Whoopi Goldberg Biography: Age, Height, Ex-Husbands, The View Career, EGOT, Net Worth

Whoopi Goldberg is one of the few entertainers who can claim an EGOT, a defining role in a Steven Spielberg film, a place in the Star Trek universe, and a seat at the table on daytime television for nearly two decades. She has co-hosted and moderated The View since September 2007, and in 2026 she is still the show’s most unpredictable voice.

She turns 71 on November 13, 2026, and she is entering the year with a new stage role, a recurring part on an Italian soap opera, and a political comment that went viral in the first week of November. This biography covers Whoopi Goldberg’s age, height, ex-husbands, daughter, early life, career, EGOT, The View, controversies, net worth, quotes, and the moments that made her a singular American figure.

Quick Facts

People who search for Caryn Elaine Johnson, The View, Sister Act, Ghost, The Color Purple, Star Trek, EGOT, Alexandrea Martin, and Ted Danson often arrive at Goldberg’s name. Her EGOT and her long run on The View are the two most common entry points.

Early Life & Education

Caryn Elaine Johnson was born on November 13, 1955, in Manhattan, the daughter of Emma Johnson, a nurse and teacher, and Robert James Johnson Jr., a Baptist clergyman. She was raised in the Chelsea-Elliot Houses, a public housing project in New York City, by her mother after her parents separated. She has one brother, Clyde, who died in 2015.

Money was tight and books were not. Her mother read to her, took her to the theater when she could afford it, and insisted that her daughter’s imagination was not a luxury. Goldberg has described her mother as a stern, strong, and wise woman who raised two children alone and never let them feel poor in spirit.

She was raised Catholic and attended St. Columba’s, a local parochial school. She later described her family as Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist, and Catholic, a mix that shaped a comic sensibility comfortable with contradiction. She dropped out of Washington Irving High School, a decision she has never dressed up as a triumph; it was a door that closed early and forced her to find another way in.

In the 1970s she moved to San Diego, where she waited tables, then to Berkeley, where she worked as a bank teller, a mortuary cosmetologist, and a bricklayer. She joined the avant-garde theater troupe the Blake Street Hawkeyes and taught comedy and acting classes; Courtney Love was one of her students. In 1978 she witnessed a midair plane collision in San Diego, an experience that left her with a fear of flying and post-traumatic stress.

Career Journey

The Spook Show and Broadway

Goldberg’s break came from a one-woman show she built herself. In 1983 and 1984 she performed The Spook Show, a collection of character monologues that included a portrayal of the comedian Moms Mabley. Director Mike Nichols saw her perform and helped move the show to Broadway, where it was retitled Whoopi Goldberg and ran from October 1984 to March 1985.

The Broadway recording won the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, making her the first Black woman to win that category. The show also caught Steven Spielberg’s attention while she was performing at The Comedy Store, and that meeting changed her life.

The Color Purple and the Movies

Spielberg cast Goldberg as Celie in The Color Purple (1985), his adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel. The film was a critical and commercial success, nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and Goldberg’s performance earned her a nomination for Best Actress. Roger Ebert called it one of the most amazing debut performances in movie history, and she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama, the first Black actress to do so.

She followed with Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Burglar, Fatal Beauty, and Clara’s Heart, then moved into one of the most productive runs of any actor of her generation. In 1990 she played the psychic Oda Mae Brown in Ghost, a performance that won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and made her the second Black woman to win an Oscar for acting.

Sister Act (1992) and its 1993 sequel turned her into a global star and, for a time, the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. She also appeared in Soapdish, Corrina, Corrina, Ghosts of Mississippi, Girl, Interrupted, and The Lion King, where she voiced Shenzi the hyena.

Star Trek and the Small Screen

From 1988 to 1993 she played Guinan, the enigmatic bartender on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The role came from a childhood epiphany: as a girl she saw Nichelle Nichols as Uhura and shouted, “Momma! There’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!” She reprised Guinan in two Star Trek films and again in Star Trek: Picard in 2022.

She hosted the Academy Awards four times, the first Black woman to do so, and became the Center Square on Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2001. She also produced television series including Strong Medicine and Whoopi’s Littleburg, and starred in The Whoopi Goldberg Show, a late-night talk show.

The EGOT and the Stage

Goldberg completed the EGOT in 2002 when she won a Daytime Emmy for producing Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel and a Tony for producing Thoroughly Modern Millie. She already had her Grammy and Oscar, and the combination made her the first Black woman to achieve all four awards.

She returned to Broadway in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1996 and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2003, and in 2024 and 2025 she played Miss Hannigan in a limited engagement of Annie at Madison Square Garden. In November 2025 she began filming a recurring role on the Italian soap opera Un posto al sole.

The View

On September 4, 2007, Goldberg became the moderator and co-host of The View, replacing Rosie O’Donnell. Her debut drew 3.4 million viewers, and within two weeks the show was averaging 3.5 million, a seven percent increase over the previous season.

She has won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host and has been nominated ten times. Her role is part referee, part provocateur: she opens the show, manages the table, and occasionally says the thing that gets the show its next day of coverage. In November 2026 she told the audience that she had been “kicked out” of the Democratic Party 22 years earlier, a remark that traveled further than anything else on the show that week.

Career Stats

• 1984: Whoopi Goldberg opens on Broadway
• 1985: Wins a Grammy for the Broadway recording; stars in The Color Purple
• 1988: Joins Star Trek: The Next Generation as Guinan
• 1990: Wins the Academy Award for Ghost
• 1992: Sister Act becomes a global hit
• 2002: Completes the EGOT
• 2007: Becomes moderator of The View
• 2026: Returns to The View for its post-midterm season; plays Miss Hannigan in Annie

Personal Life

Goldberg has been married three times. Her first husband was drug counselor Alvin Martin, from 1973 to 1979; their daughter, Alexandrea Martin, was born on May 9, 1974. Her second husband was cinematographer David Claessen, from 1986 to 1988. Her third was union organizer Lyle Trachtenberg, from 1994 to 1995.

She has said she has no plans to marry again. “Some people are not meant to be married and I am not meant to,” she wrote. In a 2011 interview with Piers Morgan she explained that she was never in love with the men she married and that she is committed to her family rather than to a spouse.

Her daughter Alexandrea is an actress and producer. Goldberg has three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, and she has described becoming a great-grandmother as one of the happiest surprises of her life.

She lives in Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, and keeps a summer home on the coast of Sardinia. She has dyslexia and has spoken openly about it, and she has said she prefers the gender-neutral term “actor” to “actress” because an actor can play anything.

Dating History and Affairs

Goldberg’s romantic history is long and mostly public because she has never pretended otherwise. She had a live-in relationship with actor Frank Langella from 1996 to 2000, and another with playwright David Schein. Her ex-boyfriends include businessman Michael Visbal, orthodontist Jeffrey Cohen, camera operator Edward Gold, and actors Timothy Dalton and Ted Danson.

The Danson relationship was the most scrutinized. He appeared in blackface at his 1993 Friars Club roast, and Goldberg wrote some of his jokes and defended him afterward. Both said they received hate mail about their interracial relationship and that the roast was an attempt to bring the stereotypes into the open.

She has also spoken about her marriages with unusual candor, saying she was never in love with the men she wed. That honesty has made her a target for tabloid editors and a hero to readers who prefer a woman who does not perform domestic bliss.

Controversies

The Holocaust comments. In January 2022 Goldberg said on The View that the Holocaust was “not about race” but “about man’s inhumanity to man,” adding that it was “white people doing it to white people.” The remark drew widespread condemnation. She apologized on Twitter, repeated a version of the argument on The Late Show, apologized again on air, and was suspended from the show for two weeks.

The Bush joke. In July 2004, at a fundraiser for John Kerry at Radio City Music Hall, she made a crude joke about President George W. Bush involving a bottle of wine. Slim-Fast, which had her under contract, dropped her from its ad campaign.

The Polanski and Vick remarks. In 2009 she said Roman Polanski’s conviction for the rape of a 13-year-old was not “rape-rape,” then clarified that she had meant to distinguish statutory rape from forcible rape. Earlier, she had defended Michael Vick’s involvement in dogfighting as a product of “cultural upbringing,” a comment she later walked back.

The Cosby reversal. She initially defended Bill Cosby against rape allegations, asking why he had never been arrested or tried. After more accusers came forward she changed her position, saying the information “kinda points to guilt,” and called for the statute of limitations on rape to be removed.

The 2026 political remarks. In November 2026 she said she had been “kicked out” of the Democratic Party 22 years earlier and warned Democrats to “take care of business” after their midterm wins. The comments annoyed partisans on both sides and became a cable-news segment for three days.

Awards & Achievements

• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Ghost (1990)
• Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, Whoopi Goldberg (1985)
• Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer, Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002)
• Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host, The View (2009)
• First Black woman to complete the EGOT
• Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama, The Color Purple (1986)
• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Ghost (1991)
• Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2001)
• Disney Legend Award (2017)
• Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2001)

Physical Statistics

• Height: 5 ft 5 in (165 cm)
• Weight: Not publicly disclosed
• Hair Color: Black, often styled in locs
• Eye Color: Brown
• Build: Average
• Style: Oversized blazers, statement glasses, bold jewelry, and sneakers on The View set

Quotes

“I was kicked out 22 years ago. I mean, listen, it doesn’t stop me from doing what I need to do.”

Whoopi Goldberg, The View, November 3, 2026

“An actress can only play a woman. I’m an actor—I can play anything.”

Whoopi Goldberg, on why she prefers the term actor

“Some people are not meant to be married and I am not meant to.”

Whoopi Goldberg, on her marriages

Favorites

• Favorite franchise: Star Trek, which she loved since seeing Nichelle Nichols as a child
• Favorite role: Celie in The Color Purple, the part that made her a film actor
• Favorite city: New York, where she was born and started in theater
• Favorite stage role: Miss Hannigan in Annie, which she played in 2024 and 2025
• Favorite format: Live television, because there is no safety net
• Favorite cause: LGBTQ rights and cannabis legalization, two advocacy lanes she has worked for decades

Earnings

Goldberg’s net worth is estimated at $60 million. The figure is built on four decades of film, television, theater, producing, and endorsements, plus a long run on The View that pays her a reported salary in the high seven figures.

Her film peak came in the early 1990s, when Sister Act and its sequel made her the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. She has also produced Broadway shows, written books, and launched businesses including the cannabis line Whoopi & Maya and, in 2025, the all-women’s sports network AWSN.

She has never been a spokesperson for a luxury brand or a tech company, and her money comes from work rather than equity. That makes her fortune smaller than that of a movie star with a production company, but it is unusually durable for a performer who has reinvented herself three times.

Interesting Facts

• Her stage name comes from a whoopee cushion; friends said she was like one because she never left the stage to pass gas.
• She is the first Black woman to complete the EGOT.
• She hosted the Academy Awards four times.
• She was a bricklayer and a mortuary cosmetologist before she became famous.
• Her daughter, Alexandrea Martin, is an actress and producer.
• She has three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
• She has dyslexia and has spoken about it publicly.
• She co-founded an all-women’s sports network, AWSN, in 2025.

Did You Know Already?

• The Color Purple was her film debut.
• She voiced Shenzi in The Lion King.
• She played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• She was the Center Square on Hollywood Squares.
• She has been married three times and says she will not marry again.
• She began a recurring role on the Italian soap Un posto al sole in 2025.

Social Media Links

• X (Twitter): @WhoopiGoldberg
• Instagram: @whoopigoldberg
• IMDb: Whoopi Goldberg on IMDb

Note: Goldberg’s accounts are verified, but impostor and fan pages are common. We list only the official profiles above.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Whoopi Goldberg has been famous for so long that it is easy to forget how unlikely the career was: a high school dropout from a Manhattan housing project who built a one-woman show, won an Oscar, completed the EGOT, and then reinvented herself as the moderator of a daytime talk show.

At 70, she is still working, still arguing, and still willing to say the thing that makes the table go quiet. The controversies are part of the package. So is the range: Celie, Oda Mae Brown, Guinan, Miss Hannigan, and the woman who opens The View five days a week. Few entertainers have covered that much ground, and fewer have done it without a script.

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