Halle Berry - Biography

The Name: Halle Berry
The Basics: Born Halle Maria Berry in Cleveland, Ohio.
Occupations: Actor, model

Halle Berry was born August 14, 1968 in Cleveland, Ohio to father Jerome Berry, a former hospital attendant, and mother Judith Berry, a retired psychiatric nurse. The second of two children Halle has an older sister named Heidi. Her parents would later divorce when she was only four.

Halle first came into the spotlight at 17 years old when she won the Miss Teen All-American Pageant, representing the state of Ohio in 1985 and a year later in 1986 when she was the first runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant. After participating in the pageant, she became a model. It would eventually lead to her first weekly TV series, 1989's "Living Dolls" (1989), where she soon gained a reputation for her onset tenacity, preferring to "live" her roles and remaining in character even when the cameras stopped rolling. It paid off though when she reportedly refused to bathe for several days before starting work on her role as a crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991) because the role provided her big screen breakthrough. The following year, she was cast as Eddie Murphy's love interest in Boomerang (1992), one of the few times that Murphy was evenly matched on screen. In 1994, Berry gained a youthful following for her performance as sexy secretary Sharon Stone in Flintstones, The (1994). She next had a highly publicized costarring role with Jessica Lange in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah (1995). Though the movie received mixed reviews, Berry didn't let that slow her down, and continued down her path to superstardom. In 1998, she received critical success when she starred as a street smart young woman who takes up with a struggling politician in Warren Beatty's Bulworth (1998). The following year she won even greater acclaim for her role as actress Dorothy Dandridge in made-for-cable's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) (TV), for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series. In 2000, she received box office success in X-Men (2000) in which she played Storm, a mutant who has the ability to control the weather.

Halles booming popularity also led to her multi-million dollar contract with Revlon, which has splashed her pretty face [world-wide] in a series of eye-catching print ads. But no matter how good she looks, Halles fans know that her beauty is just a reflection of the kind of inner beauty that fuels icons.

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