They've made us laugh. They've made us cry. They've made us nostalgic, and they've even made us vengeful. They're among Hollywood's most famous black actresses, appearing in classic films like The Color Purple, Poetic Justice, Soul Food, Dreamgirls and The Help, as well as on television and on the stage. Explore our collection of famous black actresses, including Halle Berry, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne and Angela Bassett.
Whether they're making you laugh or cry, black television actors like Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Gary Coleman, Taye Diggs and Debbie Allen have represented various aspects of the African-American experience on the small screen throughout the decades.
Meet famous people who were born in June. Russell Brand, Peter Dinklage, Paula Abdul, Johnny Depp, Marilyn Monroe, Alfred Kinsey, Anna Kournikova, Suze Orman, Michael Phelps, Dr. Ruth, and many more folks all share a June birthday.
Browse notable television actresses such as Eva Longoria, Joan Collins, and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Browse notable theater actresses such as Pearl Bailey, Jessica Tandy, and Penny Singleton.
In the 1980s, TV moms began juggling family life with professional careers. Phylicia Rashad played lawyer and mom to a big family on The Cosby Show, and Candace Bergen portrayed a TV news anchor who has an unplanned pregnancy out of wedlock. Judith Light played a busy, single advertising executive on Who's the Boss, and even hired a male housekeeper—who happened to be a single dad. Joanna Kerns played the much-loved mom on Growing Pains, whose husband worked from home so she could go back to working as a reporter. This bending of gender roles reflected more modern family structures, and the new choices that women faced.