Halle Maria Berry was born August 14th, 1966, in Cleveland, Ohio. The youngest daughter born to Jerome and Judith Berry, an interracial couple. Halle and her older sister Heidi spent the first few years of their childhood living in an inner-city neighborhood. In the early 1970s, Jerome Berry abandoned his wife and children, after which Judith moved her family to the predominantly white Cleveland suburb of Bedford.
Berry attended a nearly all-white public school, and as a result was subjected to discrimination at an early age. Her early bouts with racism greatly influenced her desire to excel. Throughout high school, the determined teen participated in a dizzying array of extracurricular activities, holding positions of newspaper editor, class president, and head cheerleader.
A natural performer, Berry earned a handful of beauty pageant titles during the early 1980s, including Miss Teen Ohio and Miss Teen America. She was eventually awarded first runner-up in the 1985 Miss U.S.A. competition. For a short time she attended Cleveland ‘s Cuyahoga Community College, where she studied broadcast journalism. However, Berry abandoned her idea of a career in news reporting before receiving her degree. Choosing to wholeheartedly devote her time to a career in entertainment, Berry first moved to Chicago and then New York City, where she found work as a catalog model.
As the 80s turned into the 90s, the aspiring actress began a career in television with a role on the short-lived sitcom Living Dolls (1989), followed by a year-long run on the CBS prime-time drama Knot’s Landing, in 1991. Berry’s first big-screen break came later that year when she was cast as Samuel L. Jackson’s drug-addicted girlfriend in Spike Lee’s crticially acclaimed film, Jungle Fever. More substantial supporting roles followed, including that of a stripper in the action-thriller The Last Boy Scout (1991), starring Bruce Willis, and as the woman who finally wins Eddie Murphy’s heart in the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992).With a few films under her belt, Berry accepted more offbeat roles, making cameos in the rockumentary CB4 (1993), which traced the rise and fall of a rap group by the same name. In 1994, the live-action version of The Flintstones featured Berry as a Stone Age seductress.
Berry offered a no-holds-barred performance as a rehabilitated crack addict seeking to regain custody of her son in Losing Isaiah (1995). Berry, who played opposite Jessica Lange and David Strathairn, was noted for her believable portrayal of a mother struggling with addiction and loss. Later that year, Berry overcame Hollywood’s racial barriers when she was cast as the first African-American to play the Queen of Sheeba in Showtime’s movie Solomon & Sheeba.
Berry’s acting credits the next year included two 1996 crime thrillers: The Rich Man’s Wife, and Executive Decision. The latter film marked Berry’s first leading role in a feature.
In 1999, Berry released her most passionate project to date, co-producing and starring in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, an HBO biopic. Berry was noted for her striking resemblance to the late Dandridge, and for her engaging depiction of the actress’ struggle to succeed in the racially biased industry of 1950s Hollywood. Berry earned both a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Television Movie for her role.
In February of 2000, Berry faced controversy when the actress was involved in a hit-and-run accident that erupted into a tabloid scandal. After enduring a minor head injury, she claimed that she did not remember leaving the scene. As a result of her actions, she was placed on probation, given community service, and fined $13,500.
Undeterred by the challenges faced in her personal life, Berry continued to star in blockbuster hits, including X-Men (2000), the big-budget screen adaptation of the long-running Marvel Comic. In the highly anticipated summer release, Berry’s character, Storm, teamed up with fellow mutant heroes played by Anna Paquin and Patrick Stewart.
In the summer of 2001, she co-starred with John Travolta in the action movie Swordfish. Audiences did not respond positively to the film, and publicity for the movie centered mostly around Berry’s topless scene, for which the actress was allegedly paid a $500,000 bonus. But Berry also garnered the most positive critical notice of her film career that same year in the dark drama Monster’s Ball. Berry played the wife of a death row prisoner (Sean “Puffy” Combs) who becomes romantically involved with a racist prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton).
The role earned Berry a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama and the Academy Award for Leading Actress. In her emotional acceptance speech, Berry acknowledged the honor of becoming the first African-American actress to win the Oscar for her lead role by thanking all the performers who came before her.
In 2002, Halle Berry joined the ranks of the legendary “Bond Girls” as the character Jinx in the hit James Bond spy adventure Die Another Day. The actress appeared in several more comic-book-inspired films over the next few years. First, she reprised her role as Storm in X2 (2003), the second installment of Marvel Comics’ X-Men film franchise. She then starred in the film adaptation of DC Comics’ Catwoman, in which she played the lead character and her feline alter-ego.
In 2005, she took the lead in the TV adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s classic 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was produced by Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo. She also lent her voice for the CGI cartoon project, Robots. Then in 2006, she starred in the third X-Men installment, X-Men: The Final Stand, switching gears in 2007 to star in the heart-racing thriller, Perfect Stranger, co-starring Bruce Willis. In April of 2007, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Berry has a chequered romantic past; she was involved in a stormy relationship with Jungle Fever co-star Wesley Snipes before marrying Atlanta Braves outfielder David Justice in 1993. The couple divorced in 1997, after which Berry became secretly engaged to jazz musician Eric Benét. She and Benét were married from 2001 to 2005. During a photoshoot for Versace in November 2005, Berry met her next boyfriend, French-Canadian supermodel Gabriel Aubry. Several months later, Berry confirmed that she and Aubry were expecting their first child together. The couple welcomed a daughter, Nahla Ariela, on March 16th, 2008. She says she and Aubry have no plans for marriage, but do hope to have a second child as soon as possible.
In addition to her honors as an actress, Berry is widely acknowledged for her beauty. Playboy named Halle Berry among the “100 Sexiest Women of the Century” in 1998, she’s been on People magazine‘s “50 Most Beautiful People in the World” list, and the starlet was named Esquire magazine‘s “Sexiest Woman Alive” in 2008.
Berry is also one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, earning as much as $14 million a film. She is currently working on the movie Frankie and Alice, which is expected to primere in 2009.