Biography Oprah Winfrey

It is unbelievable the amount of influence that Oprah Winfrey has had over the lives of millions of people all over the world. Oprah Winfrey has become a demi-god in America. There are people who are ready to worship the ground over which Oprah Winfrey walks. Oprah Winfrey has lived the Great American dream, a veritable tale of rags to riches with the right amount of glamour added to it.

Born in 1954 to unmarried parents, Oprah was raised by her grandmother on a farm with no indoor plumbing in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Oprah’s childhood turned into a nightmare because of sexual abuse that she suffered. After suffering abuse and molestation, she ran away and was sent to a juvenile detention home at the age of 13. In 1968, at the age of 14 she gave birth to a premature baby who died soon after birth. An incident of this nature can devastate the entire life of a person. But Oprah Winfrey came out of it a stronger and fiercely determined individual. Her story is one of unrelenting focus and determination.

Oprah’s tryst with the world of entertainment began when at the age of three she began speaking in church. By the time she was a teenager Oprah was touring the churches of Nashville, reciting the sermons of James Weldon Johnson. Crowned Miss Fire Prevention in Nashville at 17, Winfrey visited a local radio station, where she was invited to read copy. She was so good that she was hired to read news on the air. While still in school, Oprah became the first African American and the first woman to anchor a newscast in Nashville at WTVF-TV. After graduating from college, she moved to Baltimore to work as a reporter and co-anchor for WJZ-TV.

Oprah Winfrey then moved on to a show called People Are Talking after which she moved to Chicago to be on a show called A.M. Chicago. This was the show that catapulted her into the limelight. Within a span of three months, Oprah’s ratings surpassed that of Phil Donahue. The show went national and more importantly was called The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah Winfrey formed Harpo Productions (Oprah spelled backwards) the following year to become the third woman to own her own a major film studio.

Oprah made her acting debut in 1985 as Sofia in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, for which she received both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. In 1988, Oprah was awarded a diploma from Tennessee State University. Oprah Winfrey was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century by Time Magazine. Oprah started a book club on the show. Books that were shown in the book club became instant best sellers. This led to her having considerable clout with the publishing industry.

When she established the world's largest piggy bank, people all over the country contributed spare change to raise more than $1 million, a sum matched by Oprah to send disadvantaged children to college. During the outbreak of the mad cow disease, a remark that she made ensured that the beef industry’s survival was in doubt.

Winfrey has also been given the Woman of Achievement Award from the National Organization for Women and the Image for three consecutive years. The Oprah Winfrey Show has become the highest rated talk show in television history. It has received 25 Emmy Awards, six of which were for best host. Oprah Winfrey has also in the made-for-television movies Before Women Had Wings (1997), There Are No Children Here (1993), and The Women of Brewster Place (1989).

Oprah Winfrey is one of the partners in Oxygen Media, Inc., a cable channel and interactive network presenting programming designed primarily for women. In the year 2003, Oprah Winfrey became the first African-American woman to become a billionaire. The power of the Oprah Winfrey show is too great to be quantified. An estimated 14 million people U.S. and millions more in 130 other countries listen to what she has to say.

Oprah Winfrey has been criticized by conservatives for allegedly championing liberal causes. The criticism has been in the form of a book called, "Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness" and "Liberalism to the Women of America". It alleges that the women who are in positions of power in the media sell unhappiness to women and tout false advice. The main grouse is that this is completely unwarranted because women’s life improved tremendously over the years.

In 1991, Oprah Winfrey initiated a campaign to establish a national database of convicted child abusers. This was out of her experience of child abuse. Oprah testified before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of a National Child Protection Act. President Clinton signed the Oprah Bill into law in 1993, establishing the national database of convicted child abusers.