'''Halle Maria Berry''' (born August 14, 1966
[Although a 1968 birthdate is found in http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9389354 Britannica, http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=5863&mod=bio NYTimes and http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?c=237628 MSN, she has stated in interviews that she will turn 40 in August 2006. See: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/96792004.htm FemaleFirst, http://www.darkhorizons.com/news06/berry.php DarkHorizons, http://www.filmmonthly.com/Profiles/Articles/HalleBerryX3/HalleBerryX3.html FilmMonthly, and see also http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/20/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main630707.shtml CBS.]) is an Emmy, Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning American actress and former fashion model. In 2002, Berry won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in ''
Monster's Ball''.
Biography
Early life and career
Berry's parents selected her first name from that of Halle's Department Store, which was then a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio. She is the daughter of Judith Ann Hawkins, a Liverpudlian
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4990000/newsid_4996500/nb_rm_4996532.stm], and Jerome J. Berry, who is African American. Berry's maternal grandmother, Nellie Dicken, was born in Sawley, Derbyshire, England, while her maternal grandfather, Earl Ellsworth Hawkins, was born in Ohio.
[http://www.genealogy.com/famousfolks/halleb/index.html] Berry's parents divorced when she was 4 years old and she subsequently was raised by her mother, a psychiatric nurse. Her father was an orderly in the same psychiatric ward where her mother worked. Berry has an older sister, Heidi who was born seven years before her.
[http://www.genealogy.com/famousfolks/halleb/index.html]Berry was a popular student at Bedford High School and was a cheerleader, honor society member, editor of the school newspaper, class president and prom queen. She worked in the children's department at Higbee's Department store. She subsequently attended Cuyahoga Community College.
Before becoming an actress, she entered and won several beauty contests, including Miss Ohio USA, Miss Teen All-American, Miss USA (was first runner-up in 1986 to Christy Fitchner of Texas), and Miss World 1986 (as "Miss United States World", she placed sixth in a contest won by Trinidad & Tobago's Giselle Laronde.)
Hollywood career
In the late 1980s, she went to Chicago, to pursue a modeling career as well as acting. One of her first acting projects was a television series for local cable by Gordon Lake Productions called "Chicago Force."
Berry auditioned for a role in an updated ''Charlie's Angels'' television series by producer Aaron Spelling. At the time, Spelling wanted one of the "Angels" to be an African American woman. She did not get the role (because the project never materialized) but she impressed Spelling with her skills, who encouraged her to continue perfecting her craft.
In 1989, Berry landed the role of brainy Emily Franklin in the short-lived ABC television series ''Living Dolls'' (a spin-off of ''Who's the Boss?''). Her breakthrough feature film role was in Spike Lee's ''
Jungle Fever'' in which she played a drug addict named Vivian. Her first co-starring role was in the film
