Halle Berry – biography, photos, facts, family, kids, affairs, height and weight 2020

Halle Berry Biography

Halle Berry is an American actress, the first Afro-American woman to ever win an Oscar, known as a starring actor in the X-Men sequel movies, «Monster's Ball», «Cloud Atlas» and many others. Throughout her career, she had many ups and downs. In her acting experience, she combined starring in A-Class movies as well as in the experimentary low-budget films.

Early life

Halle Maria Berry was born in Cleveland on August 14, 1966. Initially, her first and middle names were swapped, and her parents named their daughter for the local retail store «Halle’s Department Store». Her mom, Judith, was a nurse. Her father, Jerome, worked as a hospital attendant in the psychiatric clinic where her mother worked; later he trained to be a bus driver.

In 1970 Hall's parents got divorced. The divorce was preceded by a difficult period: almost everyday Jerome was physically abusing his wife, often in front of Halle and her older sister Heidi. Since the father left, their family hasn't heard of him anymore.

During her studies at Bedford High School, Halle was a cheerleader

During her studies at Bedford High School, Halle had a very active life:she was a prom queen, a cheerleader, an editor of the school newspaper. After graduation, she entered Cuyahoga Community College and got work in the children's department as a sales assistant.

The beginning of the 80s was marked by the participation of Halle Berry in the beauty contests

The beginning of the 80s was marked by the participation of Berry in the beauty contests. Having passed through a tough selection process, in 1985 she made it to the «Miss Teen All-American», where she subsequently got the first prize. A year later, she repeated her success and won Miss Ohio Usa competition. It paved a way for her to the get nominated for the title of the most beautiful girl in the USA. At the main beauty contest of the country, the first prize went to Kristi Fichtner while Halle won the second place and went to take part in Miss World Contest. She was the first Afro-American representative of the United States in the history of that competition. The American reached the final and was awarded with the 5th Vice Miss prize. Having returned back home, she decided to move forward with the modeling career.

In 1989, Halle moved to New York to pursue her career goals. As her first attempts didn't go well, she completely run out of money. Halle had to live in a homeless shelter for a week. As Halle found the first serious job, she received some really disturbing news: she was diagnosed with diabetes.

Acting career

Health problems did not prevent Halle from starting her career remarkably. Her appearance in the TV - series «Living Dolls» (1989) helped to solve material problems and feel more confident. This was followed by an offer from Spike Lee to star in «The Jungle Fever» (1991), and in «The Last Boy Scout» (1991) she co-starred with Bruce Willis.

Halle Berry in the movie «The Last Boy Scout»

The movie «Boomerang» (1992) with one of the roles played by Berry caught public's attention. It resulted in two nominations for the MTV Award in the categories «Best Breakthrough Performance» and «Most Desired Female». In the fantasy comedy «The Flintstones»(1994), Halle also managed to prove herself: she was nominated for the Saturn Award.

Halle Berry in the fantasy comedy «The Flintstones»

After «The Executive Decision» (1996), «Bulworth» (1998) and a number of other averagely good films, Berry appeared again on television with the movie «Introducing Dorothy Dandridge» (1999). For the first time she performed as an executive producer and received such prestigious awards as «Emmy Award», «The Golden Globe Award» as well as a statuette from the Actors Guild.

In the movie «X-Men» (2000), the role of the superheroine Storm, a character with the power of weather control, opened up great prospects in front of Halle, since the movie creators planned to make a sequel of the movie. She, as well as Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Famke Janssen spent a serious amount of time in the universe of the mutants. A year later, Halle appeared topless for the first time in the movie «Swordfish» (2001). In the same year, the drama «Monster's Ball» was released. The actress liked the script so much that she agreed to make a significant cut to her salary, so that the producers could fit into the budget. She did not regret it as her role in the drama movie of Mark Foster brought her an Oscar, a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and a BAFTA award.

«The Swordfish» - trailer

«Die another day» (2002) - a new movie in James Bond series with the starring actor Pierce Brosnan turned out to be both an interesting and profitable project for Berry: she received $4mln paycheck for being a new «Bond girl».

In 2002, Halle Berry played in a new movie of James Bond series

The return to the «X2: X-Men United» (2003) pleased the fans of both the actress and the character. However, the filming of «Gothika» (2003), which was planned to be started shortly after that, had to be postponed for later: in the scene with Robert Downey Jr. Halle broke her arm.

It was seemingly the peak of her career when she landed a role in one more comics movie. Halle was promised to receive a salary of $14mln and the possible continuation of the movie. However, «The Catwoman» (2004) with Sharon Stone and Benjamin Bratt as a supporting actor failed on all levels: caused financial losses to the filmmakers, drew criticism from viewers and brought a nomination for «The Golden Raspberry».

Berry managed to recover lost ground while working on the dubbing of the cartoon «The Robots» (2005) and after starring in the movie «Their Eyes Were Watching God»(2005), the actress was nominated once again for Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.

In the third instalment of the film series «X-Men: The Last Stand» (2006), Berry might not have played. She did not get along too well with the director of the two previous instalments, Brian Singer, besides she considered that Storm did not grow as a character and did not make a sufficient contribution to the story. Only the change of the director for Brett Ratner and the assurances on the part of the studio on more time on camera to be assigned for Halle, persuaded her to sign the contract.

«The perfect stranger» - trailer

In 2007, Berry co-starred again with Bruce Willis in «The Ideal Stranger» (2007), and also received her own star on the Walk of Fame.

In the movie «Frankie and Alice» Halle played a woman with a mental disorder.

The movie «Frankie and Alice» (2009), where Halle played a woman with a mental disorder, which affected her life and communication with others, has turned out to be experimental and controversial.

After a short break, Halle joined the star cast in Garry Marshall's movie «New Year's Eve» (2011). The comedy managed to generate income, however the viewers` reaction to the movie was cold.

«Cloud Atlas» - trailer

«Cloud Atlas» (2012) - a movie that causes controversy to this day. In Tom Tykwer and Wachowski sisters` fiction movie each actor played several roles: they were transformed beyond recognition. Halle said that the makeup was so realistic that it was not always possible to recognize the colleagues, even when dealing with them face to face.

Halle Berry in the movie «The Cloud Atlas»

The experiments continued next year as well. The film «The Call» (2013) was noticed on Saturn Award, it succeeded in its` distribution and got the positive review from the audience, but «Movie 43» (2013) was much more discussed, especially in a negative way. This film is a mix of crazy stories in which world-wide stars like Kate Winslet, Richard Gere and Chloe Grace Moretz have appeared. But even this did not save the project from public dissatisfaction.

In 2014, Berry played for the fourth time the character of Storm in «X-Men: Days of Future Past» (2014) (after that, the role of Storm was given to a young actress Alexandra Shipp), and also got her own fantastic series «Outside»(2014). The release of the episodes was promising and it was even extended for the second season, however, the channel put an end to this after that.

Halle Berry's Personal Life

From 1989 to 1991 the actress was in the relationship with a dentist John Ronan. A few years after their breakup, the ex-boyfriend sued Halle, demanding repayment of his loans. According to him, he had borrowed money to help Berry build her career. The court found his claim untenable. In 1993, Halle married David Justice, a baseball player. Their Marriage lasted till 1997. The second time the wedding bells rang for the actress in 2001. Her choice fell on a musician - Eric Benet. He had courted his beloved for two years, before hearing «yes.» However, very soon the spouses started having problems, probably related to Eric's infidelity: he even underwent a treatment for sexual addiction. The divorce was filed in 2005. In that period, Halle met a model Gabriel Aubrey at a photoshoot. The couple didn’t rush to get married, but in 2008 their daughter Nala Ariel was born. After two years, they broke up. This resulted in a loud and long legal process. Aubrey fought for full custody of the child and for financial maintenance on the part of his ex-partner. He did not allow the girl to be taken to France, where Olivier Martinez, Halle's new boyfriend, lived at that time. It resulted in mutual accusations in the media, the ban from approaching and even fights between Olivier and Gabriel. Eventually, Berry had to pay to reach an agreement.

Halle and Martinez got married in 2013 and became parents on the same year. The boy was named Maceo Robert. In 2015, the couple filed for divorce, and a year later, all the formalities were settled. They remained on friendly terms and raise their son together.

Halle Berry nowadays

Among the upcoming premieres with the actress, the triquel «John Wick 3» (2019) with Keanu Reeves can be distinguished. In the dynamic action movie there are always some world famous actors, this time the choice fell on Halle.

The actress has a directorial debut pre-planned. The release date wasn`t announced yet, but the title of the movie is «Bruised» - and the genre: sports drama. Berry also kept the main role for herself, thus she has a lot of work to do.

Halle Berry, biography, news, photos

Photo: Halle Berry