Winfrey, Oprah (redirected from Oprah Winfrey)

Winfrey, Oprah, 1954–, African-American television host, actress, and media magnate, b. Kosciusko, Miss., as Orpah Gail Winfrey, grad. Tennessee State Univ. (1976). She began her career as a Nashville radio reporter at age 17, worked in television news at 19, and moved (1976) to Baltimore to coanchor a news show. In 1977 she became cohost of a Baltimore morning chat show and in 1984 settled in Chicago to host another talk show. Her charm, easy manner, warmth, gift of gab, and unpretentious style earned the program an enthusiastic audience and soaring ratings. Soon the most popular local talk show, it was syndicated nationally in 1986, becoming the highest-rated such program. Also a talented actress, Winfrey made her motion-picture debut Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985), and a variety of other movie and television roles followed.

Winfrey subsequently built a media empire. In 1988 she established Harpo Studio, a production company responsible for numerous telefilms and movies, e.g., Beloved (1998;, in which she starred). In an effort to promote reading, she founded (1996) Oprah's Book Club, which recommends books to her talk-show viewers and has produced spectacular bestsellers, making her a force in American publishing. In 1999 she established Oxygen Media, which produces women's programs on cable television and the Internet, and in 2000 she joined with the Hearst Corp. in creating O: The Oprah Magazine, a monthly women's lifestyle publication. One of the country's wealthiest women (her estimated worth in the early 2000s was well over $1 billion), Winfrey is also an active philanthropist with a particular interest in women's and children's issues and education.

Bibliography

See B. Adler, ed., The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey: A Portrait in Her Own Words (1997); biography by H. S. Garson (2004); study by E. Illouz (2003).

---

Winfrey, Oprah

(born Jan. 29, 1954, Kosciusko, Miss., U.S.) U.S. television talk-show host and actress. After enduring an impoverished and troubled childhood, she became a news anchor for a local CBS television station in Tennessee at age 19. After graduating from Tennessee State University, she worked as a television reporter and anchor in Baltimore, Md., where she cohosted her first talk show (1977–83), and moved to Chicago to host A.M. Chicago (1984), which became that city's highest-rated morning show. The renamed Oprah Winfrey Show was syndicated in 1986, making her the first African American woman to host a successful national daytime talk show. Initially sensationalist, the enormously popular show gradually took on an uplifting and therapeutic tone. In 1986 she also formed her own television production company, Harpo Productions. In 1996 she introduced “Oprah's Book Club” to foster reading by endorsing certain books. She appeared in the movies The Color Purple (1985) and Beloved (1998).

---

Winfrey, Oprah (Gail) (1954–  ) television talk show host; born in Kosciusko, Miss. A television coanchor while in college, she cohosted Baltimore is Talking (1977–84). Taking over ABC's A.M. Chicago in 1984, she surpassed veteran Phil Donahue with her confessional style talk show, syndicated as the Oprah Winfrey Show (1986). She received an Academy Award nomination for her role in The Color Purple (1985). Intensely energetic and immensely rich, she founded her own production company, allowing herself to do movies and television shows she personally believed in.