Halle Berry in Sunday Times Style
Halle Maria Berry
Born: 14-Aug-1966
Birthplace: Cleveland, OH
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Multiracial
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Catwoman
Halle Berry is a drop-dead gorgeous model and actress. She has played Catwoman, Storm in the X-Men movies, and a Bond girl in Die Another Day. She was named after the Halle Building in downtown Cleveland, former home of the Halle Brothers Department Store. The name rhymes with "rally."
Berry's father is black, her mother Caucasian. He left when Berry was four years old, then returned some years later but not for long. Some accounts say he was abusive to both his wife and daughters. In high school Berry was a cheerleader, class president, and prom queen. She won the Miss Teen All-American Pageant in 1985, and was first runner-up for Miss USA in 1986. She worked as a model, and acted in a low-budget local cable show called Chicago Force. Her first real work as an actress was on Living Dolls, a 1989 spin-off of the interminable Tony Danza sitcom, Who's the Boss? She was also on Knot's Landing for a year.
For her first movie role, Berry played a crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, and to "realistically" play the role she skipped bathing for days at a time. She has worked regularly in films ever since, doing good work in terrible movies like The Program and Executive Decision.
She won an Emmy for the 1999 HBO movie, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, where she played the star of Porgy and Bess. Dandridge was the first black actress nominated for an Oscar. Berry became the first black to win the Oscar for Best Actress, as the wife of an executed prisoner who falls for his racist killer in Monster's Ball. Accepting her statue, she said,
"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 and it's for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened. Thank you. I'm so honored. I am so honored and thank the Academy for choosing me to be the vessel from which this blessing might flow. Thank you."
Berry long refused to do nude scenes, but bared her breasts in Swordfish in exchange for a half-million-dollar bonus. In Monster's Ball, Berry's perky tits and sex scenes held the audience's attention through the film's extended boring parts.
In 2000, Berry was sentenced to community service for a hit-and-run accident after running a red light. Berry said she had no memory of being in an accident, and her doctors said she had sustained a head injury.
Robert Downey, Jr. accidentally broke Berry's arm filming a particularly emotional scene for Gothika. She has diabetes, and minimal hearing in her right ear, a result of being beaten by a pre-fame boyfriend.
Father: Jerome Berry (hospital attendant)
Mother: Judith Hawkins (psychiatric nurse)
Sister: Heidi Berry
Husband: David Justice (baseball player, m. 31-Dec-1992, div. 1997)
Boyfriend: Shemar Moore (actor, dated 2001)
Husband: Eric Benét (singer, m. 24-Jan-2001, div. 3-Jan-2005)
Boyfriend: Fred Durst (she disputes this)
Daughter: India (step-child, daughter of Eric)
Boyfriend: Pitof (film director, rumored to be dating)
Boyfriend: John Ronan
Boyfriend: Michael Ealy (actor)
High School: Bedford High School, Bedford, OH (1984)
University: Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, OH (no degree)
English Ancestry maternal side
Oscar for Best Actress 2002 for Monster's Ball
Emmy 2000 for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
Golden Globe 2002 for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
Leaving the Scene of an Accident Los Angeles, CA (Feb-2000)
Bond Girls Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson in Die Another Day
Risk Factors: Diabetes
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Robots (10-Mar-2005) [VOICE]
Catwoman (19-Jul-2004)
Gothika (13-Nov-2003)
X2 (24-Apr-2003)
Die Another Day (18-Nov-2002)
America: A Tribute to Heroes (21-Sep-2001) Herself
Monster's Ball (11-Nov-2001)
Swordfish (4-Jun-2001)
Welcome to Hollywood (27-Oct-2000) Herself
X-Men (13-Jul-2000)
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (14-Aug-1999)
Bulworth (15-May-1998)
Why Do Fools Fall In Love (8-Aug-1998)
B*A*P*S (28-Mar-1997)
Executive Decision (15-Mar-1996)
Girl 6 (22-Mar-1996) Herself
Race the Sun (22-Mar-1996)
The Rich Man's Wife (13-Sep-1996)
Losing Isaiah (17-Mar-1995)
The Flintstones (27-May-1994)
CB4 (12-Mar-1993) Herself
Father Hood (27-Aug-1993)
Queen (14-Feb-1993)
The Program (24-Sep-1993)
Boomerang (01-Jul-1992)
Jungle Fever (5-Jun-1991)
Strictly Business (8-Nov-1991)
The Last Boy Scout (13-Dec-1991)
Official Website: (
SUOSITTELEN)
http://www.hallewood.com/Appears on the cover of:
People, 12-May-2003, DETAILS: 50 Most Beautiful People
Entertainment Weekly, 23-Jan-2004, DETAILS: The Year's Best Events starring Halle Berry as Catwoman
