Thursday, 8 May 2008

Halle Berry

The only African-American to have won a Best Actress Oscar, Halle Berry is a Hollywood A-lister

Halle looks fierce in a leopard print dress at the Celebrity Golf Classic Jenesse Silver Rose Gala And Auction, Los Angeles.

Name Halle Berry

Birth name Halle Maria Berry

Date of birth 14 August 1966

Star sign Leo

Birthplace Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Height 5ft 7in

Eye colour Brown

Marriages David Justice, 31 December 1992 (divorced June 1997); Eric Benét, 24 January 2001 (divorced January 2005)

Children Nahla Ariela Aubry, born 16 March 2008 (daughter of Gabriel Aubry)

Biography

Former fashion model and beauty queen Halle Berry is one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses – and the only woman of African-American descent to have won the Best Actress Academy Award.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Halle’s parents divorced when she was just four and she was raised by her mother. She entered several beauty contests in the 1980s – finishing runner-up in Miss USA and sixth in Miss World in 1986 – before moving to Illinois to pursue a modelling and acting career.

After several brief television roles, she got her film breakthrough in Jungle Fever (1991) and was later cast in The Flintstones (1994) and X-Men (2000). Her big moment came in 2001 when her performance as Leticia Musgrove, wife of an executed murderer, in Monster’s Ball won her the Best Actress Academy Award.

She was lusted after – notably in an Ursula Andress-style bikini scene – as Bond Girl Jinx in 2002 blockbuster Die Another Day, but she failed to set pulses racing in Catwoman, good-naturedly picking up the Worst Actress Razzie Award in 2005.

A Revlon spokeswoman, Halle launched her debut perfume range in 2008 and is making the transition to film and television production. After divorces from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, Halle began dating French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry in 2005 and the couple welcomed their first child, daughter Nahla, in March 2008.

Quotes

‘The worst thing a man can ever do is kiss me on the first date.’ (Internet Movie Database)

(On her suicide attempt)
‘… to end my life would be an incredibly selfish thing to do. It was all about a relationship. My sense of worth was so low. I promised myself I would never be a coward again.’ (Parade, March 2007)

‘I will never, never get married again.’ (In Style, April 2007)

‘Let me tell you something – being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult.’ (People, 3 August 2004)

(On her Oscar)
‘It’s for the women that stand beside me… and it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.’ (Oscar acceptance speech, 2002)