Halle Berry
Date of birth : August 14, 1966Place of birth : Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Birth name : Halle Maria Berry
Name : Halle Berry
Height : 5' 6" (1.68 m)
Spouse(s) : David Justice (1992-1997) & Eric Benet (2001-2005)
Domestic partner : Gabriel Aubry (2005-present)
Education : Bedford High School in Cleveland (until 1984)
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1989–present
Biography:
Halle Maria Berry was born August 14th, 1966, in Cleveland, Ohio. The youngest daughter born to Jerome and Judith Berry, an interracial couple. Halle and her older sister Heidi spent the first few years of their childhood living in an inner-city neighborhood. In the early 1970s, Jerome Berry abandoned his wife and children, after which Judith moved her family to the predominantly white Cleveland suburb of Bedford.
Berry attended a nearly all-white public school, and as a result was subjected to discrimination at an early age. Her early bouts with racism greatly influenced her desire to excel. Throughout high school, the determined teen participated in a dizzying array of extracurricular activities, holding positions of newspaper editor, class president, and head cheerleader.
A natural performer, Berry earned a handful of beauty pageant titles during the early 1980s, including Miss Teen Ohio and Miss Teen America. She was eventually awarded first runner-up in the 1985 Miss U.S.A. competition.
As the 80s turned into the 90s, the aspiring actress began a career in television with a role on the short-lived sitcom Living Dolls (1989), followed by a year-long run on the CBS prime-time drama Knot's Landing, in 1991. Berry's first big-screen break came later that year when she was cast as Samuel L. Jackson's drug-addicted girlfriend in Spike Lee's crticially acclaimed film, Jungle Fever. More substantial supporting roles followed, including that of a stripper in the action-thriller The Last Boy Scout (1991), starring Bruce Willis, and as the woman who finally wins Eddie Murphy's heart in the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992). Berry's acting credits the next year included two 1996 crime thrillers: The Rich Man's Wife, and Executive Decision. The latter film marked Berry's first leading role in a feature.
Trivia:
* Halle Berry is a spokeswoman for Revlon cosmetics.
* She was placed on three years probation and ordered to pay $13,500 in fines and penalties after pleading no contest on May 10, 2000 to a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of a traffic accident. The judge also ordered the actress to perform 200 hours of community service and to make restitution as determined by the outcome of civil litigation arising from the February accident when she was driving a rented Chevrolet Blazer and ran a red light and crashed into another car on Sunset Boulevard. She left the scene of the accident before authorities arrived, suffered a gash to her head that required 20 stitches to close, and the woman (Hetal Raythatha) driving the other vehicle broke her wrist. Halle reported the accident to a police officer at the hospital where she sought treatment.
* She was one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 1998.
* She was Miss USA first runner-up in 1986.
* She became Miss Ohio USA in 1986.
* She became Miss Teen All American in 1985.
* She is named after the grand old Halle Building in Cleveland, Ohio, which originally housed the Halle Brothers department store. The building is now an office building and the fictional setting for the Winfred-Louder department store on "The Drew Carey Show" (1995).
* In high school, she was an honor society member, editor of the school paper, and class president. Was also crowned prom queen.
* She lost some hearing in one of her ears due to a physical encounter with a boyfriend in the early 90s.
* She is the first African American actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
* April 10, 2002 - She received an injury on the set of Die Another Day (2002). Halle was injured on location in Cadiz, Spain while shooting an action sequence that involved Pierce Brosnan firing on a helicopter being flown by Rick Yune.
* Portrayed Dorothy Dandridge in the made for television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) (TV). Dorothy Dandridge was the first African- American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and coincidentally Halle Berry is the first to have won in that category.
* She was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine in 2002.
* She graduate of Bedford High School, Bedford, Ohio
* She is the first black American in the Miss World Competition. She didn't win a prize but her dress did.
* She is the only official "Bond Girl" to win an Academy Award. Although Kim Basinger (Best Supporting Actress, L.A. Confidential (1997)) was a "Bond Girl", Never Say Never Again (1983) is not included in the list of 20 official James Bond films.
* Her measurements: 36C-22-37 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
* She became engaged to singer Eric Benet on 14 August 1999. Benet has a daughter, India (b. 1991).
* She is half British on her mother's side.
* She is the first actress to star and portray two different comic book characters for two different comic book companies: "Storm" for Marvel's X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003), and "Catwoman" for D.C Comics's Catwoman (2004).
* She was the highest paid black actress in Hollywood in 2004.
* Her dress for the 2002 Oscars ceremony was voted the most popular from the first 75 years.
* She ranked #96 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List.
* She was Named one of the 50 most beautiful people in People Magazine in 2003.
* She was voted the 10th Sexiest Female Movie Star in the Australian Empire Magazine September 2002.
* She was voted as #7 on the "Top 100 Sexiest Women 2004" in FHM [DK].
* She was named one of the Top 10 authentic beauties in 2004. She was in the seventh rank in that list.
* Her first $1 million salary for a film was for Executive Decision (1996) - a part which she earlier refused.... until she was offered $1 million.
* She was voted #7 on VH1's "100 Hottest Hotties."
* She ranked #15 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World" (2002).
* She was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine in 2005.
* She was voted #1 on BET's "All Shades of Fine: The 25 Hottest Women of the Past 25 Years" (2005).
* She was named #41 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list.
* She became Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals' 2006 Woman of the Year.
* She was named #5 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" special supplement. (2005)
* She was featured as #7 in Maxim Magazine's "Hot 100 of 2002" supplement. (2002)
* She is the first actress to star in a "Bond-film" following an Oscar win.
* She adopted Eric Benet's daughter India.
* She was named #6 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006" supplement. (2006).
* She is an active participant with the Jenesee Center (for abused women and children) in Los Angeles.
* She was ranked #55 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list.
* Halle and her partner Gabriel Aubry became the parents of a daughter named Nahla Ariela Aubry, born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, on 16 March 2008.
* She was named "Sexiest Woman Alive" by Esquire magazine in 2008.
Personal Quotes:
On Dorothy Dandridge: "...You have to find a way to be sad on every day, in every scene, in every moment. And always try to hide the sadness. And (then) you'll get the essence of who she was."
"This moment is so much bigger than me, This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll... It's for the women that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett Smith, Angela Bassett, Vivica A. Fox... and it's for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance, because the door tonight has been opened." - During her Oscar acceptance speech.
On choosing both serious and popcorn-movie roles: "There's art and there's commerce. You have to find a way to mesh the two. It's important to do the little movies just for the love of the art. But it's those big movies that take you around the world and make you globally famous."
I'll never get married again, and I always hate to say never to anything, but I will never marry again.
I was black growing up in an all-white neighborhood, so I felt like I just didn't fit in. Like I wasn't as good as everybody else, or as smart, or whatever.
Blackness is a state of mind and I identify with the black community. Mainly, because I realized, early on, when I walk into a room, people see a black woman, they don't see a white women. So out of that reason alone, I identify more with the black community.
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