Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955 known professionally by her stage name, Whoopi Goldberg (/ˈhwʊpi/), is an American actress, comedian, writer, and television host. She has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for her work in television, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. She was the second black woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win an acting Oscar.
Goldberg was born in Manhattan and raised in the Chelsea-Elliot Houses, the daughter of Emma Johnson a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson Jr. a clergyman. Most sources give her birth year as 1955. Goldberg has described her mother as a "stern, strong, and wise woman" who raised her as a single mother with her brother Clyde. Her recent forebears migrated north from Faceville, Georgia, Palatka, Florida, and Virginia.
Goldberg dropped out of Washington Irving High School. She worked as a phone sex operator, working from home at night.
Her stage name, Whoopi, was taken from a whoopee cushion; she has stated that "If you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from."The name Goldberg is an alternative family name that she says she chose to use to be taken more seriously.
Chauffeur Edwina "Eddie" Franklin (Whoopi Goldberg) is fanatical about the New York Knicks basketball team. After she wins a contest to be their honorary assistant coach, Eddie so impresses the team's owner (Frank Langella) that he fires the head coach, John Bailey (Dennis Farina), and replaces him with Eddie. She is instrumental in turning the floundering team around, just in time to make the playoffs. There, they will face the Charlotte Hornets -- now led by former Knicks coach Bailey.
An unemployed and extremely bitter actress uses her telephone to vent her frustrations on friends and enemies alike
When lively lounge singer Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) sees her mobster beau, Vince LaRocca (Harvey Keitel), commit murder, she is relocated for her protection. Set up in the guise of a nun in a California convent, Deloris proceeds to upend the quiet lives of the resident sisters. In an effort to keep her out of trouble, they assign Deloris to the convent's choir, an ensemble that she soon turns into a vibrant and soulful act that gains widespread attention.
Businessman Manny Singer (Ray Liotta) needs a reliable nanny to watch his daughter, Molly (Tina Majorino), in the absence of her late mother, yet the early applicants are unimpressive. Molly has barely talked since her mother's death, but when Corrina Washington (Whoopi Goldberg) gets the girl chatting, she lands the job.
Laurel (Whoopi Goldberg) is an intelligent investment banker struggling to succeed on Wall Street. When an unqualified white man (Tim Daly) receives a promotion, she quits her job to start her own business, only to learn that, as a woman, she is not taken seriously. To fool her competitors, Laurel creates a fictitious white man named Robert S. Cutty to manage her financial deals. But as Robert's popularity grows, Laurel realizes that living two lives is harder than she thought it might be.
Whoopi Goldberg - Sister Act - Oh Maria
https://youtu.be/rHASQg8fR0s