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Halle makes Oscar history
25/03/2002 10:06 - (SA)
Jill Serjeant
Los Angeles - A weeping, shaking Halle Berry became the first black woman to win a best actress Oscar on Sunday night, sending crashing a colour bar that has stood for 74 years.
She was swiftly joined by Denzel Washington, making them the first blacks to win both the best actor and best actress awards at the Academy Awards.
Berry (33) a rising star but hardly a household name, won an Oscar for her role as a woman overtaken by rage and frustration in the racially charged movie Monster's Ball that is considered her best performance in a 10-year career.
With tears rolling down her face, and gasping for breath, Berry dedicated her award to all the African-American women who had struggled before her to make their way in Hollywood.
"This moment is so much bigger than me. It's for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened," she said.
"I am so honoured, I'm so honoured, and I thank the Academy for choosing me to be the vessel for which this blessing might flow," Berry added.
She emerged as a late favourite in a race that had been dominated by Nicole Kidman and Sissy Spacek until Berry proved the surprise winner of the Screen Actor's Guild two weeks ago.
Before Sunday, Sidney Poitier had been the only other African-American to win a lead acting Oscar, getting the award for his 1963 performance in Lilies of the Field.
Berry had earlier stolen the show on the red carpet, wearing a daring claret coloured gown and sheer bodice embellished with carefully placed beaded applique flowers and leaves.
Model and actress
A former pageant beauty queen, Berry was a model before getting into television in 1989 and is currently the face of Revlon cosmetics.
Her big screen breakthrough came in 1991 when she was cast as a crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, and she went on to supporting roles in The Flintstones and the 1998 political satire Bulworth.
Her biggest acclaim came for her role in the 1999 television movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, in which she played 1950s black movie star Dandridge whose struggles to be accepted in racist Hollywood paved the way for actresses like Berry today.
Berry, who also served as one of the executive producers, won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance.
Dandridge served as Berry's entree into the acting A-list, while her model looks and intuitive fashion sense made her a natural on the red carpets of premieres and award shows.
In Monster's Ball she played a down-and-out waitress who strikes up a love affair with a white racist prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) working on death row. The guard was one of the men responsible for executing the woman's husband.
The movie was praised by critics and Berry in particular has been singled out for a performance that is brave both in its realism and its use of one explicit sex scene.
The complexity of its themes, and its relatively limited release schedule have made it only a modest performer at the box office.
The Academy Awards are the US film industry's top honours and are given out each year by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in a ceremony televised live around the globe.
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