In Cleveland, Ohio on August 14, 1966, Hallie Maria Berry was born to an African-American father, Jerome Berry, and a Caucasian mother, Judith Berry, a retired psychiatric nurse. Named after the Hallie Building in Cleveland, which once housed the Hallie Brothers department store, she has an older sister, Heidi from whom she is estranged. At the age of 17, she won the Miss Teen All American Pageant, representing her home state of Ohio. In 1986 she was the first runner up as Miss Ohio in the Miss USA Pageant. Soon after she became a model and attended community college.
Her debut came in 1989 with her first television series, “Living Dolls.” She became known for her “on set tenacity,” which rendered a realism to all of her roles. This was no more pronounced than in Spike Lee’s film of 1991, “Jungle Fever” in which Hallie, who played a crack addict, refrained from bathing for a few days “for the sake of the part.” Several films followed, including “Boomerang” with Eddie Murphy in 1992 and “Losing Isiah” opposite Jessica Lange in 1995. In 1999, her tour de force, which won her an Academy Award for Best Actress, was her performance in “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.”
In an interesting example of art imitating life, while doing research for the part, Hallie discovered that both she and Dorothy Dandridge had been born in the same Cleveland hospital. Not only that, Dorothy Dandridge was the first African-American actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Award and Hallie Berry was the first to win one!
A spokesperson for Revlon cosmetics, Hallie Berry’s beautiful face is up where it should be. Voted by People Magazine as one of “the 50 most beautiful people,” Hallie is also a diabetic with her own share of personal problems. But she is a brave and beautiful star and a woman whose many talents have yet to be discovered and developed.
What are some of YOUR favorite Hallie Berry performances?