By Penny Bancroft
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (/ˈwʊpi/), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is one of few people to receive an Emmy Award, Grammy Award, Academy Award, and Tony Award, collectively known as the EGOT. In 2001, she received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Goldberg began her career on stage in 1983 with her one-woman show, Spook Show, which transferred to Broadway under the title Whoopi Goldberg, running from 1984 to 1985. She won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for the recording of the show. Her film breakthrough came in 1985 with her role as Celie, a mistreated woman in the Deep South, in Steven Spielberg‘s period drama film The Color Purple, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. For her role as an eccentric psychic in the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a second Golden Globe Award. She starred in the comedy Sister Act (1992) and its sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), becoming the highest-paid actress at the time. She also acted in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986), Clara’s Heart (1988), Soapdish (1991), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), and Till (2022). She also voiced roles in The Lion King (1994) and Toy Story 3 (2010).
On stage, Goldberg has starred in the Broadway revivals of Stephen Sondheim‘s musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and August Wilson‘s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. She won a Tony Award as a producer of the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. In 2011 she received her third Tony Award nomination for the stage adaptation of Sister Act (2011). On television, Goldberg portrayed Guinan in the science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988–1993), and Star Trek: Picard (2022). Since 2007, she has co-hosted and moderated the daytime talk show The View, for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. She has hosted the Academy Awards ceremony four times.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Esaias Tegner (writer) –
- Lady Caroline Ponsonby Lamb (author) –
- Edwin Booth (actor) –
- Robert Louis Stevenson (author) –
- Louis Brandeis (U.S. Supreme Court justice) –
- Alexander Scourby (actor) –
- Richard Mulligan (actor) –
- Garry Marshall (producer, director, & actor) –
- Dack Rambo (actor) –
- Chris Noth (actor) –
- Whoopi Goldberg (actress) –
- Jimmy Kimmel (television host) –
- Monique Coleman (actress) –
Died
- Gioacchino Rossini (composer) –
- Irv Rubin (Jewish Defense League leader) –
- Robert Pershing “Bobby” Doerr (baseball player) –
- Katherine MacGregor (actress) –
Events
- David Kirke granted co-proprietorship of Newfoundland–
- U.S. General Montgomery captured Montreal–
- Thousands of meteors fell per hour in the eastern United States–
- The Holland Tunnel between New York and New Jersey opened–
- Ginger Rogers married Lew Ayres–
- Walt Disney’s Fantasia premiered at the Broadway Theater in New York; first film to attempt to use stereophonic sound–
- Sammy Davis Jr. married May Britt–
- Bob Pettit was the first to reach 20,000 career points in the NBA–
- Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mars)–
- Li’l Abner, Al Capp’s 43-year-old comic strip, appeared in newspapers for the last time–
- The Wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated, Washington, D.C.–
- Volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts in Colombia, killing over 23,000 people.–
- Groundbreaking ceremony held for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.–
Weather
- The first great storm of what became the Dust Bowl spread a pall from the Great Plains to New York–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
