Halle Berry Biography

Halle Berry Biography

Halle Berry
Date of Birth: 14th August, 1966.
Born at: Cleveland, Ohio.
Height: 5’6”
Claim to Fame: X-Men, Monster’s Ball, Die Another Day.

She was born, Maria Halle Berry but later changed her name to Halle Maria Berry. Her mother, Judith Hawkins, was a psychiatric nurse and her father, Jerome Berry was a hospital attendant at the same hospital. Halle also has an elder sister named Heidi. Their parents divorced when Halle was only four years old and was raised single handedly by her mother. Halle did her graduation from Bedford High School.
Blessed with uniquely good looks, Halle took part in a Teen beauty pageant and won it which led to her taking part in Miss Ohio, which she also won in 1985. She then represented her state in the Miss USA pageant and came in runner-up and represented the country in the Miss World competition. After the competition, Halle started getting a lot of modeling offers. She got the required exposure and was cast in the TV series Living Dolls. Halle once collapsed on the set and was in a coma for a short while. She found out that she was suffering from type-1 diabetes. The bad news didn’t stop there for her; the show was taken off air.Not disheartened by this, Halle continued to work in a few TV movies. Her acting was liked by Spike Lee who cast her in his movie about drugs called Jungle Fever. So dedicated was Halle to the role that she did not shower for days for look like a cocaine addict. Her hard work paid off and the movie was a hit and everyone loved her performance. She started getting film offers by the dozen including a supporting role in The Flintstones (1994). She hit it big in the HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She played Dorothy Dandridge who became the first black woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Incidentally, Halle became the first black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress for Monster’s Ball. For her performance she even won the Emmy and Golden Globe Award.
Halle then followed this riveting performance with X-Men. X-Men was a worldwide hit and made Halle an international star. The fans loved her portrayal of Storm, a mutant with powers to control the weather. The movie also spawned two sequels, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand, both were also international blockbusters. Halle took home the Oscar for her portrayal of Leticia Musgrove, the wife of murderer who is executed in Monster’s Ball. Halle was a star on her own and could carry any movie with her performance. She proved that in Gothika (2003), the movie won her some good reviews and BET award for best actress.
It hasn’t always been a smooth ride for Halle as she has had her share of debacles too. She was paid a whopping $12.5 million for Catwoman. The movie was made on a huge budget but failed at the box-office and Halle won the Razzie Award for Worst Actress. She surprised everyone by personally turning up for the event and accepting the award graciously.
Almost all her movies have done well at the box-office, except for her last movie Things We Lost in the Fire. She received acclaim for the movie but it did not do well at the box-office. Her next movie Dark Tide is expected to release in 2011.