Whoopi Goldberg

Nov 13, 1955

New York City, New York, USA

Whoopi Goldberg (born Caryn Elaine Johnson, November 13, 1955), is an Academy Award, Daytime Emmy Award, Golden Globe, Tony, BAFTA and Grammy Award-winning American comedian, film actress and radio DJ.

Although her father was a Protestant preacher, Goldberg says that her family is of mixed religious heritage - including Catholic, Buddhist and Jewish traditions [citation needed], hailing from a "West Indian" immigrant community. Although she has a religious family heritage, she does not consid... ... (read more...) er herself in any religious denomination. Her stage name was taken from 'whoopie cushion', which she initially wanted as her name, but chose the last moniker of Goldberg after her mother pointed out that her initial name pick would not look dignified enough to take seriously. According to an 2006 interview, she stated that, "If you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You are like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from."
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She also had a recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Guinan.
Whoopi is one of only a few individuals (including Barbra Streisand, Mel Brooks, Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn and Helen Hayes) who have won an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy. She also is the second black female performer to win an Academy Award for acting (the first being Hattie McDaniel), and currently is the only black female performer to be nominated for an Oscar more than once.