One thing we see Halle Berry doesn’t do…is age. The beautiful American actress and former fashion model will be hitting 50 next August, yet she doesn’t look a single day older than the Halle many of us came to know and love in the earlier parts of her modeling and acting career.
Maria Halle Berry (later legally changed to Halle Berry) was born in Ohio and raised, alongside her sister, exclusively by her mother ( who is of English and German descent). An active and scholarly student in school, Berry would later begin entering and competing in beauty contests. Long before she ever stepped foot behind a movie production screen, Berry was making significant strides in the world of modeling and pageantry.
She won Miss Teen All American in 1985, Miss Ohio USA in 1986, and placed first runner-up in the 1986 Miss USA pageant. She was the first African-American Miss World entrant in 1986, and shortly thereafter, moved to New York City to pursue her acting ambitions after her pursuit of a modeling career appeared to be less than glamorous.
Of course, we know she went on to gain a steady work as an actress, her first film debut coming in a small role for Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever (1991). She would go on to play many more roles, choosing to tackle hefty and serious roles that would range from career-driven women to former drug addicts.
Halle would go on to make history (again) when she would become the first woman of color to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in the movie Monster’s Ball. Her win has gone down as one of the greatest ‘Oscar moments’ of all time; Berry used her acceptance speech to honor previous black actresses who had never had the opportunity and opened the door for more diversity to happen in Hollywood (alongside fellow recipient, Denzel Washington).
Since then, she’s also gone on to play some notable characters in today’s media. Many of us know her for her portrayal of the superhero Storm in the film adaptations of the X-men series, as Catwoman, or as one of the Bond girl’s in Die Another Day.
Her recent work has included Gothika, Their Eyes Were Watching God (where she was nominated for an Emmy), and Frankie & Alice, simply to name a few. She has been the face of Revlon cosmetics since the 90s and the face of Versace. She’s launched her own production company, had three major Hollywood divorces, and been an active participant to political and social activism for years: supporting campaigns for Barack Obama, raising funding and awareness of women’s issues, and bills that protect celebrities’ children from harassment by photographers.
Aside from being named in “50 Most Beautiful People in the World” by People, “100 Sexiest Women in the World” on FHM, “Sexiest Woman Alive” by Esquire or “Sexiest Black Woman” by Access Hollywood, we at Fashion Bomb Daily call her a woman whose style has truly grown over time (okay, not as catchy). Let’s give you a throwback and take a look at Halle Berry then, and Halle Berry now.
