Berry, Halle 1967(?)–

Halle Berry 1967(?)–

Actress and model

At a Glance…

Sources

“I don’t want to be just a sex goddess,” film and television actress Halle Berry divulged to Lawrence Chua in Elle, “but then I don’t want to play just crackheads either.” Notable whether playing ingenues or junkies, she has performed roles in films as diverse as Boomerang, which starred Eddie Murphy, and filmmaker Spike Lee’s controversial Jungle Fever. A former model and first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant, Berry also appeared on television as Debbie Porter on Knots Landing. She feels that planning helped her leap to leading lady status in the film industry. The actress told Chua, “Preparation, luck and opportunity seemed to come together at the same time.”

Born to a white mother and black father, Berry grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents separated when she was four years old. Halle and her sister Heidi were raised by their mother, Judith, a registered nurse. Throughout her childhood, Berry recalled, she was so shy her mother had to coax her to leave home to go downtown. Being the offspring of a biracial couple, Berry had her initial encounter with prejudice as a youngster, when her family moved from an inner-city neighborhood to suburban Cleveland. “People would call me ‘zebra’ and leave Oreo cookies in our mailbox,” she recounted to Chua. When she questioned her mother about these incidents, Berry related in Ebony, her mother explained, “I’m white, and you are Black.... What do you see when you look in the mirror? You see what everyone else sees. They don’t know that you’re biracial. They don’t know who your mother is, and they aren’t going to care.”

From the time she was in grade school, Berry wanted to be an actress. She related to Laurie Werner in USA Weekend, “I would imitate scenes from The Wizard of Oz. I even had the right dog.” A cheerleader, Berry also became prom queen and class president during her high school years. When she was 17 years old, Berry was surprised to learn one of her high school boyfriends had entered her name in the Miss Teen Ohio beauty pageant. Winning the title, she then entered a succession of other pageants, including Miss World, in which she won the dress competition. Berry was also named first runner-up in the Miss USA competition after her selection as Miss Ohio in 1985.

In 1986 Berry enrolled at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland to study broadcast journalism. When she took an internship at a local radio station, Berry discovered she

At a Glance…

First name rhymes with Sally; born c. 1967; daughter of Judith (a registered nurse) Berry; engaged to David Justice (a professional baseball player). Education: Attended Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, OH.

Actress and model; appeared on Bob Hope’s USO Tour; television appearances include Living Dolls, ABC, Knots Landing, CBS, and Queen (mini-series); motion picture appearances include Jungle Fever, Strictly Business, and The Last Boy Scout, all 1991, and Boomerang, 1992; has competed in beauty pageants. Volunteer, Juvenile Diabetes Association.

Selected awards: Named Miss Teen Ohio and Miss Ohio, 1985; first runner-up, Miss USA Pageant, 1985; winner of dress competition, Miss World Pageant, 1986.

Addresses: Home —Los Angeles, CA. Other —Halle Berry’s Fan Club, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 2517, New York, NY 10019.

disliked reporting. She left college before completing her degree to pursue modeling and study acting in Chicago. Her mother encouraged the career transition. As Berry noted in Elle: “When I left home to start acting, [my mother’s] attitude was, ‘Keep your chin up, go do it; but if you fail, home is always here.’”

While in Chicago, Berry auditioned for a role in producer Aaron Spelling’s television pilot Charlie’s Angels ’88. Although the show did not materialize, Spelling was impressed with Berry’s screen test. He encouraged her not to give up acting. Two big breaks in the young actress’s career came with a three-week USO tour with Bob Hope and a starring role as a teenage fashion model in the short-lived television series Living Dolls. Berry remarked in Ebony, “Here I was an ex-model, a former beauty queen and when Living Dolls was canceled, I was playing a model. People weren’t taking me seriously.”

Hoping audiences would view her differently, Berry prepared for her next role as a crack addict named Vivien in Jungle Fever by interviewing actual addicts and going ten days without a bath. Although her role brought her acclaim, Berry took a recurring part in the television series Knots Landing for financial purposes. “I’m a real miser,” the actress told Werner. “I want a cushion.”

After Berry’s 1991 appearance as a femme fatale in the motion picture Strictly Business, Peter Biskind wrote in Premiere, “Berry may still be playing somebody’s girlfriend, but clearly her star is ascending.” The actress almost lost the leading role of Natalie in the comedy. She recalled to Chua, “I found out that they hired me, thought I was too light-skinned, hired someone darker, realized that was a mistake, and then hired me again. And I understood that I had gone through all of this agony for two weeks just because of my skin color.”

Although critics were divided in their reviews of the film, Berry’s portrayal marked a turning point in her career. Her appearance in leading roles was assured with her selection as Damon Wayans’s exotic dancer girlfriend in the movie The Last Boy Scout. Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote, “The best thing in the film is Halle Berry. She is an actress who is going places.” Berry researched her role in the movie by paying the owner of a Hollywood strip joint to let her dance. After the film’s success, Berry commented to Biskind, “I don’t want to rise to superstar-dom overnight, like Julia Roberts. There’s no place to go but down.”

“Though she is an imposing beauty... Berry’s radiant looks belie the strengths that have made her a young actress worth watching,” wrote Chua in 1992, after the release of the comedy Boomerang. Judy Gerstel of the Detroit Free Press lauded Berry in the film as “versatile,” noting that her role as Angela was “played to doe-eyed perfection.” The year Boomerang was released, Ebony profiled the young actress as an image breaker. “A down-to-earth, drop-dead gorgeous woman, Berry exudes confidence, having already shattered the Hollywood adage that models can’t act.”

Engaged to Atlanta Braves outfielder David Justice in 1992, Berry went on to land a lead role in a television mini-series called Queen, based on the notes of Alex Haley, and hopes to eventually market her own script, Inside Out. Diagnosed a diabetic as an adult, Berry, who prefers being a homebody, is a volunteer for the Juvenile Diabetes Association. The actress indicated that she will continue to seek roles that avoid stereotypically black issues, announcing in Premiere, “We’ve exploited ourselves to get into the business. Now it’s time to get away from racial themes.”

Sources

Detroit Free Press, July 1, 1992.

Ebony, February 1992; October 1992.

Elle, April 1992.

Jet, November 11, 1991.

People, November 25, 1991; December 23, 1991; July 20, 1992.

Premiere, December 1991.

Upscale, June/July 1992; October/November 1992.

USA Weekend, November 8-10, 1991.

—Marjorie Burgess