The first Black woman to achieve EGOT status
Whoopi Goldberg is one of those artists who never goes out of style, with an incalculable impact on the creative industries through her acting, comedy work, activism and talk show The View.
After years in Hollywood as an entertainer in every sense of the word, Goldberg has honed a career that has spanned all areas of the arts, winning awards for a variety of performances and projects that have earned her one of the most coveted titles in the world of being an EGOT winner and was also the first Black woman to do so.
With iconic performances in the likes of The Colour Purple, Sister Act and Ghost, Goldberg has forged a dazzling career on the big screen, while also showing talents for live theatre, producing and interviewing. There are few people who have been able to translate their talents across multiple mediums, but Goldberg has been able to do so, becoming a household name and lasting legend within the industry.
But perhaps one of her crowning achievements is being an EGOT winner, which is when an artist has an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, a prestigious title that few people have. So how did she do it?
Whoopi Goldberg’s EGOT-winning performances
Goldberg had her first on-screen performance in the 1985 adaptation of The Colour Purple as Celie, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. While she didn’t win the Oscar this time round, she later won for Best Supporting Actress in 1990 after her role in Ghost, starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. She plays the role of Oda Mae Brown, a psychic who helps a dead man find his killer. While the film was not initially successful and was slammed by critics, it was one of those bizarre projects that found its audience later on, becoming one of the definitive films from the ‘90s.
Goldberg later worked on multiple television shows, both as a producer and actor, which earned her 13 Emmy nominations. However, her most notable project is her talk show The View, which won a Daytime Emmy award in 2009. The show is still running today and on its 28th season, featuring a panel of women who are all professionals in their fields and discuss the world’s issues today.
The crossover between music and film is something that few performers can find equal success in, but in 1986, Goldberg won the prestigious Grammy award for Best Comedy Album for the Whoopi Goldberg: Original Broadway Show Recording. The actor began her career in 1983 with a one-woman show called Spook Show, which was later moved to Broadway under the name Whoopi Goldberg, showing an impressive versatility that allows her to move between all mediums of entertainment.
Lastly, Goldberg won a Tony award for ‘Best Musical’ in 2002 after producing Thoroughly Modern Millie. It tells the story of small-town girl Millie Dillmount, who moves to New York City in the 1920s for money instead of love. However, many women at the time were beginning to work, and Millie accidentally finds herself in the company of some flapper girls and the leader of a white slavery ring. It’s both regressive and progressive simultaneously, toeing the line between both and causing quite a stir upon its release.
But Goldberg is not one to avoid risks or potentially controversial projects and has built a career on honest storytelling, regardless of the medium.
