Halle Berry Biography

Halle Berry is living proof that some models can act. Beauty queen, desired model and finally successful actress, Berry was the first African American woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for her part in ‘Monsters Ball’ - the story of a woman who has an affair with a racist ex-jailer who oversaw the execution of her husband.

Born to an African American father and a white mother, Berry had difficulty as a child, fitting neither in the black community nor the white. She capitalised on her looks on the catwalk as a young teenager, and later turned to professional modelling.

The TV series ‘Living Dolls’ was her first acting job and from there she moved on to ‘Knots Landing’. As a TV actress, Berry gained the reputation of living her roles - she would continue in character for the entire duration of a shoot, regardless of whether the cameras were rolling or not.

Her method worked well for her first film, Spike Lee's ‘Jungle Fever’, when she refused to bathe for days before starting to act the role of a crack addict.

Flitting between comic and hard-hitting roles, Berry established a healthy rapport with her audience and the critics, winning her considerable acclaim in the late 1990s. Less commended was her part opposite John Travolta in the terrible thriller ‘Swordfish’. The film sold itself as the first to reveal Berry's breasts, and did little to recommend her as a serious actress.

Director Marc Forster, undeterred by this blip, went on to cast Berry in ‘Monster's Ball’, a role that brilliantly revealed an inner turmoil and brought the actress to the brink of superstardom.