Whoopi Goldberg

&Shenzi

Whoopi Goldberg was born as Caryn Elaine Johnson on the 13th November in 1955 in New York in the State New York. She was on stage already at the young age of eight years and became a member of the New York's children's theater.
Later she would play roles in the great Broadway musicals like "Hair" or "Jesus Christ Superstar".

But Whoopi left New York to try her luck in theater groups at the west coast, in San Diego and San Francisco.
During that time she got the idea of appearing on stage in a one-woman show in which she would change characters rapidly. Her performances were such a success, that she even took her "Spook Show" on a tour over here, to Europe.

So Whoopi became a hot performer in New York and the director Mike Nichols produced her stage show as a television series. Those series also were a success on video.
This caught famous Steven Spielberg's attention and he gave her the main role in her first movie, the literature classic "The Colour Purple".
She was so convincing as the farmer's wife Celie, that she even won an Oscar nomination.

Her career in Hollywood continued, but she just made comical thrillers, that were not really a challenge nor showed or needed acting talent. But she got the chance to proof her skills again in the role of Clara, an experienced domestic servant, in the drama "Clara's Heart".

Finally Whoopi succeeded in becoming a star after she played the medium Oda Mae Brown in the wonderful movie "Ghost". She played her part so good, that she won an Oscar for it.

Since her great break-through she gained the respect of serious film critics and appeared in the gossip as well as in the financial sections of every kind of magazine.
She earned 20 million dollars with her next two films ("The Long Walk Home", 1990, and "Soapdish", 1991) and is now one of the best paid actresses.

Whoopi also did the show mistress for the Academy Awards in 1999. I had the pity just to watch the Highlights and for the cuttings her jokes were horribly translated and TV voice overspoke her beautiful voice.

In 1994 she played the role of Guinen in the Star Trek film "Generations", and she neither got paid nor given credit for it! Anyway, she played Guinen again in many episodes of Star Trek: The next Generation.
In the same year the movie "The Lion King" came into the cinemas, where she was acting the voice of Shenzi, as might be known ;-)

Her german dub voice is usually Regina Lemnitz, who is doing a good job, but nobody can replace the wonderful dark voice of the real Whoopi.
Some might be interested, that for "The Lion King" it was not Regina Lemnitz who did the voice for Shenzi in German. It was a funny entertainer called Hella von Sinnen.

This is a list of movies with Whoopi I have seen and liked:

If you want to see all the movies and other performances Whoopi Goldberg did, go to the
Internet Movie Data Base

Go to Shenzi

Go to Characters

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