Daughter of an African-American doctor and a Liverpool nurse from a psychiatric center, Halle Berry was raised by her mother after her parents separated.
Winner of the title of Miss Teen All-American with 14 years, and finalist of Miss North America and My World, studied journalism and interpretation in Cleveland.
After moving to Chicago, she performs in the shows The Sound of music and The Wiz. she continues her career as a model before getting her first roles in the television series ‘Living Dolls’ (1989) and ‘California’ (1991).
We are going to talk a bit more about this talented actress and dive into her secret life.
Early Years
Halle berry was born on August 14th 1966 in Cleveland in Ohio. Daughter of the warden and driver Jerome Berry and the nurse Judith Anne Hawkins.
Berry had a difficult childhood marked by alcohol abuse and aggressiveness of her father, who decided to leave the family, when Berry was four years old. He returned several times and assaulted both her mother and her sister Heidi.
In 1976, Jerome Berry assaulted her family in such a way that since then he could only approach them to the distance established by law. Since then, her mother has seen for her education and livelihood, working in the psychiatric ward of a local hospital.
Berry was raised in a suburb of Cleveland, whose population was mostly white, because of this she had to deal with teasing for her skin color, also, she was criticized by the black minority because of their miscegenation.
While carrying out her studies, she was editor of the institute’s newspaper. Later he entered the Cuyahoga Community College, where he studied radio journalism. For this same period, she began her career as a model being chosen as queen of the Cuyahoga Community College in 1984.
The following year she was crowned as Miss America teenager and then participated in the Miss America of 1986, contest in which she was in second place.
As First Princess of the Miss America, Berry represented the United States in the Miss World of 1986, remaining as a finalist in sixth place. The recognition gained through the contests allowed him to appear in numerous advertisements and fashion magazines.
Taking advantage of her fame, Berry began to enter the world of acting, participating in numerous castings and obtaining minor roles in American series.
In the late 1980s, he moved to Manhattan, where he revived her career as a model becoming the image of the Revlon house with Karen Duffy.
Career Path
In the spring of 1989 she packed her bags and landed in Manhattan. There she reactivated her modeling profession and tried to start over from scratch.
And since her name began to gain weight among the manufacturers of ads (he could not integrate the Olympus of the top models due to her short meter seventy height), until she reached her condition, shared with Karen Duffy and Cindy Crawford, of « official face »of the Revlon house, managed to participate as a secondary in some television series.
At last she obtained a role with greater prominence in Living dolls, a melodrama in which she embodied precisely an unsatisfied model and who, even when it turned out to be an audience failure, made her known as an actress, a few maybe, but among them the restless Spike Lee, her true discoverer.
Although she did other things at the time, the only thing that prevails is the role of drug addict that Spike Lee provided in Wild Fever (1991), in which she shared cast with figures such as Wesley Snipes, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Robbins and a veteran Anthony Quinn
Anyway, although its status and its cache increased from this film, throughout the nineties her career fluctuated between the product of purely commercial success, such as The Prince of Women (1992), vehicle of showcasing Eddie Murphy, or the actual version of The Flintstones (1994), by Brian Levant, another really bland film, and some major project, such as Bull worth (1998), by Warren Beatty, or X-Men (2000), by Bryan Singer This apart from intense activity and
Miss America teen beauty contest (1985) and obtained second place in the Miss America of 1986. She became known with small appearances in commercials and minor roles in American dramas. She debuted as a film actress with Wild Fever (1991) by Spike Lee;
In the late 1980s, Berry debuted as an actress in the sitcom Living Dolls (1989), a series in which she played Emily Franklin, an unsatisfied model who seeks to break through the world of modeling. She subsequently participated in the series Amen (1991), A Different World (1991) and they came from Outer Space (1991).
That same year, she debuted as a film actress in the film Wild Fever (1991) by Spike Lee, a romantic film starring Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sierra. She also participated in Strictly Business (1991) and The Last Boy Scout (1991).
The following year, she acted in the film starring Eddie Murphy, entitled The Prince of Women (1992); she often starred in the Queen miniseries (1993). In the series she played Queen, mestizo daughter of the Easter slave and the son of a plantation owner, James Jr.
Shortly thereafter, she worked on the real version of The Flintstones (1994), by Brian Levant and Losing Isaiah (1995) , a film in which she played Khaila Richards, a young mother fighting for the custody of her son Isaiah, who was adopted after being left abandoned in a dump.
For this same period, Berry worked on Executive Decision (1996), Race the Sun (1996), The Rich Man’s Wife (1996) and B.A.P.S. (1997), as well as in the Frasier series (1998), in which she played Betsy.
At the end of the nineties, Berry won her first academy awards playing singer Dorothy Dandridge in the introductory miniseries Dorothy Dandridge (1999). With this autobiographical film she won the Emmy and the Golden Globe for the best dramatic actress.
Starting the new millennium, Berry played the powerful and mysterious Storm in Bryan Singer’s movie X-Men (2000). At this time, Berry went through various personal problems linked to alcohol and drug abuse, as well as her stormy relationships with abusive men.
After appearing in X-Men (2000), Berry worked on Monster’s Ball (2002), a dramatic film for which she was awarded the Oscar Award for Best Actress. That same year she was seen working at Die another Day (2002), by Lee Tamahori.
The following year she worked in Gothika (2003), followed by Catwoman (2004), a film in which she shared set with Benjamin Bratt and Sharon Stone. A short time later she co-starred in the thriller seducing a Stranger (2007), alongside Bruce Willis. In 2010, she starred in the movie Frankie & Alice (2010), a drama focused on the life of a dancer who has multiple personalities.
He followed in New Year (2011), along with Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jon Bon Jovi, among others. In 2014, she premiered the science fiction series Extant, broadcast by CBS between 2014 and 2015.
In 2017, she played Ginger Ale in the movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) and acted in Kings (2017), alongside Daniel Craig. As of 2019, Berry has been working on John Wick’s recordings: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Bruised. Her net worth is estimated at around 80$ million.
Personal life
In 1991 Halle Berry debuts in the cinema with Samuel L. Jackson in ‘Wild Fever’, by Spike Lee, a filmmaker with whom she returns to work in ‘Girl 6’, in 1996, where she makes a small cameo. Continue to play supporting roles, give life to a stripper in ‘The Last Boy Scout’; co-stars ‘Boomerang (The Prince of Women)’, along with Eddie Murphy;
She also appears in the comedy ‘The Flintstones’ and in the Warren Beatty film, ‘Bulworth’. Her consecration comes in 2000 thanks to ‘X-Men / a>’, by Bryan Singer. In it, it gives life to Storm, able to manipulate the meteorological conditions, a role that it retakes in 2003 and 2006, after the great blockbuster.
After playing actress Dorothy Dandridge in a television movie that earned her the Golden Globe in 2000, Halle Berry becomes the first black actress to win an Oscar for Best Actress, in 2002, thanks to her moving interpretation as the woman of a death row in ‘Monster’s Ball’, by Marc Forster.
She becomes a Bond girl in ‘Die another Day’, 2002, with Pierce Brosnan. A year later she placed under the command of Mathieu Kassovitz to star in the supernatural thriller, ‘Gothika’, and in 2004 Catwoman’s costume is put in the film adaptation of the DC comic character, directed by Pitof.
She was the first black woman to ever get an Oscar. When little Halle was four years old, her father, Jerome Berry, a typical alcohol abuser, abandoned the family. She and her sister Heidi were left in charge of their mother, Judith Ann Hawkins, a Caucasian woman who was able to raise her daughters thanks to her work as a nurse in the psychiatric ward of a local hospital, the same as her husband she served as an assistant.
Although during the first years of the separation the husband returned and left home again on several occasions, in each of them the ill-treatment was increasing, and in 1976 she beat the whole family so much that, since then, she could only approach to her up to the prudential distance that the law set.
Anyway, Halle, that when these events occurred she was eight years old, she no longer wanted to know anything about her father, and she never had any relationship with him again.
On the contrary, her mother, a selfless and consistent woman, happens to be her best friend to this day. From that mixture, an African-American and a blonde with almost albino complexion inherited the beauty that was going to pave much of the difficult path she chose.
In 1984, for example, she was crowned “queen” of the Cuyahoga Community College, the institute she attended, which encouraged her to attend, the following year, the Miss America Teen beauty contest, and won.
Then it was Miss Ohio, and when she was of the statutory age, in 1986, she was about to be Miss United States of not having been accused of voting herself, which resulted in the granting of the title of “First Princess”, a second place she knew how to get a top juice.
Halle came from a suburb of Cleveland, mostly white population, where she had suffered constant teasing by the color of her skin, both of this dominant community and the black minority because of their miscegenation.
The moment of retaliation had arrived. However, most likely because of her experience as editor of the institute’s newspaper, that year she began the career of radio journalism. But a few months later, especially after competing for the title of Miss World, she could already be admired in commercials and magazines dedicated to fashion, and at one point she was forced to sacrifice studies.
When she believed herself strong enough in the profession, she began trying to enter the appropriate means to become an actress, which was what she really wanted to be. And just as beauty pageants had been the springboard for her work as a model, advertising and parades would serve as a launching pad to reach Hollywood.
And there she arrived, after a dramatic art course at a Chicago school, with all the enthusiasm necessary to make a living as a waitress in a fast food chain while waiting for “the great opportunity.”
She divorced baseball player David Justice in 1997, later dated actor Shemar Moore and then married singer Eric Benet, whom she divorced in 2003. Later she was a couple of the model Gabriel Aubrey, with whom she had her daughter Nahla Ariela in 2008.
After divorcing Aubry, Berry married actor Olivier Martínez, with whom t she served her second son, Maceo Robert.
In 2015, she separated from Martinez and shortly thereafter maintained a relationship with music producer Alex Da Kid.
Quick summary
Full name: Maria Halle Berry
Date of birth: August 14th 1966
Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
Age: 53
Profession: Actress
Height: 1.65m
Weight: 59 kg
Net Worth: 80$ million