend, "I would imitate scenes from The Wizard of Oz. I even had the right dog." A cheerleader, Berry also became prom queen and class president during her high school years. When she was 17 years old, Berry was surprised to learn one of her high school boyfriends had entered her name in the Miss Teen Ohio beauty pageant. Winning the title, she then entered a succession of other pageants, including Miss World, in which she won the dress competition. Berry was also named first runner-up in the Miss USA competition after her selection as Miss Ohio in 1985.

In 1986 Berry enrolled at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland to study broadcast journalism. When she took an internship at a local radio station, Berry discovered she disliked reporting. She left college before completing her degree to pursue modeling and study acting in Chicago. Her mother encouraged the career transition, Berry divulged to Chua: "When I left home to start acting, [my mother's] attitude was, 'Keep your chin up, go do it; but if you fail, home is always here.'"

While in Chicago, Berry auditioned for a role in producer Aaron Spelling's television pilot Charlie's Angels '88. Although the show did not materialize, Spelling was impressed with Berry's screen test. He encouraged her not to give up acting. Two big breaks in the young actress's career came with a three-week USO tour with Bob Hope and a starring role as a teenage fashion model in the short-lived television series Living Dolls. Berry remarked in Ebony, "Here I was an ex-model, a former beauty queen and when Living Dolls was canceled, I was playing a model. People weren't taking me seriously."

Hoping audiences would view her differently, Berry prepared for her next role as a crack addict named Vivien in Jungle Fever by interviewing several crack addicts and going ten days without a bath. Although her role brought her acclaim, Berry took a recurring part in the television series Knots Landing for financial purposes. "I'm a real miser," the actress told Werner. "I want a cushion," she added.

After Berry's 1991 appearance as a femme fatale in the motion picture Strictly Business, Peter Biskind wrote in Premiere, "Berry may still be playing somebody's girlfriend, but clearly her star is ascending." The actress almost lost the leading role of Natalie in the comedy. She recalled to Chua, "I found out that they hired me, thought I was too light-skinned, hired someone darker, realized that was a mistake, and then hired me again. And I understood that I had gone through all of this agony for two weeks just because of my skin color."

Although critics were divided in their reviews of the film, Berry's portrayal marked a turning point in her career. Her appearance in leading roles was assured with her selection as Damon Wayans' exotic dancer girlfriend in the movie The Last Boy Scout. Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote, "The best thing in the film is Halle Berry. She is an actress who is going places." Berry researched her role in the movie by paying the owner of a Hollywood strip joint to let her dance. After the film's success, Berry commented to Biskind, "I don't want to rise to superstardom overnight, like Julia Roberts. There's no place to go but down."

"Though she is an imposing beauty ... Berry's radiant looks belie the strengths that have made her a young actress worth watching," wrote Chua in 1992, after the release of the comedy Boomerang. Judy Gerstel of the Detroit Free Press lauded Berry in the film as "versatile," noting that her role as Angela was "played to doe-eyed perfection." The year Boomerang was released, Ebony profiled the young actress as an image breaker: "A down-to-earth, drop-dead gorgeous woman, Berry exudes confidence, having already shattered the Hollywood adage that models can't act."

As her film career picked up steam, Berry began a relationship with Atlanta Braves baseball player, David Justice. Their whirlwind courtship began in 1992 and ended when Berry proposed to him, and the couple were married on New Year's Day in 1993. She told Ebony in 1994 that Justice was her "soulmate, my rock, my prince on a white horse." Compared to the other men Berry had been involved with, Justice was Prince Charming. One of her ex-boyfriends sued her and sold his story to a national tabloid newspaper. Another ex hit her in the ear so hard she lost 80 percent of her hearing in that ear.

The couple were likened to another famous couple, Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio. And like them, the marriage ended in divorce. Just a couple of months after celebrating their third anniversary, Justice asked for a divorce. It devastated Berry. She told Ebony in 1997: "I was numb for probably two months. I was walking around in a daze. I didn't know how to function. I would wake up in the middle of the night and think this is just a bad dream. I kept saying, 'No, this isn't really real. David's just on a road trip.'"

Her friends rallied to support Berry--her mother even flew to Los Angeles to be with her. But she still had self-doubts and thoughts of suicide. Berry even made an attempt by getting in her car to inhale toxic fumes, but she recalled to Ebony, "somewhere in my heart, I think I knew I didn't really want to end my life. I just wanted to end the pain."

Berry entered therapy and threw herself into her work. Her next film, B.A.P.S., was a comedy directed by Robert Townsend. She described to Ebony how working on this film helped her heal, "It's a comedy, and I wasn't very funny, so I wasn't confident that I would be able to be in that space. But it turned out to be therapeutic. I could laugh and be silly and let go of all that negative energy."

Throughout her acting career, Berry has sought roles that were diverse. She went from a hip-hop dancer in Strictly Business to a college co-ed in The Program to playing a recovering drug addict fighting for her son in Losing Isaiah--she won raves for this portrayal. She is also known to play characters of the past. She portrayed Alex Haley's paternal grandmother in "Queen," a television miniseries. She took a turn as a pre-historic secretary in the live-action film, The Flintstones, and she played Sheba in "Solomon and Sheba," a made for cable television movie. This also marked the first time an African American has portrayed Sheba, who was an Ethiopian. In one year alone, Berry portrayed the love interest of Warren Beatty in Bulworth, then a young woman trying to choose between two men while dealing with her past in "The Wedding," produced by Oprah Winfrey, and Why Do Fools Fall In Love?, a movie based on singer Frankie Lymon's life, where she played Zola Taylor, a member of the singing group The Platters and one of Lymon's wives.

In addition to becoming one of Hollywood's best known African American actresses, Berry returned to modeling when she signed with Revlon Cosmetics. She also signed on for many more movie appearances. Berry was a huge hit in the 1999 HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. The film told the life story of Dandridge, a promising young nightclub singer-turned-actress who faced racial prejudice during the 1950s as she tried to become a star. Dandridge was the first black sex symbol of the big screen and the first black actress to receive an Academy Award nomination, though she never achieved star status because of her skin color. Berry, herself, was eager to play the role and counts Dandridge among her idols. As Berry told Jet, "I was mesmerized by her poise and her charisma. I had never seen a Black woman quite like that in a film. She was someone I could admire and aspire to be like. She gave me hope."

Playing Dandridge pushed Berry to new heights as an actress and she impressed director Martha Coolidge, who told Jet, "There couldn't be a better person … to portray Dorothy Dandridge. She is beautiful in the same way. She also has an incredible sensitivity. She is absolutely driven in the same way and, even today, feels the same outrage at limitations placed on her that Dorothy felt in her day." Berry won several awards for her role, including a Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a miniseries or made-for-TV motion picture.

Berry was just getting stared. In 2001 she blew audiences away in Monster's Ball, portraying Leticia Musgrove, a black woman who becomes involved with her husband's white prison guard executioner. Renowned movie critic Roger Ebert proclaimed the movie to be the best of the year. Sure enough, Berry won an Academy Award for best actress in a leading role, becoming the first African American to win in that category.

Berry also tried her hand at sci-fi fantasy, starring in X-Men in 2000 and X2 in 2003, proving herself to be a successful action heroine who could draw people into the box office. X-Men had a colossal opening, drawing $54 million its first weekend, which was the largest-ever opening for a non-sequel film. Berry failed, however, in trying to bring the comic-book heroine Catwoman to life in 2004. This flick garnered horrible reviews, especially for Berry. Critics lambasted her performance, saying she never should have taken the role, which was more suited for a person with a dancing background who could pull off the feline moves. Berry's performance was so bad it earned her a Razzie Award for worst actress. Putting the failure behind her, Berry turned to filming X-Men 3, due in 2006, and looked forward to the future. Despite the shortcomings of some of her films, Berry, unlike Dandridge, has successfully fought Hollywood's racism and risen above her circumstances. She has proven to herself--and others--that she is a fighter and will continue to do so.

Awards

Named Miss Teen Ohio and Miss Ohio, 1985; first runner-up, Miss USA Pageant, 1985; winner of dress competition, Miss World Pageant, 1986; NAACP Image Award; voted one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine; Image Award, outstanding lead actress in a television movie or miniseries, for Queen, 1995; Golden Globe, best performance by an actress in a miniseries or made for TV motion picture, for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, 2000; Image Award, outstanding actress in a television movie/miniseries/dramatic special, for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, 2000; Screen Actors Guild Award, outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or miniseries, for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, 2000; Academy Award, best actress in a leading role, for Monster's Ball, 2002; Screen Actors Guild Award, outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role, for Monster’s Ball, 2002; BET Award, best actress, 2002; Berlin International Film Festival, Silver Berlin Bear award, 2002; Black Reel Awards, best actress, for Monster’s Ball, 2002; Image Award, outstanding actress in a motion picture, for Swordfish, 2002; Image Award, outstanding supporting actress in a motion picture, for Die Another Day, 2003; Teen Choice Award, choice movie actress in a drama/action adventure, for Gothika, 2004; ShoWest Award, female star of the year, 2004; Razzie Awards, worst actress, for Catwoman, 2005.

Works

Selected Works

• (Films) Jungle Fever, 1991. The Last Boy Scout, 1991. Strictly Business, 1991. Boomerang, 1992. The Program, 1994. The Flintstones, 1994. Losing Isaiah, 1995. B.A.P.S., 1997. Bulworth, 1998. Why Do Fools Fall In Love?, 1998. X-Men, 2000. Monster's Ball, 2001. X2, 2003. Catwoman, 2004. (television and cable) "Living Dolls," ABC. "Knots Landing," CBS. "Queen," CBS, 1994. "Solomon and Sheba," 1995. "The Wedding," ABC, 1998. "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," HBO, 1999.

Further Reading

Sources

• Daily Variety, March 25, 2004.
• Detroit Free Press, July 1, 1992.
• Ebony, February 1992; October 1992; December 1994; March 1997.
• Elle, April 1992.
• Essence, October 1996.
• Jet, November 11, 1991; August 23, 1999.
• New York Times, February 3, 2002.
• People, November 25, 1991; December 23, 1991; July 20, 1992; May 11, 1998; September 19, 2005.
• Premiere, December 1991.
• Upscale, June/July 1992; October/November 1992.
• USA Weekend, November 8-10, 1991
• Other
• Information obtained from the Internet at www.cleveland.com and http//:e1.eonline.com.

— Marjorie Burgess and Ashyia N. Henderson

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Quotes:

"I spent a lot of time with a crown on my head. [On her beauty pageant days]"

Biography

A woman whose combination of talent, tenacity, and beauty has made her one of Hollywood's busiest actors, Halle Berry has enjoyed a level of success that has come from years of hard work and her share of career pitfalls.

Berry's interest in show business came courtesy of her participation in a number of beauty pageants throughout her teens, including the 1986 Miss U.S.A. Pageant. A native of Cleveland, OH, where she was born to an African-American father and white mother on August 14, 1968, Berry was raised by her mother, a psychiatric nurse, following her parents' divorce. At the age of 17, she appeared in the spotlight for the first time as the winner of the Miss Teen All-American Pageant, and subsequently became a model. Berry won her first professional acting gig on the TV series Living Dolls, and then appeared on Knots Landing before winning her first big-screen role in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. It was on the set of the film that she first earned her reputation for her full commitment to acting, reportedly refusing to bathe for weeks in preparation for her portrayal of a crack addict.

Following her film debut, Berry was cast opposite Eddie Murphy in Boomerang (1992) as the comedian's love interest; not only did she hold her own against Murphy, but the same year she did acclaimed work in the title role of the Alex Haley miniseries Queen, playing a young woman struggling against the brutal conditions of slavery.

After a comedic turn as sultry secretary Sharon Stone in the 1994 live-action version of The Flintstones, Berry returned to more serious fare with her role in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah (1995). Starring opposite Jessica Lange as a former crack addict battling to win custody of her child, who as a baby was adopted by an affluent white couple, Berry earned a mixed reception from critics, some of whom noted that her scenes with Lange highlighted Berry's own shortcomings.

However, critical opinion of the actress' work was overwhelmingly favorable in 1998, when she starred as a street smart young woman who comes to the aid of a bumbling politician in Warren Beatty's Bullworth. The following year, Berry won even greater acclaim -- and an Emmy and Golden Globe -- for her turn as tragic screen siren Dorothy Dandridge in the made-for-cable Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Unfortunately, any acclaim Berry enjoyed was overshadowed by her widely publicized brush with the law in February of 2000, when she allegedly ran a red light, slammed into another car, and then left the scene of the accident. The actress, who suffered a gash to her forehead (the driver of the other car sustained a broken wrist), was booked in a misdemeanor court in early April of that year.

Fortunately for Berry, her subsequent onscreen work removed the spotlight from her legal troubles; that same year, she starred as Storm in Bryan Singer's hugely successful adaptation of The X-Men. Working alongside a cast that included Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, and Anna Paquin, Berry was hailed for her work as the first African-American comic book heroine on the screen. Acclaim was not quite as forthcoming for her work opposite John Travolta in Dominic Sena's cheesy thriller Swordfish, which touted itself as the first movie to feature Berry baring her breasts. Unfortunately, it didn't allow for equal exploitation of the talents that Berry possessed above her collarbone.

Berry again bared more than her character's inner turmoil in Monster's Ball (2001), a romantic drama directed by Marc Forster that starred the actress as a woman who becomes involved with a racist ex-prison-guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who oversaw the prison execution of her husband (Sean Combs). Berry earned wide critical praise for her work in the film, as well as Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actress. And though she may have lost out to Sissy Spacek in the Golden Globes, her night at the Oscars found Berry the favored performer as took home a statue for Best Actress. A momentous footnote in Academy Award history, Berry's win marked the first time an African American had been bestowed that particular honor.

Although her turn in the James Bond flick Die Another Day was so successful that talk began of a spin-off film, Berry's first true post-Oscar vehicle Gothika proved to be unpopular with both critics and moviegoers. Luckily, 2003 wasn't a total loss for her though as X2: X-Men United was a box-office smash and was regarded by many to be superior to its predecessor. Sticking with comic-books as source-material, Berry could be seen in Catwoman the following Summer. The film was the biggest flop of her career, panned by audiences and critics, and earning the actress a coveted Razzie for her terrible performance. She won back a great deal of respect, however, by starring in the made for TV adaptation of the Zora Neale Hurston novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the next year. She followed this moving performance with a return to her X-Men comrades for X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, then signed on to star alongside a decidedly creepy Bruce Willis in the suspense thriller Perfect Stranger (2007), directed by James Foley. In that film, she portrayed a hard-nosed reporter prone to catching and indicting sleazebags, who becomes unduly implicated with a pathological corporate big wig responsible for murdering his wife (Willis). The film netted mostly negative reviews (one prominent critic branded it as yet another ill-advised choice for Berry), but such comments seemed myopic and ham-handed in retrospect; whatever the strengths and weaknesses of the film per se, the Stranger part in fact represented one of three extremely ambitious assignments in a powerhouse year for Berry that demanded the utmost of the actress's dramatic abilities: the others included the uplifting psychological drama Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) - as an emotionally shattered housewife, reeling from the tragic violent death of her husband, who finds unlikely solace in a friendship with a recovering heroin addict (Benicio del Toro); and Class Act (2007), as a real-life middle school teacher who runs for Congress at the behest of her students and captures a whopping 35% of the popular vote. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

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