Welcome back to the deep dive. Today we are taking
on, well, a monumental task. We're trying to
chart the career of an artist who doesn't just
defy categorization. You pretty much invented
her own. Exactly. We are diving deep into the
extraordinary, decades -long, and, let's be honest,
often fiercely controversial life of Whoopi Goldberg.
It's a huge undertaking. I mean, when you look
at the source material we have here, her career
has been relentlessly active. We're talking 1982
to the present. That's over 40 years. Over 40
years. and across every single medium you can
think of so our mission today is uh kind of complex
we need to unpack all these layers analyze her
path to achieving ego status the emmy grammy
oscar and tony which is just incredible it's
the grand slam of entertainment yeah and we had
to examine her impact moving you know so seamlessly
between prestige film highbrow theater ross stand
-up and then maybe most influentially, the daily
spotlight of daytime TV. The sources don't show
a straight line. They show a series of massive
risks and seismic shifts. And the hook here is
just undeniable. It's historical. She's one of
only 19 people. And that number includes composers
and directors, not just performers, to get that
competitive ego tee. A tiny, tiny club. But crucially,
she is the first Black woman in history to earn
that distinction. And then there's the sheer
volume. The sources confirm she's been in over
150 films. To balance that kind of output with
that top -tier prestige, well, that's the kind
of career we need to understand. Absolutely.
Okay. Let's get into it. Let's start with the
foundation, which is deeply unconventional. So
before the Ego Tea, before The View, before any
of it, there was Karen Elaine Johnson. Right.
Born November 13th, 1955 in Manhattan. So as
of 2025, she's turning 70. And her roots are
just so deeply set in New York City's working
class. She grew up in the Chelsea Elliott houses.
Which is a public housing project. And that background,
it really provides the critical context for her
resilience. Yeah. Her self -reliance. She was
raised. by a single mother, Emma Johnson. A strong
figure in her life. Absolutely. Emma was a nurse
and a teacher. Her father, Robert James Johnson
Jr., was a Baptist clergyman. But her mom was
really the central force. And we know she was
raised Catholic, went to St. Columbus Parochial
School. But, well, the traditional school system
just didn't hold her. She dropped out of high
school. Dropped out of Washington Irving High
School. And you can see this, like, anti -establishment
streak right from the beginning. She wasn't looking
for validation from conventional systems. She
was always going to define her own path. And
the most immediate example of that is her name,
the creation of Whoopi Goldberg. It's one of
the most famous and, frankly, most hilarious
anecdotes in Hollywood. It really is. The Whoopi
part. It's from a Whoopi cushion. It's perfect.
It just encapsulates her whole vibe. Unapologetic,
a little bit shocking, totally down to earth.
She said that when you're on stage, you know,
for a long time, things happen. You can't always
run to the bathroom. Exactly. She said, if you
get a little gassy, you've got to let it go.
So people started saying to her, you're like
a whoopee cushion. And that's where the name
came from. It's just the ultimate statement of
owning the uncomfortable, which is really the
foundation of her comedy. But then you couple
that humorous nickname. With the surname Goldberg.
And that's where things get really complex culturally.
This is where the sources force us to look at
this tension between a self -defined identity
and what's on paper genealogically. Right. Because
in 2011, she was very public about it. She said
Goldberg was part of her family, part of her
heritage. She declared, I just know I am Jewish.
I practice nothing. She even challenged the premise,
saying that if she were a white actress, people
wouldn't question her. Which is a really powerful
point about the boxes we try to put black artists
in. But then the narrative gets more complicated,
doesn't it? It does. When we bring in the genealogical
research, the sources point to the work of Henry
Louis Gates Jr. in his 2006 PBS documentary,
African American Lives. And what did he find?
That research confirmed all of her traceable
ancestors were black. None were named Goldberg.
And the DNA results actually traced her ancestry
specifically to the Papal and Beoti people of
modern -day Guinea -Bissau. So you have this
really rich documented history. Her great -great
-grandparents, William and Elsie Washington,
homesteading land in Florida after the Civil
War, which was incredibly rare. A strong documented
African -American lineage. So why Goldberg? Well,
one account suggests it was her mother, Emma.
who felt their family name wasn't Jewish enough
for her to become a star. Which is a pretty cynical
but maybe practical view of show business in
the 70s and 80s. And Whoopi herself has said
an agent once tried to get her to change her
name to something more black, like Puddin'. She
refused. So she stuck with Goldberg. It's this
absolute rejection of external labels, whatever
they are, in favor of a self -created identity.
And that independence, it seems like it was forged
by necessity. Before she was Whoopi, she was
Karen Johnson, moving across the country, first
to San Diego, then Berkeley. And the jobs she
worked. It's an incredible list. It really reads
like a character development workshop, doesn't
it? She was a waitress, a bank teller. And famously,
a mortuary cosmetologist, applying makeup to
the deceased. And a bricklayer. I mean, these
aren't just quirky details. They showed this
period of survival and self -training where she
was engaging with every level of society. that
absolutely fueled the characters she would later
create. And all during this time, she's honing
her craft. She joins an avant -garde theater
troupe, the Blake Street Hawkeyes, and she's
teaching acting. Which is amazing. The sources
say a young Courtney Love was one of her students.
Incredible. So she's building the artist while
living this really tough reality. But the sources
also remind us this period involved, well, immense
personal trauma. A huge trauma. In 1978 in San
Diego, she witnessed a midair collision of two
planes. It was so shocking that she developed
a profound fear of flying and PTSD. And that's
such a crucial counterpoint to her public image,
right? This larger -than -life, hilarious personality
was built not just through hard work, but through
overcoming some really severe psychological hurdles.
That internal fortitude is what allowed her to
handle what came next. That is a perfect bridge,
because all that background, the street smarts,
the pain, the resilience, it all fed her art.
But she channeled it through classical discipline.
Right. Before her solo shows blew up, she actually
sought out formal training. She studied under
the legendary acting teacher Uta Hagen at the
HB studio in New York. And that Uta Hagen training
is so important, isn't it? It's critical. It
shows she wasn't just relying on raw talent.
She was integrating that observational skill
she learned on the streets and in those odd jobs
with classical technique. That's what made her
stage work so revolutionary. And that work started
getting national attention really quickly in
the early 80s with her one woman shows. She started
with Moms, a tribute to the great black comedian
Moms Mabley. And then came The Spoop Show in
1983. And this was the turning point. It wasn't
just stand -up. It was theater. It was these
incredibly complex character monologues. Like
Fontaine. Exactly. Fontaine or this surfer chick
whose kind of casual racism exposed these much
deeper issues. She could embody anyone, different
ages, genders, identities. It proved her whole
philosophy that she was an actor who could play
anything. And that show gets to Broadway, which
was a huge deal, thanks entirely to a massive
endorsement from one of the most respected directors
out there, Mike Nichols. You cannot overstate
the importance of Mike Nichols. He discovered
her in San Francisco. The story is that he was
so moved by her performance, he literally burst
into tears. Wow. He got it immediately. And he
became her mentor. helped transfer the show to
Broadway in 1984, retitled simply Whoopi Goldberg.
This was the establishment giving its stamp of
approval to her fiercely unconventional work.
And that paid off almost instantly. The recording
of that show won her the Grammy Award for Best
Comedy Album in 1986. The first piece of the
ego puzzle. And a major historical moment. She
became the first black female comedian ever to
win that Grammy. And then the jump from that
Grammy -winning stage show... To a leading role
in a huge Hollywood film. It happened almost
overnight. Thanks to Steven Spielberg. It's a
completely unique trajectory. She didn't work
her way up through small parts. She went straight
to the top. Spielberg saw her perform at the
comedy store. And saw the dramatic depth under
all that comedy. And cast her. Just like that.
In the color purple. 1985, her debut film role
playing Celie, and the reaction to her performance
was just immediate and overwhelming. Roger Ebert
called it one of the most amazing debut performances
in movie history. And the awards followed. She
won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama.
Think about that. She was the first black actress
ever to win that specific category. On her first
film. On her very first film. It got her the
Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She
was in the Pantheon. But then the next phase
is a little harder to analyze. After that huge
prestige debut, she becomes, as the sources say,
the busiest female star from 85 to 88. She makes
seven films. Jump Jack Flash, Burglar, Fatal
Beauty. Right. And many of them were commercial
flops. So the question is, why did Hollywood
keep casting her so relentlessly? That's a great
question. And I think the answer is that the
prestige from The Color Purple was like a shield.
It insulated her. So even if the movies themselves
weren't great, her presence, her Oscar nomination,
it guaranteed a certain level of interest. She
was bankable in terms of publicity, even if the
scripts were weak. And while this was happening,
she was also cementing her place in the mainstream
by co -hosting Comic Relief on HBO. With Robin
Williams and Billy Crystal. An iconic pairing.
And that wasn't just a gig. It was a high -profile
platform. It showed she could stand shoulder
to shoulder with the biggest stars in comedy,
bridging that gap between her theater background
and her new film star status. And all of that
nonstop work set the stage perfectly for her
true mainstream explosion in 1990. The role that
changed everything. Otome Brown in Ghost. It
was the perfect role. It blended her comedic
timing, her observational skills with the emotional
depth she showed in The Color Purple. And it
secured her icon status. She won the Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actress. The historical
significance there is just immense. She became
only the second black woman to win an acting
Oscar, period. Yeah. After Hattie McDaniel in
1940. And the first black woman to win Best Supporting
Actress in nearly 50 years. And it wasn't a fluke.
She won the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for that
role, too. The character was so beloved, Premiere
magazine later named Otome Brown, one of the
top 100 best film characters ever. Yeah. So now
she has the Oscar and the 1990s become about
her transformation from a film star into this.
universal multi -genre presence. She was actively
crossing every media border she could find. And
there's no better proof of that than her jumping
into the world of Star Trek. Right. Taking on
the recurring role of Guinan in Star Trek, The
Next Generation. This was not a typical move
for an Oscar -nominated actress. Not at all.
She was embracing fan culture, genre TV, and
it's a role she loves so much she reprised it
in films and then decades later in Star Trek,
Picard. After Patrick Stewart publicly invited
her on The View. It shows her understanding of
modern celebrity. It's not just about prestige.
It's about connection with an audience. And then
commercially, she just hits this absolute peak
with Sister Act. A global phenomenon. The first
one, in 1992, grossed over $200 million. Which
is huge. And that success translated directly
into earning power. For the sequel, Sister Act
2, Her salary was estimated between $7 and $12
million. Which, the sources confirm, likely made
her the highest paid actress in the world at
that time. That's real A -list power. Not just
critical acclaim, but economic clout. And that
power let her diversify into other areas, like
voice work. She becomes a major voice talent.
Shenzi the hyena and the lion king. Scratch in
Toy Story 3. She was building this career that
was almost critic -proof because she was just
everywhere. Culturally ubiquitous. And that mainstream
acceptance led to one of the biggest prestige
gigs in entertainment, hosting the Academy Awards.
In 1994, she becomes the first black woman ever
to host the Oscars. That single moment says so
much about her acceptance by the industry, not
just as an actor, but as a voice for Hollywood
itself. And it wasn't a one -off. She hosted
four times, 94, 96, 99, 2002. And she's widely
regarded as one of the best hosts ever. That
comfort with live high -stakes TV. It was the
perfect training for what was to come. It really
was. Which brings us to the core of this deep
dive, the ego completion. She gets it done in
2002, one of only 19 people. But we need to really
break down how she did it because her path is
unique. It is. And we should be clear, these
are all competitive awards, not honorary, all
four. The chronology tells the story. Okay, so
first was the Grammy. The Grammy is 1986 for
her comedy album. That shows her brilliance as
a writer and performer. Then the Oscar. The Oscar
in 1991 for Ghost, confirming her mainstream
appeal. And then the Tony in 2002. And this is
the crucial part. It wasn't for acting, was it?
No. It was as a producer of the best musical,
Thoroughly Modern Millie. Okay, let's stop on
that. A producer Tony. For you, the listener,
why is that distinction so important? What does
that signify? It signifies control. It signifies
business acumen. And acting Tony proves you've
mastered performance. A producer Tony means you
mastered the business of the show. You got the
financing. You managed the team. You brought
a massive production to Broadway. It shows she
shifted from being a hired talent to owning the
content. That is a powerful description. And
the final piece. The final piece was the Emmy.
She actually has two. But the one that sealed
the EJT was a daytime Emmy in 2002 for producing
the documentary Beyond Tara. The Extraordinary
Life of Hattie McDaniel. So she wins her Ego
Tea clinching award for producing a doc about
the very first black Oscar winner. That feels
intentional. Oh, absolutely. It links her own
legacy directly to cinematic history. But the
key fact remains. She is the first black woman
in history to achieve the competitive Ego Tea.
Complete dominance. And even with all that success,
she never abandoned the stage. She kept going
back. She replaced Nathan Lane in the port. A
funny thing happened on the way to the forum
on Broadway. Stepping into a male lead role in
a Sondheim musical. I mean, again, proving her
point about being an actor who can play anything.
And then in 2003, she starred in August Wilson's
Mulraney's Black Bottom. To go from Sondheim
comedy to the gravitas of August Wilson, that's
just astonishing range. And the sources highlight
her recent stage return. After a 15 -year break,
she comes back as Miss Hannigan in Annie. And
the reviews were ecstatic. The New York Times
called her a holiday gift. She can still command
the medium that started it all. So if the 90s
were about film dominance, the last, what, 15
-plus years have been completely defined by her
role as moderator of The View. A role she took
in 2007, replacing Rosie O'Donnell. And this
show, it became her central platform. It magnified
her voice, her celebrity, and, well, her capacity
for controversy. Her debut was a big deal for
daytime TV. Drew 3 .4. million viewers. Ratings
jumped 7%. She quickly established herself as
the anchor guiding the conversation. And that
command earned her and the other co -hosts a
daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host in
2009. But the format of that show. daily live
unscripted debate on really sensitive topics
it exposed her to a level of scrutiny her film
career never did and we have to navigate this
part carefully yes based on the sources it's
crucial we report these incidents impartially
it's about analyzing the pattern of her remarks
and the public's reaction let's start with an
early one before the view even 2004 at a fundraiser
for john kerry she made a a very provocative
sexual joke about president George W. Bush. The
fallout was immediate and financial. Slimfast,
who she was a spokesperson for, dropped her instantly.
It was an early warning sign that her raw stand
-up style of humor carried real professional
risks. And then came this series of comments
on The View that became massive news stories.
There's a pattern to them, isn't there? There
is. It's often characterized by this demand for
legal proof or a reliance on a kind of street
-level rationalization. Like in 2007 with Michael
Vick's dogfighting case, her initial defense
was that it was a result of his cultural upbringing.
Which drew huge backlash. Then in 2009, she's
talking about Roman Polanski's rape conviction,
and she says it wasn't rape rape. A phrase that
just exploded. Exploded. She later clarified
she was trying to distinguish between statutory
and forcible rape, a legal nuance that was totally
lost. But using language like rape rape is a
classic example of her bringing this unfiltered
street smart rhetoric to a very sensitive topic.
And with the Bill Cosby allegations, her position
actually shifted over time. It did. Initially,
she defended him, asking why he hadn't been arrested
or tried if the allegations were true. She's
prioritizing due process. But in 2015, she completely
reversed her stance. She said the information
emerging kind of points to guilt. and she explicitly
supported removing the statute of limitations
for rape. So she showed she was willing to change
her mind when faced with new information. Absolutely.
Which brings us to the controversy that actually
led to a suspension. The Holocaust comments in
2022. Right. She said on air that the Holocaust
was not based on race, but was about man's inhumanity
to man, adding it was white people doing it to
white people. The backlash was immediate and
widespread. Jewish organizations pointed out
that Nazi ideology was entirely based on racial
classification. She apologized on Twitter, then
on air. But then, in an interview later that
day, she seemed to double down on the idea. which
complicated her apology. And ABC suspended her
from The View for two weeks. It was a clear signal
that even an ego winner isn't immune to corporate
consequences for crossing certain cultural lines.
But what often gets lost in these flare -ups
is her decades of consistent activism. Relentless
activism. She's a huge advocate for human rights,
moderating panels at the UN. Her commitment to
LGBTQ plus rights goes all the way back to the
1987 march on Washington. She won the Gilead
Vanguard Award in 1999. She's been involved with
Cyndi Lauper's Give a Damn campaign, spoken out
for trans rights, spoken at the Women's March.
And then just to keep everyone on their toes,
she stated in 2012 that she is a member of the
NRA. Which makes her impossible to categorize
politically. She just refuses to fit in a box.
And that complexity extends to her business ventures.
She's become an entrepreneur. Especially in the
cannabis industry, she co -founded Whoopi and
Maya in 2016. A company focused specifically
on medical cannabis products for women with menstrual
cramps. It's based on her own experience. The
venture ended in 2020, but she immediately pivoted.
Launched a new line in 2021 called Emma and Clyde,
named for her late mother and brother. It shows
she learns from market failures and ties her
personal history to her business. And she's still
innovating. Just in June 2025, she co -founded
AWSN, an all -women sports network. It just confirms
she's still using that producer's mind, remember
that, Tony Nguyen, to create new platforms for
underserved audiences. When you delve into her
personal life, you see that same theme of independence,
a rejection of traditional structures. She's
been married three times. And Alvin Martin, David
Klassen, and Lyle Trachtenberg. But what's fascinating
is how she talks about it now. She's very clear.
No plans to marry again. She believes some people,
including herself, are just not meant to be married.
She even said in an interview she was never in
love with the men she married. Her real commitment,
she says, is to her family and her work, not
a spouse, which just reinforces that. narrative
of self -reliance we've seen all along. We also
have to talk about the Ted Danson blackface incident
in 1993. This was a massive cultural flashpoint.
A huge one. It was at the Friars Club roast for
him and he was her partner at the time. He appeared
in full blackface telling racially charged jokes.
The backlash was, you know, immediate and fierce.
And what made it so complicated was Whoopi's
defense of him. Not only did she stand by him,
she admitted she wrote some of the jokes. She
insisted the context of a roast. made it acceptable.
How is that interpreted? In two completely opposite
ways. To some, it was betrayal. To her, it seemed
to be a defense of artistic freedom, of pushing
boundaries with comedy, just like she did in
the spook show. The fallout was negative, but
she prioritized her creative choice and her partner
over public opinion. And through all the drama,
her focus has remained on her family. She has
one daughter, Alexandria Martin. Who is an actress
and producer. And Whoopi is now a grandmother
of three and a great -grandmother. She's also
been incredibly candid about her personal struggles,
which is rare for a celebrity of her stature.
Very candid. Admitting she smoked marijuana right
before accepting her Oscar for Ghost. Talking
about being a functioning drug addict. And she's
open about her health. She has dyslexia, which
makes her career even more remarkable. And in
2019, she had a near fatal battle with pneumonia
and sepsis. Doctors gave her a 30 % chance of
survival. She is a survivor in the most literal
sense. And she's been a powerful voice on a...
abortion rights, tying it directly to her own
history. She revealed she had six or seven abortions
by age 25, including one with a coat hanger when
she was 14. And she continues to speak out, even
making provocative religious claims, saying God
would support abortion rights because God gave
women freedom of choice. She's always comfortable
challenging orthodoxies. When you look at her
influences, you see that same breadth. Richard
Pryor, George Carlin, Moms Mabley. But also Sidney
Poitier and Herb Elfante. But the most important
origin story is the one Nichelle Nichols told,
about a young whoopee seeing Uhura on Star Trek
and yelling, Mama, there's a black lady on television
and she ain't no maid. That moment, seeing a
black woman in a position of power, it seems
like it informed her entire career. Absolutely.
It leads directly to her philosophy about being
an actor, not an actress. Her famous quote, an
actress can only play a woman. I'm an actor.
I can play anything. And she has spent 40 years
proving that point. Her legacy is cemented, named
a Disney legend. the first African -American
female to win the Mark Twain Prize for American
Humor and, of course, the Ego Tea. She's one
of the most decorated and independently -minded
figures in entertainment history. Hashtag, tag,
tag, tag, outro. So we've traced Karen Johnson
from her start as a bricklayer and mortuary cosmetologist
in New York public housing to becoming the icon
Whoopi Goldberg, a trailblazing Ego winner, a
four -time Oscar host, and the, well, the lightning
rod voice of daytime television. And what we've
learned today is that she's a relentless artist
who mastered every single medium. And she did
it by insisting on her own definitions of her
name, her roles, her public statements. Her career
model is one of pure self -definition and perseverance.
So what does this all mean for you? We've seen
her move from serious award -winning drama like
The Color Purple to broad comedy like Sister
Act to polarizing unscripted debate on The View.
Considering that Constant high wire act, her
reliance on raw, sometimes offensive honesty.
What singular defining quality allows Whoopi
Goldberg to continually reinvent herself while
remaining one of the most decorated and polarizing
figures in American entertainment? What does
her unique staying power tell us about the boundaries
or maybe the lack of boundaries for celebrity
in the 21st century? That's a deep dive that
will keep you thinking. We'll see you next time.