Dreadlocked actress and comedienne Whoopi Goldberg was inspired to take up acting by seeing Nichelle Nichols on television as Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek. After working as a bricklayer, mortuary assistant, and in bit parts on Broadway, Whoopi began doing a one-woman show on Broadway called Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From Broadway. On the strength of her performance (which was turned into an HBO special), she landed her first major film role, playing sexual assault victim Celie Johnson in The Color Purple (1985), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress." Whoopi has never seen fit to whip out her cushions, though she came close a year later when her dress got caught in a shredder in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986). Too bad it wasn’t a gash, gash, gash. In 1990 she took home the "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar for playing psychic Oda Mae Brown in Ghost. But her most well known film was likely when she played Vegas headliner turned fugitive nun Sister Mary Clarence in both Sister Act (1992) and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). After heading to the small screen, much like her childhood hero, as Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation she voiced a hyena in The Lion King (1994) before rattling off a string of duds like Theodore Rex (1995), where she's a cop whose partner is a dinosaur, and Eddie (1996) where she's a heckling fan who ends up coaching the New York Knicks. Whoopi rebounded by starring in How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), and playing a nurse in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She's hosted the Oscars, had her own sitcom on NBC named Whoopi, was the center square on the Hollywood squares reboot for years, and has achieved EGOT status, with her Tony coming from "Thoroughly Modern Millie", her Grammy coming from her comedy album in 1986, and her Daytime Emmy coming from telling it like it is on The View, where she replaced Rosie O'Donnell in 2007. The one thing she hasn't done is given us a view of the hills of gold under her clothing. Hopefully we'll see her making whoopee, Newlywed Game style on the big screen someday. If she ever does, whoopeee!
