Portrait of Whoopi Goldberg

Birthday profile

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg, American actress, comedian, and talk show host

Born
November 13, 1955
Age in 2026
71
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1955

About Whoopi Goldberg

Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality. She is one of 28 entertainers to receive the EGOT, consisting of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar (Academy Award), and a Tony Award. Her other accolades include a BAFTA and two Golden Globes. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2010, and the Disney Legend Award in 2017. Goldberg began her career on stage with a series of one-woman shows, and a recording of her Broadway show Whoopi Goldberg (1984–1985) won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. For playing a mistreated woman in the Deep South in Steven Spielberg's period drama The Color Purple (1985), she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She followed this with leading roles in the comedy Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986) and the drama Clara's Heart (1988), and played Guinan in the science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988–1993). Her portrayal of an eccentric psychic in the romantic fantasy Ghost (1990) won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the second African-American woman to win an Oscar. Goldberg headlined the comedies Sister Act (1992) and its sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), becoming the highest-paid actress at the time. She also acted in the comedies Soapdish (1991) and Corrina, Corrina (1994), the dramas Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) and Girl, Interrupted (1999), and voiced a hyena in the animated feature The Lion King (1994). She returned to stage in the late 1990s, starring in revivals of Stephen Sondheim's musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (2002) and August Wilson's play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2003), and winning the Tony Award for Best Musical for producing Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002). Since 2007, Goldberg has co-hosted and moderated the daytime talk show The View, winning a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host from ten nominations, and hosted the Academy Awards four times. She joined the stage adaptation of Sister Act (2011) as a performer and producer, and appeared in the animated film Toy Story 3 (2010) and the biographical drama Till (2022). She also reprised the role of Guinan in the series Star Trek: Picard (2022) and played Miss Hannigan in a revival of Annie (2025–2026). She won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for the recording of the show. For her role as an eccentric psychic in the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the second African-American woman to win an Oscar. She won a Tony Award as a producer of the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. Since 2007, she has co-hosted and moderated the daytime talk show The View, for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is one of few people to receive an Emmy Award, Grammy Award, Academy Award, and Tony Award, collectively known as the EGOT.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Whoopi Goldberg timeline

  1. For her role as an eccentric psychic in the romantic fantasy film Ghost (1990), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the second African-American woman to win an Oscar.
  2. Since 2007, she has co-hosted and moderated the daytime talk show The View, for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

The world when Whoopi Goldberg was born

Whoopi Goldberg was born in 1955. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1955

  • #1 song"Rock Around the Clock" – Bill Haley & His Comets
  • Top movieMarty
  • Top TV showThe $64,000 Question
  • Best-selling bookLolita – Vladimir Nabokov

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBrooklyn Dodgers win their first World Series
  • Top headlineRosa Parks sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott
  • Technology milestoneDisneyland opens in Anaheim, California
  • Defining fadJames Dean and rebel culture
  • Notable inventionVelcro commercially available
  • World population2.77 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championBrooklyn Dodgers (World Series)
  • Also wonSyracuse Nationals (NBA)
  • U.S. population165.3M

1955 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Whoopi Goldberg's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19552026
Gas$0.29$3.45/gal
Average home$10,950$435,000
Average income$6,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.50$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population165.3M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.