biography oprah winfrey english

Oprah Winfrey's Official Biography

• Television Pioneer
• Magazine Founder & Editorial Director
• Producer/Actress
• Online Leader
• Philanthropist
• Television Programming Creator
• Satellite Radio Programmer
• Broadway Producer
• Honorary Achievements
• Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Spelman College— National Community Service Award
• The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences— Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award/Honorary Academy Award
• National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences— Crystal Pillar Award
• TIME Magazine — 100 Most Influential People in the World . She is the only person to have been included in all eight of TIME'S 100 Most Influential People in World lists, from 2004-2011.
• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts— Kennedy Center Honors
• The Women's Conference (California)— Minerva Award
• The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity— 2007 Humanitarian Award
• The New York Public Library— Library Lion 2006
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People— Hall of Fame
• National Civil Rights Museum— 2005 National Freedom Award
• International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences— 2005 International Emmy Founders Award
• United Nations Association of the United States of America— Global Humanitarian Action Award
• National Association of Broadcasters— Distinguished Service Award
• Association of American Publishers— AAP Honors Award
• 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards®— Bob Hope Humanitarian Award
• Broadcasting & Cable— Hall of Fame
• National Book Foundation— 50th Anniversary Gold Medal
• National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences®— Lifetime Achievement Award
• TIME Magazine — 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century
• Newsweek —Most Important Person in Books and Media
• TV Guide —Television Performer of the Year
• International Radio & Television Society Foundation— Gold Medal Award
• George Foster Peabody Awards— 1995 Individual Achievement Award

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Oprah Winfrey: All the Ways the First Black Female Billionaire Has Made History

From talk show host and business entrepreneur to actor and philanthropist, there is little the "Queen of All Media" hasn't done — and dominated — throughout her career.

Winfrey is the first Black woman billionaire, with deep attention paid to strategic financial partnerships and enterprises. Her immense monetary wealth aside, Winfrey has spent her career fostering creative projects that have elevated her standing as an American icon among fans. Here’s a sampling of Winfrey’s myriad accomplishments.

'The Oprah Winfrey Show' is the highest-rated daytime talk show ever

In the mid-1970s, Winfrey became the first Black woman to anchor a nightly news program in Nashville at the age of 19 while in college. A decade later, she became the host of A.M. Chicago , directly competing with the popular Phil Donahue Show.

Winfrey’s show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show more than a year later. The production soon went into syndication and ultimately became an entrenched part of the American television landscape and the highest-rated daytime talk show in history.

The show’s format consisted of everything from serious interviews with trauma survivors and celebrity appearances to massive audience giveaways. It ran until 2011 and won 16 Daytime Emmys including Best Talk Show and Best Talk Show Host. In 1999, Winfrey began to withhold her name for consideration after receiving a lifetime achievement award.

READ MORE: Oprah Winfrey's Best Talk Show Moments

She opened a leadership academy for young girls in South Africa

Winfrey created her own foundation in 1997 and started a school in South Africa, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls . The idea for the boarding school, which housed girls from grades 8-12, was inspired by Winfrey's rough childhood.

She has openly discussed being a survivor of sexual abuse when she was a child and lobbied for the creation of the National Child Protection Act, which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in December 1993.

"I am one proud mama and for once I think I know what that feels like for real," Winfrey said before the graduation of the first class. "It feels like a real sense of accomplishment. It is a triumph indeed, considering where all these girls have come from."

She launched the Oprah Winfrey Network, Oprah's Book Club and O Magazine

In 1996, Winfrey launched Oprah’s Book Club , which selected a literary title for viewers to read and discuss each month. The call for a nationwide reading group helped boost publishers’ bottom line as each featured book quickly became a bestseller.

The club featured works from a wide range of authors, including Pearl S. Buck , William Faulkner , Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison , and Lalita Tademy , among others. The club continued to run after the end of Winfrey’s talk show.

Two years later, in 1998, Winfrey invested in the Oxygen network, a cable channel geared toward women. And in 2000, Winfrey debuted O, The Oprah Magazine , featuring a celebration of life, lifestyle, spirituality, arts and culture. Winfrey has appeared on the cover more than 200 times.

On January 1, 2011, Winfrey launched the Oprah Winfrey Network , a cable TV platform that featured reality TV shows, dramas and classic series.

Winfrey was the first Black woman to win the Cecil B. DeMille Award

In 2018 Winfrey became the first Black woman to win the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award. Her wildly popular Golden Globes speech honored women who had shared their stories of sexual harassment and declared that “a new day is on the horizon.”

The speech stirred speculation that the media icon might run for the nation’s highest office. Winfrey later clarified she did not want to run for president, saying, “I am not trying to test any waters, don't want to go in those waters."

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Oprah Winfrey

• Born January 29 , 1954 · Kosciusko, Mississippi, USA
• Birth name Orpah Gail Winfrey
• Deepak Oprah
• Height 5′ 6½″ (1.69 m)
• Oprah Gail Winfrey , often known simply as Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she was the richest African-American of the 20th century, was once the world's only black billionaire, and the greatest black philanthropist in U.S. history. By 2007, she was sometimes ranked as the most influential woman in the world - IMDb Mini Biography By: Bonitao
• Oprah Winfrey is an American media executive, actress, talk show host, television producer, and philanthropist. She is known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) , which was the highest-rated TV program in history and ran for 25 years from 1986 to 2011. Oprah Winfrey was the richest African-American of the 20th century and North America's first black multi-billionaire, and she has been ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. Oprah was ranked as the most influential woman in the world. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Tango Papa
• Children No Children
• Parents Vernita Lee Vernon Winfrey
• Relatives Hattie Mae Lee (Presley) (Grandparent)
• Her self-deprecating humor
• Often sings her words when presenting.
• Her empathetic interviewing style
• First African American woman billionaire in history and first African American female entrepreneur to appear on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
• Over the 25-year run of her daytime TV talk show, she never once missed a day through absenteeism.
• Is the first woman in history to own and produce her own talk show.
• Over the course of her 25 years hosting The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) , she taped 217 episodes dedicated to sexual abuse, having been a survivor of such abuse herself as a young girl. She was instrumental in the passage of the Oprah Bill, in the early 1990s. The bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton and is aimed at stopping child abuse.
• Gave birth to a baby boy when she was just 14. The baby passed away after two weeks, from complications of being born two months premature.
• Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.
• My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with.
• Lots of people want to ride with you in the Limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the Limo breaks down.
• All my life I have always known I was born to greatness.
• The essential question is not, "How busy are you?' but 'What are you busy at?' 'Are you doing what fulfills you?'
• The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) - $315,000,000 per year (2010)
• The Color Purple (1986) - approx. $35,000

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Biography Online

Short Biography of Oprah Winfrey

“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.”

– Oprah Winfrey

“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”

From the age of 14, she went to live with her father. Oprah says he was strict, but she was in the mood to be disobedient during her teenage years. After working her way through college, she became interested in journalism and media and got her first job as a news anchor for a local TV station.

Her emotional style did not go down well for a news programme, so she was transferred to an ailing daytime chat programme. After Oprah had taken over, the daily chat show took off, and this later led to her own programme – The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The Oprah Winfrey show has proved to be one of the most successful and highly watched TV show of all time. It has broken many social and cultural barriers such as gay and lesbian issues. Oprah has also remained a powerful role model for women and black American women in particular. She is credited with promoting an intimate confessional form of media communication, which has been imitated across the globe.

In recent years, the Oprah Winfrey show has focused on issues of self-improvement, spirituality and self-help. Diet has also been a big issue with Oprah once successfully losing a lot of weight. Her subsequent diet book sold millions of copies.

Oprah Winfrey has promoted many spiritual books, which have focused on the aspect of taking responsibility for your life – not changing your circumstances, but changing the way you look at your life.

“What I learned at a very early age was that I was responsible for my life. And as I became more spiritually conscious, I learned that we all are responsible for ourselves, that you create your own reality by the way you think and therefore act. You cannot blame apartheid, your parents, your circumstances, because you are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything.”

– O Magazine (January 2007), pages 160 & 217

Oprah Wealth

Her range of media enterprises have made Oprah one of the richest self-made women. The Forbes’ international rich list has listed Winfrey as the world’s only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in world history.In 2014 Winfrey has a net worth of more than 2.9 billion dollars.

The Oprah Winfrey book club has become the most influential book clubs in the world. A recommendation from Oprah Winfrey frequently sends books to the top of the best-seller lists. Many commentators agree that Oprah Winfrey exerts enormous influence. Some estimated her support for Barack Obama helped him gain one million votes in the 2008 election.

As Vanity Fair said of Oprah Winfrey:

“Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope”

Acting career

Oprah Winfrey was also nominated for an Oscar in the film – A Color Purple . Produced by Steven Spielberg, the epic Color Purple told of segregation in America’s deep south. Oprah was widely admired for her role as Sofia.

Support for Obama

From 2006 to 2008, she lent her support to the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Her influence and personal following played a key role in helping Obama to become the first African-American to become president.

In 2013, Oprah gained a unique interview with the professional cyclist, Lance Armstrong . It was on Oprah that Armstrong finally made a dramatic confession that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.

Oprah Winfrey has been critical of the presidency of Donald Trump and on various occasions has hinted she would be interested in the possibility of running as a Democrat for president. However, she later clarified her view and says a presidential bid is unlikely because

“I’ve always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not,” she told the magazine. “And so it’s not something that interests me. I don’t have the DNA for it.” CNN

Religious and spiritual views

Oprah Winfrey was brought up in the Baptist church and after being baptized aged 8 she became evangelical about the religion. However, as she grew up she accepted a wider definition of spirituality – a spirituality which embraces the truth in all religions and different spiritual paths. Speaking during Oprah’s Lifeclass: The Tour she said:

“I am a Christian, that is my faith. I’m not asking you to be a Christian. If you want to be one I can show you how. But it is not required. I have respect for all faiths. All faiths. But what I’m talking about is not faith or religion. I’m talking about spirituality.”

Speaking on her own beliefs she retains great love for the church and its contribution to black culture, but she doesn’t want to limit herself to the confines of a particular religion, she says:

“I can’t define “God,” so to be open to the mystical and mystery of God is a natural part of myself. So people criticize me for not being what they are, and I say, it’s working for me and has worked for me and continues to work for me, in a way that fills me with a sense of peace and contentment about what God means to me.” – Oprah Winfrey ( AARP )

Winfrey has enthusiastically supported new age writers such as Eckart Tolle’s books, The Power Now and Stillness Speaks and Marianne Williamson’s contributions to “A Course in Miracles.”

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Oprah Winfrey”, Oxford, UK  www.biographyonline.net , 25th Jan. 2013. Last updated 5 March 2018.

Oprah Winfrey at Amazon

The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations  by Oprah Winfrey at Amazon

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Oprah Winfrey Biography

Born: January 29, 1954 Kosciusko, Mississippi African American television host and actress

America's first lady of talk shows, Oprah Winfrey is well known for surpassing her competition to become the most watched daytime show host on television. Her natural style with guests and audiences on the Oprah Winfrey Show earned her widespread popularity, as well as her own production company, Harpo, Inc.

A difficult childhood

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey on an isolated farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954. Her name was supposed to be Orpah, from the Bible, but because of the difficulty of spelling and pronunciation, she was known as Oprah almost from birth. Winfrey's unmarried parents separated soon after she was born and left her in the care of her maternal grandmother on the farm.

As a child, Winfrey entertained herself by "playacting" in front of an "audience" of farm animals. Under the strict guidance of her grandmother, she learned to read at two and a half years old. She addressed her church congregation about "when Jesus rose on Easter Day" when she was two years old. Then Winfrey skipped kindergarten after writing a note to her teacher on the first day of school saying she belonged in the first grade. She was promoted to third grade after that year.

At six years old Winfrey was sent north to join her mother and two half-brothers in a Milwaukee ghetto, an extremely poor and dangerous neighborhood. At twelve years old she was sent to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. Feeling secure and happy for a brief period she began making speeches at social gatherings and churches, and one time earned five hundred dollars for a speech. She knew then that she wanted to be "paid to talk."

A turning point

Winfrey said her father saved her life. He was very strict and provided her with guidance, structure, rules, and books. He required his daughter to complete weekly book reports, and she went without dinner until she learned five new vocabulary words each day.

Winfrey became an excellent student, participating as well in the drama club, debate club, and student council. In an Elks Club speaking contest, she won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. The following year she was invited to a White House Conference on Youth. Winfrey was crowned Miss Fire Prevention by WVOL, a local Nashville radio station, and was hired by the station to read afternoon newscasts.

Winfrey became Miss Black Nashville and Miss Tennessee during her freshman year at Tennessee State. The Nashville Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) affiliate offered her a job; Winfrey turned it down twice, but finally took the advice of a speech teacher, who reminded her that job offers from CBS were "the reason people go to college." The show was seen each evening on WTVF-TV, and Winfrey was Nashville's first African American female coanchor of the evening news. She was nineteen years old and still a sophomore in college.

Professional career

After Winfrey graduated, WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland, scheduled her to do the local news updates, called cut-ins, during Good Morning, America, and soon she was moved to the morning talk show Baltimore Is Talking with cohost Richard Sher. After seven years on the show, the general manager of WLS-TV, American Broadcasting Company's (ABC) Chicago affiliate, saw Winfrey in an audition tape sent in by her producer, Debra DiMaio. At the time her ratings in Baltimore were better than Phil Donahue's, a national talk-show host, and she and DiMaio were hired.

Winfrey moved to Chicago, Illinois, in January 1984 and took over as anchor on A.M. Chicago, a morning talk show that was consistently last in the ratings. She changed the emphasis of the show from traditional women's issues to current and controversial (debatable) topics, and after one month the show was even with Donahue's program. Three months later it had inched ahead. In September 1985 the program, renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show, was expanded to one hour. As a result, Donahue moved to New York City.

In 1985 Quincy Jones (1933–) saw Winfrey on television and thought she would make a fine actress in a movie he was coproducing with director Steven Spielberg (1946–). The film was based on the Alice Walker (1944–) novel The Color Purple. Her only acting experience until then had been in a one-woman show, The History of Black Women Through Drama and Song, which she performed during an African American theater festival in 1978.

Popularity of Oprah

The popularity of Winfrey's show skyrocketed after the success of The Color Purple, and in September 1985 the distributor King World bought the syndication rights (the rights to distribute a television program) to air the program in one hundred thirty-eight cities, a record for first-time syndication. That year, although Donahue was being aired on two hundred stations, Winfrey won her time slot by 31 percent, drew twice the Chicago audience as Donahue, and carried the top ten markets in the United States.

In 1986 Winfrey received a special award from the Chicago Academy for the Arts for unique contributions to the city's artistic community and was named Woman of Achievement by the National Organization of Women. The Oprah Winfrey Show won several Emmys for Best Talk Show, and Winfrey was honored as Best Talk Show Host.

Winfrey formed her own production company, Harpo, Inc., in August 1986 to produce the topics that she wanted to see produced, including the television drama miniseries based on Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place, in which Winfrey was featured along with Cicely Tyson, Robin Givens, Olivia Cole, Jackee, Paula Kelly, and Lynn Whitfield. The miniseries aired in March 1989 and a regular series called Brewster Place, also starring Winfrey, debuted on ABC in May 1990. Winfrey also owned the screen rights to Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane's autobiographical (having to do with a story about oneself) book about growing up under apartheid in South Africa, as well as Toni Morrison's (1931–) novel Beloved.

In September 1996 Winfrey started an on-air reading club. On September 17 Winfrey stood up and announced she wanted "to get the country reading." She told her adoring fans to hasten to the stores to buy the book she had chosen. They would then discuss it together on the air the following month.

The initial reaction was astonishing. The Deep End of the Ocean had generated significant sales for a first novel; sixty-eight thousand copies had gone into the stores since June. But between the last week in August, when Winfrey told her plans to the publisher, and the September on-air announcement, Viking printed ninety thousand more. By the time the discussion was broadcast on October 18, there were seven hundred fifty thousand copies in print. The book became a number one best-seller, and another one hundred thousand were printed before February 1997.

The club ensured Winfrey as the most powerful book marketer in the United States. She sent more people to bookstores than morning news programs, other daytime shows, evening magazines, radio shows, print reviews, and feature articles combined. But after a six-year run with her book club, Winfrey decided to cut back in the spring of 2002 and no longer have the book club as a monthly feature.

Although one of the wealthiest women in America and the highest paid entertainer in the world, Winfrey has made generous contributions to charitable organizations and institutions such as Morehouse College, the Harold Washington Library, the United Negro College Fund, and Tennessee State University.

Winfrey renewed her contract with King World Productions to continue The Oprah Winfrey Show through the 2003–2004 television season. Winfrey and Harpo Production company plan to develop other syndicated television programming with King World.

For More Information

Brooks, Philip. Oprah Winfrey: A Voice for the People. New York: Franklin Watts, 1999.

King, Norman. Everybody Loves Oprah! New York: Morrow, 1987.

Patterson, Lillie. Oprah Winfrey: Talk Show Host and Actress. Hillside, NJ: Enslow, 1988.

Stone, Tanya Lee. Oprah Winfrey: Success with an Open Heart. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook Press, 2001.

Waldron, Robert. Oprah. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987.

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Oprah Winfrey turns 70 with a $2.8 billion empire and is clearer about things than ever before

The tv host, businesswoman and actress is at a pivotal moment in her career as producer of the remake of ‘the color purple.’ she was nominated for an oscar for her performance as an actress in 1985; now, it is a key project that spans the last four decades of her life.

At the next Academy Awards , on March 10, Oprah Winfrey will wear purple. That’s not a prediction, it’s just what the entrepreneur, host, actress, producer and America’s sweetheart has been doing for months. Because when Winfrey commits to something, she goes all in, and this season’s commitment is one of the biggest she has ever made: she is the producer of the movie The Color Purple , the adaptation of the musical that is, in turn, an adaptation of the 1985 film in which she herself starred; she has called it “the most important event” of her entire life. With a TV show that lasted 25 years, a magazine, a TV network, a production company, a dozen properties, a hefty philanthropic investment portfolio and a fortune of $2.8 billion under her belt, that’s certainly a strong statement.

But Oprah (who turns 70 on January 28) is like that: solid, eloquent, determined. Controlling, some say. For half a century, the power of the woman who needs no last name has extended to almost all areas of entertainment in the United States. She began to work with a radio station in high school and, at the age of 19, in the mid-1970s, she became a reporter and anchor on local television stations. That led to her own television show The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986 to 2011), where she chatted with Tom Cruise, George W. Bush, Sarah Ferguson, Whitney Houston and Bill Clinton. But that wasn’t all. Her book club has recommended over 100 books over the past 28 years, setting the editorial tone and giving a sales boost to her recommendations. She is no stranger to politics, either: she is close with the Obamas, and five years ago she picked up the phone to convince Mitt Romney to run as an independent candidate in 2020 (he went so far as to say she demanded to be his vice president; she denied it). She even floated the idea that she would run for president. Donald Trump said that “it would be fun.” She herself had to deny it: “I don’t have the DNA for it.”

It’s not that she’s not capable, it’s that Winfrey doesn’t need it to be what she is. And she is one of the most powerful women in the world (31st, according to Forbes , ahead of Beyoncé, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, the president of Honduras and the head of the New York Stock Exchange) and one of the country’s most respected voices. She also loves what she does. She is proving it now, with unbridled energy at the age of 70. She has not missed a single one of the events, premieres and awards ceremonies for The Color Purple ; she has participated in discussions, talks, late night shows, interviews, promotional videos. Whenever she has a chance, she speaks about how the film changed everything: “Doing the [original] film was the most important thing that had ever happened to me and continues to be a central theme in my life,” she told People . When Steven Spielberg called her to play the role of the warrior Sophie in the 1985 film, she had never set foot on a movie set, and she is convinced that the $35,000 she earned (about $100,000 today adjusted for inflation, not very much) is “the best paid $35,000 in the world.” “It changed everything… It was a spiritual opening for me to see my life in a different way,” she recounted. At the time, Oprah didn’t even know that she didn’t need to look at the camera when she was acting.

That film received 11 Oscar nominations and she won an award. Her second Oscar, which came 30 years later, is a good example of her evolution: that was for Selma , the film she produced about the 1965 civil rights march, a complex project that took her over seven years to get off the ground. This year, with the new musical version of The Color Purple , Winfrey slipped into the awards race by the skin of her teeth. She received only one Oscar nomination, for Danielle Brooks as the new Sophie, the role Oprah played 38 years ago. For this film, Winfrey chose not to even make a cameo.

A lot has changed for the Mississippi-born Winfrey in the past four decades. The little girl whose grandmother dressed her in potato sacks, who was semi-abandoned by her mother (as an adult, they didn’t even have each other’s phone number), who was encouraged by her father in her education and interests, grew up to become an authoritative voice on almost everything in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Her businesses have helped her achieve heights of power she never imagined for herself, such as her OWN channel, which she created in 2011 and sold to Warner a decade later in a million-dollar transaction. That fortune has allowed her to donate over $425 million in her lifetime. She calls the girls who study at the school she founded in South Africa her “daughters.”

Her philanthropy is always aligned with her interests. For example, in August she—along with Dwayne Johnson, the Rock —donated $10 million to help with Lahaina’s recovery after the terrible fires that devastated Maui, Hawaii. Oprah has several properties there. Two decades ago, she bought no less than 40 hectares in the center of the island, and she has been criticized for buying such a large amount of land.

Those are not the only criticisms of her life and career, which is always observed with great interest. In 2010, the writer Kitty Kelley dedicated a complete biography to her; in over 500 pages, Kelley unraveled certain of Oprah’s secrets, such as her struggle with her weight, without revealing too much. Oprah herself talked about it a few weeks ago. “It was public sport to make fun of me for 25 years,” Winfrey said. “I have been blamed and shamed , and I blamed and shamed myself,” she said in December. She added that her fluctuating weight has " occupied five decades of space in my brain.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Oprah (@oprah)

Two years after undergoing knee surgery, she says she walks between 3 to 5 miles a day, eats dinner at 4 p.m. at the latest, drinks a gallon of water a day and follows the Weight Watcher’s diet (she even bought 10% of the diet company in 2015). But that’s not all. “I had an awareness of [weight-loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way.” New weight-loss drugs, such as Ozempic, are the order of the day in Hollywood. And Winfrey no longer hides her use of them.

She is removed from any criticism, and she has become the perfect ambassador of herself. She is adored by the whole country. Her power in the film world was recognized In December. The Hollywood Academy of Motion Pictures recognized her power in the film world when they gave her the Pillar Award “in acknowledgment of her exemplary leadership and support” in the industry. A couple of weeks later, she received another tribute when the National Portrait Gallery in Washington unveiled her painting in the gallery of America’s most illustrious portraits. Of course, she was wearing purple in the portrait. As always.

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Oprah Winfrey: A Biography, 2nd Edition

Helen S. Garson , PhD, is professor emeritus of the English and American Department at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

Cite this eBook

9780313358333

Garson, Helen. Oprah Winfrey: A Biography, 2nd Edition. 2, Greenwood, 2011. ABC-CLIO, publisher.abc-clio.com/EGR5832.

Chicago Manual of Style

Garson, Helen. Oprah Winfrey: A Biography, 2nd Edition, 2. Greenwood, 2011. http://publisher.abc-clio.com/EGR5832

Garson, H. (2011). Oprah Winfrey: A Biography, 2nd Edition. Retrieved from http://publisher.abc-clio.com/EGR5832

This biography examines the life of a person raised in poverty and a single mother at 14, who is now one of the richest and most influential people in the world—Oprah Winfrey.

Table of Contents

• Cover Cover1 1
• Title iii 4
• Copyright iv 5
• Contents vii 8
• Series Foreword ix 10
• Introduction xi 12
• Acknowledgments xvii 18
• Timeline: Events in the Life of Oprah Winfrey xix 20
• Chapter 1 This Powerful Celebrity 1 28
• Chapter 2 A Once Colored Girl 25 52
• Chapter 3 Media Mogul 83 110
• Chapter 4 America Reads 117 144
• Chapter 5 Schools 143 170
• Chapter 6 Living Life the Oprah Way 161 188
• Chapter 7 Oprah’s Yellow Brick Road 191 218
• Bibliography 195 222
• Index 199 226

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Oprah Winfrey

• Occupation: Talk Show Host, Actress
• Born: January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi
• Best known for: The Oprah Winfrey Show

• Oprah was crowned Miss Black Tennessee in 1972. She stopped doing beauty pageants when her career took off.
• She started her own production company called Harpo Productions. "Harpo" is Oprah spelled backwards.
• Oprah is also famous for her weight loss and weight gain. She has lost weight several times and then gained it back.
• As of 2013, her estimated net worth was $2.8 billion.
• The Oprah Winfrey Show aired for 25 years. Its final episode was on May 24, 2011.
• She was named the most influential woman of her generation by Life magazine.
• She has a fear of chewing gum that she has had since she was a little girl.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

Oprah Winfrey

At the heart of everything Oprah Winfrey does, there is a consistent message – that individuals should take personal responsibility for their lives, and to improve the world. Winfrey was raised by her grandmother in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Despite having a modest childhood, Winfrey became an industry trailblazer and one of the most notable woman on television to date.

Winfrey is a producer, actress, television icon. She was the first Black American woman to own her own production company. She was nominated for an Academy Award in her first movie, The Color Purple. Winfrey was once television’s highest-paid entertainer as the successful host of a syndicated television talk show that reached 15 million people a day. The Oprah Show lasted for twenty-five seasons.

She does all that she can to eradicate child abuse. As a victim herself, Winfrey knows the damage abuse does to young lives. She was a major force in the drafting, lobbying, and passage of the National Child Protection Act. The Act was signed into law by President Clinton in 1994. The Act establishes a national registry of child abusers to help employers and those working with children to screen out dangerous people.

Winfrey is also a committed philanthropist, providing significant assistance to schools (Morehouse College, Tennessee State University, Chicago Academy of Arts) as well as to the Chicago Public Schools. She also funds battered women’s shelters and campaigns to catch child abusers.

Winfrey launched her television network OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) on January 1, 2011. She is credited for launching the careers of Dr. Oz, Dr.Phil, Nate Berkus,   and Iyanla Vanzant.    

Year Honored: 1994 Birth: 1954 - Born In: Mississippi Achievements: Arts, Business, Philanthropy Worked In: California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Tennessee, South Africa, United States of America Educated In: Tennessee, United States of America Schools Attended: Tennessee State University

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Oprah Winfrey Book: The Biography of Oprah Winfrey Paperback – April 20, 2021

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• Print length 58 pages
• Language English
• Publication date April 20, 2021
• Dimensions 5 x 0.15 x 8 inches
• ISBN-13 979-8741310373
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09328465B
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (April 20, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 58 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8741310373
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.57 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.15 x 8 inches
• #1,732 in Rich & Famous Biographies
• #4,657 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies
• #5,928 in Women's Biographies

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 English Lesson on Oprah Winfrey

 famous people lessons.com.

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THE LESSON ON OPRAH WINFREY

Try the online quiz, reading, listening, and activities on grammar, spelling and vocabulary for this lesson on Oprah Winfrey . Click on the links above or see the activities below this article:

Oprah Winfrey is internationally famous for hosting the most popular talk show on American television. Millions of TV viewers tune in worldwide every day to watch her. She has become a household name and is now one of the richest women in the world. She is also famous for raising millions of dollars for charities to help with child literacy.

Oprah was born in 1954 in Mississippi. She experienced child abuse as she grew up, which led her to campaign for children’s rights later in her life. She helped draft a bill that President Clinton passed into law. Her career in broadcasting started in 1971 and her big breakthrough came in 1976 with her own extremely popular TV chat show – 'People Are Talking'.

In 1985 movie producer Steven Spielberg offered her a role in 'The Color Purple'. She was nominated for an Oscar at the Academy Awards for her performance. She used her newfound international fame to launch the 'Oprah Winfrey Show'. This opened all kinds of doors for her she had never dreamed of. The world was her oyster.

Her chat show is broadcast to over 100 countries. 'Life' magazine called her the most influential woman of her generation. She has raised nearly $100 million for charity. She is now a role model for millions of girls around the world. Her latest project is an academy for poor girls, which opened in South Africa in 2007.

Sources: http://www.wikipedia.org/ and assorted biographies.

SYNONYM MATCH

Match the words from the article on the left with their synonyms on the right. Are your answers the same as other students’?

PHRASE MATCH

Match the following phrases from the article:

LISTENING GAP FILL

Oprah Winfrey is internationally _____________________ most popular talk show on American television. Millions of TV _______________ worldwide every day to watch her. She has become ________________ and is now one of the richest women in the world. She is also famous for raising millions of dollars for charities _____________________.

Oprah was born in 1954 in Mississippi. She experienced ___________________, which led her to campaign for children’s rights later in her life. She helped ________________ President Clinton passed into law. Her career in broadcasting started in 1971 and ________________  came in 1976 with her own extremely popular TV chat show – 'People Are Talking'.

In 1985 movie producer Steven Spielberg ________________  'The Color Purple'. She was nominated for an Oscar at the Academy Awards for her performance. She used her newfound international ________________ the 'Oprah Winfrey Show'. This opened all kinds of ________________ had never dreamed of. The world ________________.

Her chat show is broadcast to over 100 countries. 'Life' magazine called her ________________ woman of her generation. She has raised nearly $100 million for charity. She is ___________________ millions of girls around the world. Her latest project is __________________ girls, which opened in South Africa in 2007.

CHOOSE THE CORRECT WORD

Delete the wrong word in each of the pairs of italics :

Oprah Winfrey is internationally fame / famous for hosting the most popular talk show on / in American television. Millions of TV viewers tune out / in worldwide every day to watch her. She has become a household name and is now one of the richest women in the world. She is also famous for raising millions of dollars for charities to help with child literacy / illiterate .

Oprah was born in 1954 in Mississippi. She experienced child abuse as she grew / grown up, which led her to campaign for / with children’s rights later in her life. She helped draft a bill that President Clinton passed into / at law. Her career in broadcasting started in 1971 and her big breakthrough came in 1976 with her own extremely / extreme popular TV chat show – 'People Are Talking'.

In 1985 movie producer Steven Spielberg offered her a roll / role in 'The Color Purple'. She was nominated / nomination for an Oscar at the Academy Awards for her performance. She used her newfound international fame to launch / lunch the 'Oprah Winfrey Show'. This opened all kinds of doors for her she had never dreamed of. The world was her oyster / crab .

Her chat show are / is broadcast to over 100 countries. 'Life' magazine called her the most / best influential woman of her generation. She has raised / lifted nearly $100 million for charity. She is now a role model for millions of girls around the world. Her latest / lately project is an academy for poor girls, which opened in South Africa in 2007.

The underlined, jumbled words are from the text. Spell them correctly.

PUT THE TEXT BACK TOGETHER

Number these lines in the correct order.

SCRAMBLED SENTENCES

With your partner, put the words back into the correct order.

OPRAH WINFREY DISCUSSION (Write your questions)

------------------------------------

THE OPRAH WINFREY SURVEY

Write five questions about Oprah Winfrey in the table. Do this in pairs/groups. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

Without your partner, interview other students. Write down their answers.

Return to your original partner(s) and share and talk about what you found out.  Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

Write about Oprah Winfrey for 10 minutes. Show your partner your paper. Correct each other’s work.

______________________________________________________________________________

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information about Oprah Winfrey. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. OPRAH WINFREY POSTER: Make a poster showing the different stages of the life of Oprah Winfrey. Show your poster to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

4. MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Write a magazine article about Oprah Winfrey. Include imaginary interviews with her friends. Write about what she does every day and what she thinks about.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your articles.

5. LETTER: Write a letter to Oprah Winfrey. Ask her three questions about her life. Give her three suggestions on what she should do in her future. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your “Oprah Winfrey” partner(s) will try and answer your questions.

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

ALL OTHER EXERCISES:

Check your answers in "THE READING / TAPESCRIPT" section at the top of this page.

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Oprah Winfrey’s most romantic gesture is making “hot water cornbread” for her partner Stedman Graham

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In a December cover story for People, Oprah Winfrey revealed that she expresses her love for her longtime partner Stedman Graham by whipping up an old-school Southern recipe for  hot water cornbread .

“The most romantic thing I do is make hot water cornbread,” Winfrey told People. The dish, which is thought to have been originated by indigenous Americans before becoming a a longtime staple in Black-American and Southern cooking, is typically made with cornmeal , salt, fat (like butter or lard) and — of course — boiling water, hence the name.

Winfrey’s homemade rendition, however, is even simpler: It only calls for cornmeal, water and oil.

“Mothers around the world feed their children on it and all you do is add the hot water to the meal and you make these little flat cakes and you fry them in a pan,” said the entertainment mogul, who recently co-produced the 2023 film adaptation of the stage musical “The Color Purple” and hosted her own primetime television program, “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution.”

Winfrey added that Graham is an adventurous foodie who enjoys eating octopus “seared [or] sautéed with okra and greens” for breakfast. Her cornbread recipe, however, remains his absolute favorite dish. “Every time I do it, it’s like the most romantic thing I’ve ever done,” Winfrey said.

As for Graham’s most romantic gesture, Winfrey said it’s also small, yet meaningful. “The most romantic thing he does for me at this point is going to the corner every Sunday and getting The New York Times and bringing it in to me,” she shared.

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