Halle Berry

Berry in 2009, photo by CarlaVanWagoner / Shutterstock.com

Birth Name: Maria Halle Berry

Place of Birth: Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

Date of Birth: August 14, 1966

Ethnicity:
*father – African-American
*mother – English, some German and Irish, distant Dutch

Halle Berry is an American actress and model. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Monster’s Ball (2001). She is the only black actress to have won the Best Actress Oscar. Her roles also include The Last Boy Scout, The Flinstones, Executive Decision, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, X-Men, Swordfish, Die Another Day, Gothika, Things We Lost in the Fire, The Call, Kidnap, Kings, and Bruised, among others.

Halle’s father, Jerome Jesse Berry, was African-American. Halle’s mother, Judith Ann (Hawkins), is white, of English, some German and Irish, and distant Dutch, descent. She has two children, a daughter, with her former partner, Canadian model Gabriel Aubry, and a son, with her former husband, French actor Olivier Martinez.

Of her upbringing, Halle has said:

I was raised by my white mother and every day of my life I have always been aware of the fact that I am biracial. However, growing up I was aware that even though my mother was white, I did not look or feel very white myself.

Halle’s paternal grandfather was named Robert Berry.

Halle’s paternal grandmother was Cora Lee Powell (the daughter of Adam Powell and Charity Munford/Moffett). Cora was born in Greenwood, Leflore, Mississippi. Adam was the son of Tom Powell and Easter.

Halle’s maternal grandfather was Earl Ellsworth Hawkins (the son of Eugene Allen Hawkins and Bessie C. Spaulding). Earl was born in Dover, Tuscarawas, Ohio. Eugene was the son of John William Hawkins, who was born in Vermont, and of Katherine/Catherina “Katie” Drescher, who was born in Bavaria, Germany. Bessie was the daughter of Ellsworth Warren Spaulding, who was of approximately three quarters Colonial American (English), and one quarter Irish, descent; and of Agnes L. “Aggie” Johnson, whose father was English. Through her maternal grandfather, Halle has American-born ancestors going back to the 1600s.

Halle’s maternal grandmother was Nellie Dicken (the daughter of Henry Dicken and Ada B. White). Nellie was born in Shardlow, Derbyshire, England, to a father from Chesterfield and a mother from Spondon. Henry was the son of Robert Dicken and Ann Marsden. Ada was the daughter of John White and Maria.

Sources: Genealogies of Halle Berry – http://www.wargs.com
http://www.wikitree.com
http://famouskin.com

Halle’s paternal grandmother, Cora Lee Powell, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Cora Lee Powell on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Death record of Halle’s paternal grandmother, Cora Lee (Powell) Berry – https://familysearch.org

Genealogy of Halle Berry (focusing on her mother’s side) – https://www.geni.com

Halle’s mother on the 1940 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

ethnic

Curious about ethnicity

260 Responses

  1. Fuzzybear says:

    To the truth

    First I’m not anti-white,and that one drop rule ,was something that white invented,not black people.Next if you read anything lauren wrote,you would know she hates being call black.Now,it’s caucasians that want stop.You guys still to this day judge people by the color of their skin,without knowing them at all.You can go anywhere,and no one gives you a problem;because your white.An African American was a term to include people of black ancestry,which includes Bi-cultural people.It was white people who made them feel they had to hide there black lineage,just to be treated like a person.NOW THAT THE TRUTH

  2. thetruth says:

    Lauren you seem to be the only smart and person on here who isn’t totally anti-white with the whitey-is-the-devil and one drop of black blood and your black mentality it’s nice to know there are tolerant and well-educated people like you out there

    Thank you for acknowledging that black blood doesn’t cancel out white you make me the
    ink there’s hope to end the hate towards anything even remotely caucasian some day

    And i agree 100% with your comment about halle berry and the whole oscar thing it is exactly the same when it comes to Barack Obama he is NOT the first African-American president–HE IS THE FIRST BIRACIAL PRESIDENT!

    He was raised by a WHITE mother and his BLACK father had hardly anything to do with his upbringing

  3. Ingrid says:

    Thank you, ethnic! :)

  4. ethnic says:

    Ingrid welcome to the site. And thanks for the insight.

    admin

  5. Fuzzybear says:

    To Ingrid

    Neither did anyone in my family.Both my grandmothers were mulatto/creoles,and yet no matter what they looked like,they called themselves black.My aunts,my uncles,even my father would be ready to fight if you said,he was anything thing other than black.Now what I’m saying is this,if you want to be called mulatto or whatever,don’t get mad at people because they don’t know ;and call you what they recognize

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