Whoopi Goldberg

In August 2004, Goldberg announced that she would be reviving her one-woman show on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre. She received an OBE in 1983, an honorary DLitt from Lancaster University in 1989, and a DBE (thus becoming a "Dame") in 1993. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney by pointing to her genital region. Thora Hird's energy and resilience were such that, even following the news that she had suffered a stroke, BBC bosses were still hoping that she would recover in order to appear in the next series of Last of the Summer Wine. In July 2004, Slim-Fast, a popular diet shake, dropped Goldberg from its advertisements in response to popular opposition to statements Goldberg made at a "John Kerry for President" rally in which Goldberg repeatedly referred to President George W. Although in recent years she had been thought of as a stereotypical old woman (with many jokes about her sideline advertising stairlifts), some of her youthful film work still survives, including her 1942 appearance in the classic wartime propaganda film Went the Day Well?. The sitcom was cancelled due to low ratings in May 2004. Her tireless work for charity and work on television in spite of old age and ill health had made her an institution.

An ex-singer in a girl group, Mavis was as much of a diva running the hotel as she was in the group’s glory days. Her most memorable line was, on hearing that her son had been having sex with his girlfriend in her house, "Not on the eiderdown!". Whoopi starred as Mavis Rae, the owner of a small New York Hotel (called the Le Mont Hotel). Dame Thora's talent for comedy was shown to good effect in her performance as the potential battleaxe mother-in-law to Victoria Wood's character in the TV film Pat and Margaret. She also starred in the sitcom, Whoopi, which began broadcasting in fall 2003 on NBC. Thora Hird was mainly associated with television comedy, notably the sitcoms Meet the Wife (a 1960s classic) and later series of Last of the Summer Wine. However, she played a variety of roles, including the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, and won a BAFTA Best Actress award for her role in one of Alan Bennett's monologues. She hosted a syndicated talk show (The Whoopi Goldberg Show) in 1992-1993. Dame Thora Hird (May 28, 1911 - March 15, 2003) was a veteran British actress born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She was the mother of the actress Janette Scott, and thus formerly the mother-in-law of the singer Mel Tormé.

Goldberg was paired with Jean Stapleton in the CBS sitcom Bagdad Café (with a plot differing from the 1987 movie in several respects), which lasted two seasons (1990-1991). Dame Thora Hird'a autobiography, Scene And Hird (1976). She also hosted the Oscars in 1999. In 2001 she won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. She has been nominated for five American Comedy Awards with two wins.

In 1999 she received the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Vanguard Award for her continued work in supporting the gay and lesbian community. She has received three Golden Globe nominations, winning two. She has won three People's Choice Awards. She has received five Emmy nominations. She has received five Daytime Emmy nominations, winning one.

She has received two Oscar nominations and won one. Goldberg has appeared in 149 films as of October 2002. She cemented her status as a legendary comedic actress in 1992 as a lounge singer who is hidden in a convent (and consequently revitalises their choir) in Sister Act. She had a recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Guinan. In danger of fading from public acclaim, she revitalized her career in the role of a fake "spiritualist" who manages to actually make contact with the dead in the tear-jerker Ghost, for which she won her first Oscar award for best supporting actress.

The majority of the films she made in the 1980s featured her in tough-woman comedic roles (Burglar, Fatal Beauty, Jumpin' Jack Flash), though she regularly balanced them out by performing in family-oriented films (Clara's Heart). She followed up this performance with a sell-out, highly acclaimed one-woman show on Broadway. This performance garnered her an Oscar nomination for best actress in 1986. Goldberg began her film career by playing the character of Celie in the Steven Spielberg directed movie adaption of the award-winning novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

This show caught the attention of Mike Nichols who produced a one-woman show for Goldberg on Broadway, called simply Whoopi Goldberg, which ran from October 24, 1984 to March 10, 1985 for a total of 156 performances. After success as a stand up comedian in the San Francisco Bay Area, Goldberg created a one woman show in 1983 called The Spook Show. She was born in New York, New York. Caryn Elaine Johnson, better known by her stage name of Whoopi Goldberg (born November 13, 1955), is a well-known movie actress, comedian and singer.