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Henrie's Recipes
Dynamite in a dreadlocked package
Posted Fri, 29 Dec 2000
by Thozamile Ntingi
Whoopi Goldberg, or Caryn Johnson as she was christened, was born on 13 November 1955 and has assumed a unique position in the Hollywood hierarchy. She grew up in New York City, and has been performing in front of audiences since the age of eight.
She first appeared on stage at the Helena Rubinstein Children's Theatre in New York City and has never looked back since. She is an all-rounder of note - an actress, comedienne, writer/producer, and her astrological sign is Scorpio.
By the mid-1970s, the high school dropout and self-proclaimed hippie had appeared in the choruses of several Broadway musicals (“Hair”, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, and “Pippin”). She then got married and became addicted to heroin, which was followed by a divorce and an end to her heroin habit. In 1974 Caryn, destined for far greater things, headed to LA with daughter Alexandra in tow. A weeklong sojourn to San Diego turned into a six-year stopover, during which time she helped set up the San Diego Repertory Theatre and joined several struggling improvisational troupes. It was during the San Diego chapter of her life that Johnson chose for herself an offbeat stage name: "The name came out of the blue. First it was Whoopi Cushion. Then it was French, like Whoopi Cushon”.
Director Mike Nichols, who mounted her eponymous one-woman Broadway show in 1984, discovered her. The following year, she made a dazzling dramatic film debut in “The Color Purple”, a performance that earned her the Best Actress Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. The dreadlocked comedienne continued to appear live, joined the cast of television's “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, launched both a momentary sitcom called “Baghdad Café” and a late-night talk show, and tackled numerous movie roles.
Sadly, many of her film endeavours — “Burglar”, “Fatal Beauty”, “Homer” and “Eddie” - did not properly showcase her enormous talent, but she scored an unqualified hit and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar with her portrayal of a garishly-dressed medium in 1990's blockbuster “Ghost”.
The phenomenal and surprising success of the featherweight movie “Sister Act” (1991), led to the release of the sequel. Goldberg's projects since then have been a mixed bag of misses and hits, with clunkers like “National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon”, the oh-so-appropriately titled “Bogus” and Rob Reiner's uninspired “Ghosts of Mississippi”.
Goldberg also starred in the Winona Ryder-produced memoir adaptation “Girl, Interrupted” being counterbalanced with crowd-pleasers such as “Star Trek: Generations”, “Boys on the Side”, “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”, and “The Deep End of the Ocean”. Goldberg began an interesting chapter in her career in 1998, when she returned to the small screen to take centre stage in the new syndicated version of “The Hollywood Squares”.
Her unlikely affair with “Cheers” star Ted Danson broke up his long-time marriage. Danson donned blackface at her Friar's Club roast in 1993, and saw the demise of their relationship owing to his uncontrollable racist jokes. Goldberg recently ended a romantic relationship with actor Frank Langella, with whom she co-starred in the woebegone 1996 basketball comedy “Eddie”.
In 1994 and 1996, Goldberg served as host of the Oscars, making it clear, that in a very short time, she’d be the most talked about and wanted actress in the Hollywood game.
Whoopi has proved against all odds that she’s a force to be reckoned with in Tinsel Town. The dark dreadlocked thespian from New York is here to stay, and will continue to grace our screens for many years to come.
