Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966) is an American actress from Cleveland, and is considered one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. She's a well-rounded actress, whose roles have ranged from slapstick comedy to gritty drama to romance to action to sci-fi. Berry received several awards for the HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, and in 2001 she became the first black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role in Monster's Ball. She has also been involved in the production side of several of her films.
Berry has some notoriety among comic book fans, as while her portrayal of Storm had mixed reception, her performance as Catwoman was universally panned. She has been a good sport about it, however. When it was announced that she would "win" the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for Catwoman, she became the second actor (after Tom Green) to accept her Razzie in person, bringing her Oscar along, and parodying her acceptance speech. She received a standing ovation from the audience.
If you can overlook the fact that her take on Catwoman was an In Name Only version of the character, she's one of just a handful of actors who has played both a Marvel Comics character and a DC Comics character—and one of even fewer actors to play both a Marvel and a DC superhero.note
Expect her to turn up any time a black man in fiction needs a Celebrity Crush.
Filmography:
- Revlon Spokesperson
- Jungle Fever (1991)
- The Last Boy Scout (1991)
- Boomerang (1992)
- The Flintstones (1994)
- Losing Isaiah (1995)
- Executive Decision (1996)
- The Rich Man's Wife (1996)
- Bulworth (1998)
- X-Men Film Series as Ororo Munroe / Storm:
- X-Men (2000)
- X2: X-Men United (2003)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
- Swordfish (2001)
- Monster's Ball (2001)
- Die Another Day (2002)
- Gothika (2003)
- Catwoman (2004)
- Robots (2005) (voice)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005)
- Perfect Stranger (2007)
- New Year's Eve (2011)
- Cloud Atlas (2012)
- Movie 43 (2013)
- The Call (2013)
- Kidnap (2017)
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
- Kings (2018)
- John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
- Bruised (unknown release date) — directorial debut
, also starring
- Former model and pageant winner
Music Videos
- Appeared as a cameo in Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott's 2002 music video, "Work It".
- Appeared in the Limp Bizkit video "Behind Blue Eyes", where she made out with Fred Durst, whom she was rumored to be dating at the time.
Her roles provide examples of:
- Adam Westing: Her Razzie acceptance speech.
- Beauty Contest: She won several before becoming an actress.
- Covered in Gunge: At the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2012.
- Glamorous Wartime Singer: Dorothy Dandridge in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
- Graceful Loser: She had the good grace to show up to collect her Razzie for Catwoman in person.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Her role in the televised movie role, Queen. She also mentioned this happened in her youth when bullies used to refer to her as an "Oreo" and put Oreo cookies in mailbox to mock her biracial heritage.
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Hilarious in Hindsight: Halle played Dorothy Dandridge (the first African-American actress to be nominated for an "Best Actress Oscar" for her role as the title character in Carmen Jones) in the HBO movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Halle later would become the first African-American actress to win a "Best Actress Oscar" for her performance in Monster's Ball. - Ms. Fanservice: Even into her fifties.
- Older Than They Look: If you didn’t know her birthdate, you’d easily mistake her for someone who’s in her late 20s to early 30s.
- Romance on the Set: Met and started a relationship with French husband-to-be Olivier Martinez on the set of Dark Tide
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: She was Miss Ohio in the 1986 Miss USA pageant and was the first runner up for the Miss USA title. Her later success speaks for itself.
- Uncle Tomfoolery: Her role in Baps qualifies.
