Celebrity Galore

Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966) is an American actress, former fashion model, and beauty queen.

Berry has received Emmy and Golden Globe awards for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her performance in Monster’s Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2008, only woman of African-American descent to have won the award for Best Actress. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and also a Revlon spokeswoman. She has also been involved in the production side of several of her films.

Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing runner-up in the Miss USA (1986), and winning the Miss USA World 1986 title. Her breakthrough feature film role was in the 1991 Jungle Fever. This led to roles in The Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She also won a worst actress Razzie Award in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person.

Divorced from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, Berry has been dating French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry since November 2005. Their first child, a girl named Nahla Ariela Aubry, was born on March 16, 2008.

Berry was born Maria Halle Berry, though her name was legally changed to Halle Maria Berry in 1971. Berry’s parents selected her middle name from Halle’s Department Store, which was then a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio.Her mother, Judith Ann (née Hawkins), who is Caucasian, was a psychiatric nurse. Her father, Jerome Jesse Berry, was an African-American hospital attendant in the same psychiatric ward where her mother worked; he later became a bus driver. Berry’s maternal grandmother, Nellie Dicken, was born in Sawley, Derbyshire, England, while her maternal grandfather, Earl Ellsworth Hawkins, was born in Ohio. Berry’s parents divorced when she was four years old; she was raised exclusively by her mother. Berry has said in published reports that she has been estranged from her father since her childhood.

Berry is involved in production of films and television. She served as executive producer on Introducing Dorothy Dandridge in 1999, and Lackawanna Blues in 2005. Berry produces as well as stars in the thriller Perfect Stranger with Bruce Willis and Things We Lost in the Fire with Benicio del Toro and Class Act, based on the real life story of a teacher whose students helped her run for political office. She will produce and star in the 2009 film Tulia, which will reunite her with Monster’s Ball costar Billy Bob Thornton.

Berry is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, earning $10 million per film. In July 2007, she topped In Touch magazine’s list of the world’s most fabulous 40-something celebrities. On April 3, 2007, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the Kodak Theatre at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the film industry.

Berry has served many years as the face of Revlon cosmetics and also served as the face of Versace. The Coty Inc. fragrance company signed Berry to market her debut fragrance in March 2008. Berry was delighted, saying that she had created her own fragrances at home by mixing scents. She was paid $3-5 million with a royalty of about 5%.

Berry took part in a nearly 2000-house party cell-phone bank campaign for Barack Obama in February 2008, and said that she will “collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear.”

In October 2008, Berry was named Esquire Magazine’s “Sexiest Woman Alive”, about which she stated “I don’t know exactly what it means, but being 42 and having just had a baby, I think I’ll take it.” She is quoted as saying to Esquire

“     You know that stuff they say about a woman being responsible for her own orgasms? That’s all true, and, in my case, that makes me responsible for pretty damn good orgasms. They’re much better orgasms than when I was 22, and I wouldn’t let a man control that. Not anymore. Now, I’d invite them to participate.”

Source [ Wikipedia ]