Halle Berry

Lore & Background

Maria Halle Berry was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 14, 1966, to Judith Ann (née Hawkins) and Jerome Jesse Berry. Her name was legally changed to Halle Maria Berry at the age of five. Her parents selected her middle name from Halle's Department Store, then a local landmark in Cleveland. Berry's mother worked as a psychiatric nurse, and her father worked in the same hospital as an attendant in the psychiatric ward. He later became a bus driver. They divorced when Berry was four years old, and she and her older sister Heidi Berry-Henderson were raised exclusively by their mother. Berry grew up in Oakwood, Ohio, and graduated from Bedford High School. She continued her studies at Cuyahoga Community College. In the 1980s, she entered several beauty contests, winning Miss Teen All American 1985 and Miss Ohio USA 1986. She was the 1986 Miss USA first runner-up. In 1986, Berry became the first African-American to represent the United States at the Miss World beauty pageant. She placed sixth.

Reader's Guide

Berry's film debut was in a small role for Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991). Early film roles include Boomerang (1992), The Flintstones (1994) and Bulworth (1998). She later produced and starred in the television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. For her performance in Monster's Ball (2001) she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Later roles include Storm in the X-Men film series (2000–2014), a villain in Swordfish (2001), Bond girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002), a psychiatrist in Gothika (2003), and the title role in Catwoman (2004). Notable later films include Perfect Stranger (2007), Cloud Atlas (2012), The Call (2013), Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019). She made her directorial debut with Bruised (2020). Berry also produced the television film Lackawanna Blues (2005) and has produced several projects in which she also performed, including Frankie & Alice (2010) and the CBS science fiction series Extant (2014–2015). In 2014, Berry launched the production company 606 Films. She has been a Revlon spokesmodel since 1996.

Did You Know?

• Berry was the first African-American to represent the United States at the Miss World pageant in 1986.
• She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Monster's Ball (2001), becoming the first African-American woman to do so.
• Berry's parents selected her middle name from Halle's Department Store, a local landmark in Cleveland.
• She was a cheerleader, honor student, editor of the school newspaper, and prom queen at Bedford High School.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Sexiness is a state of mind -- a comfortable state of being. It's about loving yourself in your most unlovable moments." — Halle Berry "Suzanne Condie Lambert (October 9, 2008) "'Esquire' crowns Berry the sexiest woman alive", The Arizona Republic, p. E6." — Halle Berry "When I held that statuette, I felt as if I had won a triumph not just for myself, but for every other woman who'd struggled to overcome the same sort of background." — Halle Berry "On winning an Academy Award — reported in Barbara Davies (August 10, 2008) "Lost and Found", Sunday Telegraph Magazine, p. 18." — Halle Berry