Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966) is an American actress.

Berry was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She was named after Halle's Department Store, a local landmark. Although she is generally considered African American, she is biracial, with a white English-born mother, Judith Ann Hawkins, and a black American father, Jerome Berry. Berry's parents divorced when she was four years old and she was subsequently raised by her mother, a psychiatric-ward nurse. She has an older sister, Heidi.

Berry was a popular student at her high school and was a cheerleader, honor society member, editor of the school newspaper, class president , and prom queen . She subsequently attended Cuyahoga Community College.

Before becoming an actress, she entered several beauty contests including Miss Ohio USA, Miss Teen All American, Miss USA, and Miss World. Her talents as an actress have often been overshadowed by her physical beauty.

In the late 1980s, she went to Chicago to pursue a modeling career as well as acting. One of her first acting projects was a television series for local cable by Gordon Lake Productions called "Chicago Force."

Berry auditioned for a role in an updated Charlie's Angels television series by producer Aaron Spelling. At the time, Spelling wanted one of the "Angels" to be a woman of color. She did not get the role but she impressed Spelling with her skills. He encouraged her to continue perfecting her craft.

In 1989, Berry landed the role of brainy Emily Franklin in the ABC television series called Living Dolls. Her breakthrough feature film role was in Jungle Fever where she played a drug addict named Vivian. Her first co-starring role was in the film Strictly Business. Another one of her early roles was in a supporting capacity in the Flintstones movie where she played "Sharon Stone." She played the superhero Storm in 2000 in the successful film, X-Men and again in the more successful X2: X-Men United (2003). Gothika was the first film that she "carried," i.e., the film focusing entirely on her.

She won the best actress Oscar in 2002 for Monster's Ball, becoming the first African American woman to win this award. Interestingly, Berry had played Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American woman to be nominated for a best actress Academy Award, in HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge in 1999. Another similarity the two women shared was being born in the same hospital.

In February 2000, she was involved in an automobile accident when she struck another vehicle after running a red light and left the scene before the police arrived. Berry, who had sustained a head injury, later stated she had no recollection of the accident and pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge. She paid a fine, made restitution to the other driver, performed community services, and was placed on three years’ probation.

Having long refused to do any nude scenes, much was made of her first topless scene in the film Swordfish, a thirty second scene for which she was allegedly paid an additional $500,000. She followed this with a more extended nude love scene in Monster's Ball. As Bond Girl Jinx in 2002's Die Another Day she famously recreated the scene from Dr. No, bursting from the surf - scantily clad - to be greeted by James Bond, as Ursula Andress did 40 years earlier.

Berry has been married twice. Her first marriage in 1992 to baseball player David Justice ended in a 1996 divorce. Her second marriage in 2001 to musician Eric Benét has resulted in a 2003 separation due to Benét's infidelity. She has never had children herself, but is close to her step-daughter India from her marriage to Benet, whom she legally adopted.

She is expected get her "star" on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California sometime in 2004.

In 2003 Berry came top of FHM's Censored page poll.

She has diabetes and is deaf in one ear.

Filmography

• 2004 Catwoman
• 2003 Gothika
• 2003 X2: X-Men United
• 2002 Die Another Day
• 2001 Swordfish
• 2001 Monster's Ball
• 2000 X-Men
• 1999 Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
• 1998 Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding
• 1998 Bulworth
• 1998 Why Do Fools Fall In Love
• 1997 B.A.P.S.
• 1996 Race the Sun
• 1996 The Rich Man's Wife
• 1996 Girl 6
• 1996 Executive Decision
• 1995 Losing Isaiah
• 1994 The Flintstones
• 1993 Father Hood
• 1993 The Program
• 1993 CB4: The Movie
• 1992 Boomerang
• 1992 Queen [TV]
• 1991 Jungle Fever
• 1991 Strictly Business
• 1991 The Last Boy Scout
• 1989 Living Dolls

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Halle Berry

• Halle Berry http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000932/ at the Internet Movie Database
• Halle Berry's Hallewood http://www.hallewood.com