Halle Berry
*Halle Berry was born on this date in 1966. She is a Black actress and model.
Berry was named after the department store Halle Brothers from Cleveland, Ohio. Their mother raised her and her older sister Heidi, Judith Berry Hawkins, a white, retired psychiatric nurse. Her abusive father left the family when Halle was four. His name is Jerome Berry, a former hospital attendant and black.
While in high school, she was a cheerleader, editor of the school newspaper, member of the honor society, and prom queen. She also achieved the status of Miss Ohio and Miss Teen All-American. In 1986, she was first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and the first black to represent America in the Miss World competition in London.
Berry stated that her biracial background was "painful and confusing" when she was a young woman, and she decided early on to identify as a Black woman because she knew that was how she would be perceived.
In her hometown, Berry studied broadcast journalism at the Cuyahoga Community College. After this, she modeled in Chicago, which led to her first weekly TV series, 1989's Living Dolls. An actress of physical beauty and elegance, she rapidly gained a reputation for on-set tenacity, preferring to "live" her roles and remaining in character even when the cameras stopped. This technique continued when she reportedly refused to bathe for several days before starting work on her role as a crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991).
However, such research/style paid off. The following year, Berry was cast in Boomerang. She was the secretary of Sharon Stone in The Flintstones (1994). She also co-starred in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah (1995). Three years later, she played a street-smart young woman in Bulworth. In 1989, she won acclaim as tragic screen icon Dorothy Dandridge in the made-for-cable Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
David Justice (a professional baseball player) and Berry were married in 1993 and divorced in 1997. Berry married her second husband, singer-songwriter Eric Benét, in 2001, following a two-year courtship. By early October 2003, they had separated, with the divorce finalized in 2005. In November 2005, Berry began dating French Canadian model Gabriel Aubry; Berry gave birth to their daughter in March 2008. On April 30, 2010, Berry and Aubry announced their relationship had ended some months earlier. She and Oliver Martinez were married in France on July 13, 2013. In October 2013, Berry gave birth to their son. In 2015, the couple's divorce was finalized in December 2016.
She has won many awards for acting, including the 1999 Golden Globe: Best Actress (Miniseries, TV Movie) for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. 1999, Screen Actors Guild: Female Actor (Television Movie or Miniseries), Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. 2002, Screen Actors Guild: Best Actress, Monster's Ball, and 2002, Oscar: Best Actress, Monster's Ball.
In August 2013, Berry testified before the California State Assembly's Judiciary Committee to support a bill to protect celebrities' children from harassment by photographers. The bill passed in September.
Berry competed against James Corden in the first rap battle on the first episode of Drop the Mic, originally aired on October 24, 2017. As of February 2019, she was the executive producer of the television series Boomerang, based on the film in which she starred. Berry made her directorial debut with the feature Bruised, in which she plays a disgraced MMA fighter, Jackie Justice, who reconnects with her estranged son. The film's world premiere was held at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2020.
