Oprah Winfrey Biography
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Oprah Winfrey was born on January
29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi
to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey
(never married) and was raised on a
farm by her grandmother. Her name
came from the misspelling of the
biblical name Orpah.
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At a very young age she liked to be
in front of people, and would recite
stories to people at the age of
three. She moved to Milwaukee to
live with her mother in 1960.
However, in 1967, after repeated
abuse and molestation, she ran
away. When the police caught her,
they tried to place her in a home
for juvenile delinquents, but it was
full, so they sent her off to live
with her father Vernon in Nashville,
Tennessee. He was a strict
disciplinarian, but also made her do
extra schoolwork, which helper her
later in life. [Note: Oprah gave
birth to a baby boy when she was
only 14, but the baby died when it
was only two weeks old.]
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She was a beautiful young woman an
in 1970 won her first beauty pageant
(Miss Fire Prevention) in Nashville.
In 1972 she was crowned Miss Black
Tennessee.
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Her first real job in entertainment
came in 1971, as a broadcaster for a
local radio station, WVOL in
Nashville. Two years later, she
became the reporter/anchorwoman for
WTVF-TV News. She continued to
broadcast while she went to
college. She won a college
scholarship majored in Speech
Communications and Performing Arts
at Tennessee State University. In
1976, after graduating, she moved to
Baltimore and co-anchored on WJZ-TV
news. This lead to co-hosting a
talk show called People Are
Talking, and the makings of a
career as a talk show host had
begun.
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Once again, she moved to a different
city, but this time it was the big
windy city of Chicago. She took
over as the host of a talk show
called AM Chicago on WLS-TV
which was not doing very well in its
rating. It only took the dynamic
young Oprah to turn it into one of
the most talked about shows on
daytime TV.
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In 1985, the still unknown Oprah
tried her hand at acting. Like
everything else she had done, she
was excellent and was nominated for
an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her
role in the big screen adaption of
The Color Purple.
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In 1985, the show was expanded to
one hour and given a new name – The Oprah Winfrey Show. It was
doing so well that it was nationally
syndicated in 1986 and made a big
splash around the country. In 1986,
she also formed her own production
company, HARPO Productions, which
was the first cog in what later
became HARPO Entertainment.
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The show was so good it won three
Daytime Emmy Awards in 1987 and the
show has continued to accumulate
awards ever since. This includes an
Emmy for Outstanding
Informational Special when she
interviewed
Michael Jackson in 1993. 1998,
she won the lifetime achievement
award for talk-show host and has
withdrawn her name from the list of
nominees ever since. HARPO
Productions took over ownership
interest in 1988, and Oprah had
creative power to forge an
entertainment empire. She became the
first woman to ever own and produce
her own talk show.
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Beginning in 1989, HARPO Productions
(with Oprah as Executive Producer),
began to produce its own made for TV
movies, including The Women of
Brewster Place (1989) which won
an Emmy Award for Outstanding Mini
Series, There Are No Children
Here (1993), Before Women Had
Wings (1997), Beloved
(1998) where she also appeared in
the movie and was nominated for the
Image Award for Outstanding Lead
Actess in a Motion Picture andthe
APFF Black Film Award for Best
Actress, Tuesdays With Morrie (1999) which won an Emmy Award for
Outstanding Made for TV Movie, and
more recently There Eyes Were
Watching God with
Halle Berry (2005).
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In 1992, Oprah was became to former
Basketball player Stedman Graham.
They had been together since 1986.
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In 1993, President Clinton signed
into law the “Oprah Bill,” which
Oprah spent a great deal of time and
energy fighting for. It created a
national database of convicted child
abusers – something she was
passionate about due to her own
abuses as a child.
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In 1998, Oprah was chosen by Time
Magazine as one of the 100 Most
Influential People of the 20th
Century. Later that year, she
received a Lifetime Achievement
Award from the National Academy of
Television and Sciences. That year
she also began he Oprah Book Club,
which prompted an increase in
reading worldwide and was awarded
Gold Medal by the National Book
Foundation the following year.
Although in 1998 she was sued by
cattle owners saying that she
defamed meat, and had her relocate
to Amarillo, Texas for a few
months. She wound up winning that
case.
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Oprah brought her know-how to Cable
in 2000 and became co-owners of
Oxygen Media which is focused on the
improvement of women.
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Forbes listed Oprah as a billionaire
in 2003. She was the first
African-American to ever appear on
this list.
*Some other Awards won by Oprah
include: the 1986 Woman Achievement
Award by the National Organization
of Women, 1987 Golden Apple Female Star of the Year;
1991 Image Awards Entertainer of the Year;
1996 Peabody Award; and the
2002 Emmy Awards’ Bob Hope Humanitarian
Award.
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
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