Oprah Winfrey Biography

Talk show tycoon Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her mother intended to name her “Orpah” from The Bible but the name was misspelled on her birth certificate. Oprah endured an unstable childhood; she was shuttled back and forth to live with her mother and father respectively, who were never married. At age six, she was raped by a family member and became pregnant at age fourteen with a son who died shortly after birth.

When Oprah was sent to live with her father as a teenager, she began to flourish academically and socially. In high school, she made the honor roll, was voted most popular, and joined her High School Speech Team. Winfrey also won an oratory contest which awarded her a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she enrolled in the communications program.

In 1976, Oprah moved to Baltimore to co-anchor WJZ-TV six o'clock news. She was then recruited to co-host People Are Talking in 1978. In her early days on television, Oprah was often criticized by her supervisors for her appearance. However, the audiences loved her, and in 1983, Oprah made the move to Chicago where she hosted WLS-TV's talk show, AM Chicago. Under Oprah’s engaging personality, the show grew from last in the ratings race to trump Donahue as Chicago’s highest-rated talk show. In 1986 it was expanded to an hour, broadcast nationally, and renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show.

With her new self-named show, Oprah quickly became a hit for her articulateness, warmth, and ability to approach taboo and volatile topics. Despite her professional success, Oprah’s struggle with her weight was often chronicled in the tabloids. In one show in 1988, Oprah showed off a sudden dramatic weight loss. She appeared on stage in tight jeans, carting a wheel of fat representing how many pounds she had lost. Unfortunately, she had trimmed down through an unsustainable liquid diet, and quickly gained back the lost weight and more.

In 1984, Oprah auditioned for the role of Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple. Feeling a strong connection to the character, Oprah landed the part and received an Academy Award nomination.

In 1994, Oprah again returned for a new show season sporting a svelte figure; however, this time her approach had changed. Under the guidance of personal trainer, Bob Green, Oprah tackled the emotional source of her life-long overeating issues and also began to train, running her first marathon. Once Oprah had overcome one of her own biggest struggles, her show shifted from the outward societal issues that had been covered in the 80s to a more inward theme of self-development and self-improvement in the 90s. As the show approached the millennium, it also had a decidedly more spiritual theme of enlightenment, featuring guests such as Deepak Chopra, Dr. M. Scott Peck, and Ellie Weisel.

In 1996, Oprah hosted a show on mad cow disease, which started an avalanche of criticism and legal battles. When she exclaimed, “It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!” the world listened. Texas cattlemen sued her in 1998 for “false defamation of perishable food” and “business disparagement;” however, a jury found Oprah not liable for damages. While filming the show from Amarillo, Texas, Oprah met Dr. Phil McGraw whose company, Courtroom Sciences, Inc. was hired to assist in analyzing the jury. Oprah invited him as a guest on her show, giving him the moniker, “Tell it like it is Phil” for his frank advice. His own popularity grew, and in 2002 the Dr. Phil show aired. Other guests who have enjoyed a boost in promotion and popularity from the show include Iyanla Vanzant, Nate Berkus, and Rachel Ray.

Feeling there was still more work to do, Oprah renewed her show’s contract and in 2002, also launched O Magazine, for which her best friend Gayle King is editor. Rumors that the two are romantically linked have been consistently denied, and Oprah remains in an over twenty year relationship with Stedman Graham.

In 2004 Oprah made the most ambitious initiative in her long legacy of philanthropic deeds, visiting African schools and orphanages while distributing Christmas presents to 50,000 children. There is currently an initiative underway by Oprah’s fans to have her awarded with a Nobel Peace Prize for her charitable work and use of her voice to bring awareness to injustices worldwide. Oprah has also been credited for getting Americans to read more due to her on-show book club she started in the late 90s. Each book that she chooses for her club instantly becomes a best-seller.

With this good deed in mind, the writers of the 2007 movie release, 'Ocean's Thirteen' which starred Andy Garcia, Al Pacino, Don Cheadle and Bernie Mac, managed to give Oprah a cameo role in the movie. While watching her show in his hotel room, Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney is caught with tears in his eyes when Matt Damon's character walks in on him. Together they stand and watch a snippet of Oprah's show and appear to be all choked up over her  magnanimous gift to the children of Africa.

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