Oprah Winfrey
Since 1986, Oprah Winfrey has hosted the
highest rated television talk show in history, The Oprah Winfrey
Show. The show's greatest attraction has been Oprah herself,
as she tends to feel and not just talk about the problems
under discussion. Her willingness to empathize with people
in distress and even expose her own vulnerability has endeared
her to million of viewers.
Born Oprah Gail Winfrey in 1954 in Kosciusko,
Mississippi, her parents had intended to name her Orpah, after
Ruth's sister-in-law in the Bible, but on her birth certificate
the second and third letters were mistakenly transposed, making
the name Oprah.
Her first public speech was at the tender
age of two when she addressed a church congregation on the
topic "Jesus Rose on Easter Day." Growing up she
was known as "the little speaker" often reciting
poetry for Black social clubs and church teas. At 12, while
visiting her father in Nashville, TN, she earned $500 for
delivering a speech at church. Afterward she announced that
her career goal was to be "paid to talk."
In high school, local Nashville station
WVOL, impressed by her voice, hired her to read newscasts
during her senior year. After graduating from high school
in 1971, Oprah entered Tennessee State University, where during
her freshman year she won the Miss Black Nashville and Miss
Black Tennessee titles.
While still a sophomore in college, Oprah
accepted an offer from WTVF-TV in Nashville to co-anchor the
evening news, becoming the city's youngest and first Black
female newscaster. When she graduated college in 1976, she
accepted a co-anchor position at WJZ-TV in Baltimore. The
following year she became co-host with Richard Sher of the
station's "People Are Talking," a morning talk show.
Citing the first day after her assignment, "this is what
I was born to do."
In 1984 Oprah moved to Chicago and joined
WLS-TV where she was hired to host a slumping half-hour morning
show, A.M. Chicago. Oprah immediately changed the show's subject
matter from lightweight fare to topical and controversial
issues. Three months after she took over, A.M. Chicago's ratings
overtook Phil Donahue's show, which had dominated the local
talk show scene for more than 16 years. By 1985 Oprah's morning
show had expanded to a full hour and was renamed The Oprah
Winfrey Show. In September 1986 the show went national and
premiered on the largest number of stations of any syndicated
program ever! That same year she founded HARPO Productions
(HARPO is Oprah spelled backwards) to produce her talk show
and other programs. In creating HARPO, Oprah became the first
African American woman in television to own her own television
and film production company.
By the late 1990s The Oprah Winfrey Show
was still number one and her show continued to be highly influential.
She formed Oprah's Book Club in 1996 and her selections always
skyrocketed to the top of the bestseller lists. The Oprah
Winfrey show has won numerous Emmy Awards and Oprah herself
has won numerous awards and accolades.
Aside from television, in 1985 she was cast
in the role of Sofia in the film adaptation of Alice Walker's"
The Color Purple." A performance, that earned her an
Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination. More than just
an entertainer, Oprah Winfrey has used her immense personal
success to promote social progress. She established ten scholarships
in her father's name at Tennessee State University and gave
two million dollars to Morehouse College in Atlanta. In September
1997, she launched Oprah's Angel Network, a campaign to encourage
people to help those in need. By 1998, the campaign had raised
over $3.5 million for college tuition for needy students.
Oprah Winfrey, despite her enormous success
as the "queen of talk shows," an accomplished actress,
an award-winning executive producer and social activist…
she remains "a real person."
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