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Halle Berry
Berry visiting with sailors and Marines during the opening day of Fleet Week New York 2006.
Born	Halle Maria Berry
Spouse(s)	David Justice (1992-1996) Eric Benét (2001-2005)
Website	HalleWood.com

Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966) is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award-winning American actress and former fashion model and beauty queen. In 2002, Berry won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in Monster's Ball, and thus far the only woman of African American descent in history to win an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Biography

Early life and career

Berry's parents selected her first name from that of Halle's Department Store, which was then a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio. She is the daughter of Judith Ann Hawkins, an English Liverpudlian, and Jerome Jesse Berry, who was African American. Berry's maternal grandmother, Nellie Dicken, was born in Sawley, Derbyshire, England, while her maternal grandfather, Earl Ellsworth Hawkins, was born in Ohio. Berry's parents divorced when she was 4 years old and she was subsequently raised by her mother, a psychiatric nurse. Her father was an orderly in the same psychiatric ward where her mother worked. Berry has an older sister, Heidi who was born seven years before her. In 1989, Berry was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 1.

Berry was a popular student at Bedford High School and was a cheerleader, honor society member, editor of the school newspaper, class president and prom queen. She worked in the children's department at Higbee's Department store. She subsequently attended Cuyahoga Community College.

Before becoming an actress, she entered several beauty contests, winning Miss Ohio USA and Miss Teen All-American. Other entries include Miss USA (first runner-up in 1986 to Christy Fichtner of Texas, the second of the Texas Aces), and sixth place in Miss World 1986 (the winner being Trinidad and Tobago's Giselle Laronde). In the Miss USA 1986 pageant interview competition, she said she hoped to become an entertainer, or to have something to do with the media or newspaper. Her interview was awarded the highest score by the judges.

Hollywood career

In the late 1980s, she went to Chicago, to pursue a modeling career as well as acting. One of her first acting projects was a television series for local cable by Gordon Lake Productions called "Chicago Force. In 1992, Berry was cast as the love interest in R. Kelly's seminal hit, "Honey Love".

Berry auditioned for a role in an updated Charlie's Angels television series by producer Aaron Spelling. She impressed Spelling and he encouraged her to continue acting.

In 1989, Berry landed the role of Emily Franklin in the short-lived ABC television series Living Dolls (a spin-off of Who's the Boss?). Her breakthrough feature film role was in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever in which she played a drug addict named Vivian. In Her first co-starring role was in the film Strictly Business. In (1992) Berry portrayed a career woman who falls for Eddie Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. That same year, Berry caught the public's attention as a headstrong biracial slave in the TV adaption of Queen: The Story of an American Family, based on the book by Alex Haley. Another early role Berry played was the sultry secretary in the live action Flintstones movie as "Sharon Stone", in a part rumored to have been intended for Sharon Stone (Berry would later co-star alongside Stone in Catwoman). As a former drug addict struggling to regain custody of her son in "Losing Isaiah" (1995), Berry showed she could handle more serious fare, holding her own opposite powerhouse co-star Jessica Lange. In (1996), she played the role of Sandra Beecher in Race the Sun, which was based on a true story, and co-starred along side Kurt Russell in Executive Decision. Berry received praise for her role as an intelligent woman raised by activists who gives an older politician Warren Beatty a new lease on life in Bulworth and as the singer Zola Taylor, one of the three wives of pop singer Frankie Lymon, in the unfortunately overlooked biopic Why Do Fools Fall in Love both of (1998).

In 1999, Berry portrayed the first black woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award in the HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Berry's performance was recognized with several awards, including an Emmy and Golden Globe. She also served as one of the producers of the project. Berry portrayed the mutant Storm in the movie adaptation of the popular comic book series X-Men (2000) and its successful sequels X2: X-Men United (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). In late 2001, Berry appeared as Leticia Musgrove, the wife of an executed murderer, in the film Monster's Ball. Her performance was awarded prizes from groups like the National Board of Review and the Screen Actors Guild. The role earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress in which she made history by becoming the first African American woman to earn a Best Actress Academy Award.

As Bond Girl Jinx in the (2002) blockbuster Die Another Day she famously re-created the scene from Dr. No, bursting from the surf to be greeted by James Bond, as Ursula Andress did 40 years earlier. In late 2003, Berry starred in the psychological thriller Gothika opposite Robert Downey Jr.. Her next lead role was in the film Catwoman, for which she was awarded a "worst actress" Razzie award in 2005, which she accepted in person with a sense of humor and recognition that "to be at the top, you must experience the rock bottom".

Berry's next performance was for television, where she appeared in the Oprah Winfrey produced ABC telepic Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005), an adaptation of the popular Zora Neale Hurston novel in which Berry played Janie Crawford, an iconoclastic, free-spirited woman whose unconventional mores regarding relationships upset her 1920s contemporaries in her small community. Meanwhile, she voiced the character of Cappy, one of the many mechanical beings in the animated feature, Robots (2005).

She has (2006) filmed the thriller Perfect Stranger with Bruce Willis and recently wrapped shooting Things We Lost in the Fire with Benicio Del Toro. She is set to star in "Class Act", based on the real life story of a teacher whose students helped her run for political office and "Tulia", which will reunite her with Monster's Ball costar Billy Bob Thornton.

Berry is also making a transition to behind the scenes work in film and television. She is working with author Angela Nissel to executive produce a comedy series based on Nissel's two memoirs, The Broke Diaries and Mixed: My Life in Black and White .

Berry has served many years as the face of Revlon cosmetics and was recently named the new face of Versace. She is featured in Maxim magazine's Girls of Maxim gallery. She is also one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, commanding $14 million each for Gothika and Catwoman.

Personal life

Berry has been married twice. Her first marriage in 1992 to pro baseball player David Justice ended in divorce in 1996. David played with the Atlanta Braves and had experienced a measure of fame as the team rose to national attention in the early 1990s. They found it difficult to maintain their relationship when he was playing baseball and she was filming elsewhere. Her second marriage in 2001 to musician Eric Benét resulted in a 2004 separation and 2005 divorce. In 2004, after their separation, Berry stated "I want love, and I will find it, hopefully".. She adopted Eric's daughter India and Halle and India are still in contact after the separation.

As of 2006, she is currently dating Canadian supermodel Gabriel Aubry, who is nine years her junior. The couple met at a Versace photoshoot. After six months with Aubry, she stated in an interview "I'm really happy in my personal life, which is a novelty to me. You know I'm not the girl that has the best relationships".

Berry recently revealed to Extra that she plans to adopt children. "I will adopt if it doesn't happen for me naturally", she said. "I will definitely adopt. And I probably will adopt even if it does happen naturally". It has since been speculated that Aubry, who lived in five foster families between the ages of 3 and 18, possibly inspired Berry's interest in adoption. Later, she stated "I never want to be married again. I guess you could say I have bad taste in men. But I no longer feel the need to be someone's wife. I don't feel like I need to be validated by being in a marriage."

When speaking on the subject of having her own biological child, Berry has recently indicated that she has given thought to Aubry being the father, but that it is too early for that level of commitment involving a biological child between them. She stated that they both share the same feelings against the need to be married, and she indicated this to be one of she and Aubry's many strong bonds with one another. She stated that both feel the need to commit to one person emotionally and physically, but neither feels the obligation to marry in order to make that commitment official.

Film Awards/Nominations

• Academy Award
  • 2002, Best Actress: Monster's Ball (Winner)

• BAFTA Award
  • 2003, Best Lead Actress: Monster's Ball (Nominated)

• BET Award
  • 2003, Best Actress: (Winner)

• Black Movie Award
  • 2006, Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress: X3: The Last Stand (Nominated)
  • 2005, Outstanding Television Movie: Lackawanna Blues (Winner)

• Black Reel Awards
  • 2006, Best Actress in a TV Movie/ Mini-Series: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Nominated)
  • 2004, Best Actress: Gothika (Nominated)
  • 2003, Best Supporting Actress: Die Another Day (Nominated)
  • 2002, Best Actress: Monster's Ball (Winner)
  • 2000, Best Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series: Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (Winner)

Racial self-identification

Berry has stated that her self-identification is a result of the ignorance of her peers and her mother's influence. She is quoted as saying, "I was raised by my white mother and every day of my life I have always been aware of the fact that I am bi-racial. However, growing up I was aware that even though my mother was white, I did not look or 'feel' very white myself...Many times my classmates did not believe me when I said my mother was white. I soon grew tired of trying to prove that I was half-black and half-white and learned not to concern myself with what others thought. I began to relate to the other 'all black kids' at my school more because quite simply...I looked more like them...After having many talks with my mother about the issue, she reinforced what she had always taught me. She said that even though you are half black and half white, you will be discriminated against in this country as a black person...why should it matter what color anyone is or what heritage they identify with? If people would just learn to look at everyone equally and stop trying to label one another the issue of what we are all made of would be null and void...We are all members of the same race, the human race!"

Controversy

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• In February 2000, she was involved in a car accident when she struck another vehicle after running a red light and left the scene before the police arrived. Berry, who had sustained a head injury, later stated she had no recollection of the accident and pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge. She paid a fine, made restitution to the other driver, performed community services, and was placed on three years’ probation.

• Berry's portrayal of Storm in the X-Men films has provoked some criticism. Some fans of the character of Storm refer to Berry as "HalleStorm" or "movie Storm". Furthermore, there was a rumor that Berry had said that because of a lack of roles for black actors, she was "reduced to" playing a comic book character. Berry and co-star Ian McKellen maintain that she was misquoted.

• One of the controversies with Halle's Oscar winning role in Monster's Ball was other Hollywood stars' reaction to it. Angela Bassett stated in Newsweek that she declined the role of Leticia saying that "Film is forever. It's about putting something out there you can be proud of 10 years later." Later Halle Berry would tell Vogue that "I haven't spoken to her about it. I don't know what she said, what she meant, if she said it, if she didn't....It didn't really affect me in the way it affected a lot of other people." Finally in 2006, Bassett told the Times that she spoke with Berry and that "She was hurt, but not only did it hurt her, it hurt me. We talked it through."

Trivia

• In 2003, Berry was named No. 1 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll.
• In 2005, She was No.1 on VH1's top 50 Sexiest Bodies countdown.
• Channel 4 reported in 2006 that Berry has 6 toes on her right foot. However, she has since debunked that as the most unusual, and untrue, rumor circulating about her. (Interviewed on the WB11 Morning News, May 22, 2006)
• She had a kissing scene with Limp Bizkit frontman, Fred Durst, in the "Behind Blue Eyes" music video which was the theme song for the movie Gothika.
• She almost kissed Britney Spears (referred to the 2003 MTV VMA 'kiss' performance) when they did teaser commercial for Saturday Night Live. Both of them appeared on the show later that night.
• She made #1 on Vh1's Most Wanted Bodies.
• Was offered Honorary Membership into Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. However, Berry has not yet been initiated into the sorority.
• Halle Berry recently accepted Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of The Year award.

Selected filmography

TV work

• Living Dolls (1989) (cancelled after 13 episodes)
• Knots Landing (cast member in 1991)
• Queen: The Story of an American Family (1993) (miniseries)
• Solomon & Sheba (1996)
• The Wedding* (1997)
• Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) (also executive producer)
• Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005)

References

1. Although a 1968 birthdate is found in Britannica, NYTimes and MSN, she stated in interviews prior to August 2006 that she would turn 40 then. See: FemaleFirst, DarkHorizons, FilmMonthly, and see also CBS.
2. "Halle Berry looking for X factor". Retrieved 2007-02-07.
3. ^ "Ancestry of Halle Berry". Geneology.com. Retrieved 2007-02-07.
4. "Halle Berry – Oscar winning actress and Type 1 diabetic". Retrieved 2007-02-07.
5. Pageant Almanac - Miss USA 1986 Scores
6. "Berry: Ripe for success". BBC-News. 25 March 2002. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
7. ^ "Second Chance at Love". US Online. July 14, 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-07.
8. "Halle Berry: Sex and the Single X-Woman". Retrieved 2007-02-07.
9. ^ "Halle Berry: "I'll Never Marry Again"". Retrieved 2007-02-07.
10. http://racerelations.about.com/od/celebritiesandrace/a/hollywoodtoday.htm

External links

Official site

• Hallewood, Halle Berry's official website

Unofficial sites

• Halle Berry at IMDb
• Halle Berry at Rotten Tomatoes
• Template:Tvtome person
• Halle-Berry.Org
• Halle Berry forum, video & photos
• Halle Berry Better forum, video & photos

• American film actors
• American television actors
• Actresses who played James Bond girls
• Knots Landing cast members
• Best Actress Academy Award winners
• Emmy Award winners
• Worst Actress Razzie
• American models
• Miss USA delegates
• Miss World contestants
• African-American actors
• English Americans
• English American actors
• People from Cleveland
• 1966 births
• Living people
• American cheerleaders