Today in our History – November 13, 1955 - Whoopi Goldberg, original name Caryn Elaine Johnson, was born.

GM – LIF – Today’s American Champion is an American actress, comedian, author, and television personality. She has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and is one of the few entertainers to have won an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award (EGOT). She is also the second black woman to win an Academy Award for acting.

Her breakthrough came in 1985 for her role as Celie, a mistreated woman in the Deep South, in Steven Spielberg's period drama film The Color Purple, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award. For her performance in the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990) as Oda Mae Brown, an eccentric psychic, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a second Golden Globe, her first for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1992, she starred in the comedy Sister Act, earning a third Golden Globe nomination, her first for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She reprised the role in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), making her the highest-paid actress at the time. Her other film roles include Made in America (1993), Corrina, Corrina (1994), The Lion King (1994), The Little Rascals (1994), Boys on the Side (1995), Theodore Rex (1995), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Girl, Interrupted (1999), For Colored Girls (2010), Toy Story 3 (2010), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Nobody's Fool (2018) and Furlough (2018). In television, she is known for her role as Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has been the moderator of the talk show The View since 2007. Enjoy!

Remember – “t's being willing to walk away that gives you strength and power - if you're willing to accept the consequences of doing what you want to do.”- - Whoopi Goldberg

Today in our History – November 13, 1955 - Whoopi Goldberg, original name Caryn Elaine Johnson, was born.

 She is an American comedian, actress, and producer known for her work in theatre, film, television, and recordings. An accomplished performer with a wide repertoire, her work ranged from dramatic leading roles to controversial comedic performances. She also garnered attention as a cohost of the TV talk show The View.

Goldberg spent her early years in a Manhattan housing project. She began performing at age eight with a children’s theatre group and later, as a young adult, went on to perform in the choruses of Broadway shows. She moved to California in 1974 and soon became active in the theatre community there, as well as establishing a presence as a stand-up comedian.

Eventually she developed The Spook Show, a one-woman stage show noted for its humour, satire, and drama, which she performed throughout the United States and Europe. That performance became the basis for the critically acclaimed Broadway show Whoopi Goldberg, which debuted in 1984, and in 1985 Goldberg won a Grammy Award for the show’s recording. Soon afterward she made her Hollywood debut in The Color Purple (1985), for which she garnered an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award.

Goldberg went on to perform in less-successful films before appearing in Ghost (1990), for which she won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for best supporting actress. Goldberg followed up with numerous performances in film and television, including hosting her own talk show for a brief stint, serving as host of the Academy Awards show on several occasions, and starring in the television show Whoopi (2003–04). In 2007 she became a cohost on the daytime television talk show The View.

In addition, Goldberg began producing works for television and stage in the late 1990s, and in 2002 she won a Tony Award for producing the Broadway show Thoroughly Modern Millie. Although her planned Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 ensemble theatre piece For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf was canceled in 2008, Goldberg played a religious zealot in the show’s 2010 film adaptation, For Colored Girls. She later produced the musical Sister Act (2011–12). Goldberg also acted on Broadway, appearing in solo shows as well as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2003) and Xanadu (2008).

During this time, Goldberg also guest starred on television shows such as the animated Robot Chicken and the musical comedy Glee. In 2014 she appeared as a news editor in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, an adaptation of the comic book series and television program, and as a sharp-tongued pharmacist in the small-town comedy Big Stone Gap. Goldberg’s later film credits included the drama 9/11 (2017), which centres on a group of people trapped in a World Trade Center elevator during the September 11, 2001, attacks; and the comedy Nobody’s Fool (2018), wherein she played the mother of a recently paroled ex-convict (played by Tiffany Haddish). Goldberg was an activist on behalf of several causes, including human rights, AIDS research, and children’s issues. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!