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
African Americans have so many issues. You are obsessed with race and for you everyone is black. Halle is mixed and she considers herself black because she’s stupid and scared of what AAs would think.
The one drop rule was a racist rule to keep the white race “pure”, if you had 1/8 of black blood you were considered colored even if you’re skin was as white as snow which meant you could not have the same rights as a white.
i agree with you 100%. i am a mulatta like halle but not in a way like most mulattoes are. both of my parents are mulattoes and i am a second generation mulatto. i do not consider myself black or white, simply mixed. my parents grew up in a time where it wasn’t acceptable to identify as biracial/mixed. nowadays people are free to do whatever the fk they want to do. black girls have bullied me all my life, so i usually hang with other mixed people, asians, hispanics, and certain white people that aren’t racist dickheads. anyway some black people can be assholes to mixed people. it’s out of jealousy. light-skinned people are put on a pedestal. i know that’s wrong but that’s how it is. both in the white world and black world. black men prefer light-skinned mixed girls over fully black girls. and white men would date a mulatta before a real black girl. racism sucks but unfortunately it’s not going to end. the kkk is alive and stormfront is flooded with ugly ass saltines.
Black girls are usually jealous of mixed race girls. I have witnessed this so many times in real life and on the internet.
We all know that everybody in the U.S. is mixed they’re all mix with alot of things from the ancestors that have passed down to them the descendants the problem is that these laws in America that government made it splits up people into their separate category blacks, whites, mixed, mulattos, bi multi-racial, mestizos which causes problems with people thats what made alot of people so divided up from each other instead of being together as one race of humans this is the UGA plan ,they go by that motto is “Divided We Conquer” it’s their fault they created racial segregation amongs people
PLEASE stop using the term MULATTO!!! Spanish mulato, from mulo mule, from Latin mulus. I’m not a mule and neither are you I presume. No other TWO races call their offspring by such a degrading name! You don’t hear a European and Asian person calling their biracial child a Twinkie! I’m sorry about the black people who are mean to your because of skin color. Your no better than the racist black people who taunt you by saying: it’s out of jealousy. light-skinned people are put on a pedestal. i know that’s wrong but that’s how it is. both in the white world and black world. black men prefer light-skinned mixed girls over fully black girls. and white men would date a mulatta before a real black girl. My mother is African-American and my father is Irish/German they both taught me to be a proud member of the human race. Tupac said it best “Fudge the world!”
@Melina Halle Berry labels herself as black because she is realistic. Americans most white and blacks will see her as black.
@Melina please dont blame African Americans. Its the whites who made the racial laws and the one drop rule. Dont blame the victims of it.
She look mixed as hell.
well duh idiot. it’s bc she’s mixed!!!!!!!!! only retarded people say she looks fully black.
I don’t know why dumbasses say she looks just black. I knew she was mixed when I first saw her. Most mulattoes look mixed and you can tell they’re not straight up black. Sure she looks more black than white, but I can tell she’s mixed and not 100% black. She has mixed girl hair too.
She looks kind of Indian (South Asian Indian) too.
I think the world is full of idiots. I am black and white. I am not confused, as people think mixed children are, because I am both black and white. If your biracial I firmly believe that we(mixed people) are neither or both. However, most of us are lumped in with the minority(blacks) because it is very hard, most of the time, to pass ourselves off as the majority(whites), due to certain features biracial people have( curly hair, caramel skin, etc…). Either way you look at it shouldn’t matter.
Another thing I am mixed and my parents have always been together. This shows me that skin color is stupid way by which to categorize people.
Finally, I live in the South. Most Americans know how racist the South was and still is. Mulatto is considered derogatory here and I don’t think it is politically correct to use it as a name for mixed/biracial people who are black and white.
It’s cool that you’re mixed. I am too. I used to live in the South but moved because of racism. So, what are you mixed with? I’m mixed with Cuban,Domincan,Haitian,French,and Italian
I am mixed with Saxons and Frisians, both from Northern Germany, so I’m afraid you will say I am totally not. But you told just the essence:
“I am mixed and my parents have always been together. This shows me that skin color is stupid way by which to categorize people.”
This shows that you are a child of love, and this is something that really counts and that not all people can be sure of. One thing this site shows to me is that most people are mixed, even though to different extent, and that mixing is quite normal, biological reasonable and doesn’t define who we are as humans. We define ourselves by the way we act.