Oprah Winfrey

Helen S. Garson, PhD, is professor emeritus of the English and American Department at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

• Oprah Gail Winfrey has been a world-famous television star for more than 25 years, so well known that people refer to her as Oprah, with the assurance of no misunderstanding. Her programs are shown in many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, although her career began in the United States, her country of birth. She has been both an actress and producer almost as many years as her television program has run. Adding to her fame and fortune, 16 years after reaching the pinnacle of television stardom, in conjunction with the Hearst Company, she launched O, The Oprah Magazine in 2000. Even though she closed The Oprah Winfrey Show at the end of 2010, publication of the magazine continued.Born January 29, 1954, the illegitimate child of mother Vernita Lee and father Vernon Winfrey, in the small town of Kosciusko, Mississippi, until she reached the age of six she lived on the farm of grandparents Hattie Mae and Earless Lee. Vernita, who never married, had settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she gave birth to another daughter, Patricia, and later to a son, Jeffrey. Although the reasons are unclear, Vernita decided to have Oprah move to Wisconsin to live with her and the other children. It was an arrangement fraught with problems from poverty to indifferent supervision that led to Oprah becoming an angry, hostile, promiscuous teen, completely out of control and subjected to the sexual advances of relatives and her mother's male visitors. In 1968, a pregnant teenage Oprah was sent to live with her father, Vernon, and his wife, Velma, in Nashville, Tennessee. Shortly after the birth and death of her baby boy, Oprah's world changed completely.The Winfreys had no children together, so Oprah became the focus of their home life. It was a religious, organized existence in which Oprah was expected to follow strict rules, earn the highest grades, attend church regularly, and set the example of a model student. She joined a number of clubs in East Nashville High School, including both a drama club and forensics club; was admitted to the honor society and student council; and served as a representative at a White House conference. All of these activities obviously were forerunners of her later successes in radio and television. Oprah was developing the personality that brought her the vote for the most popular girl in her senior class.During her last years in high school, an active Oprah won a number of awards and contests. Upon graduation, she went to Tennessee State University. She had been awarded a scholarship and she accepted it, despite the fact that she would have preferred a school with a more mixed student body. She remained at Tennessee State until her senior year but left before graduation; several years later—after she had become famous—the university awarded her a degree. Her decision to work rather than stay in college came when she was offered a job as a reporter and co-anchor for an evening news program in Baltimore. During her time in Baltimore, she met Gayle King, who became and remains her closest friend.After two years working on the evening news show, Oprah was transferred to a morning program, People Are Talking. After several years with that show, she accepted an offer to host the Chicago program AM Chicago. Chicago became her home, a city where she found her niche. There she met two men who have been very influential in her life: Stedman Graham, her longtime significant other, and Quincy Jones, who recognized her potential and gave her a leading role in his movie The Color Purple, bringing her an Academy Award nomination and starting her on the path to national and international recognition. Not long after that triumph, in 1986, Oprah's television program was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, making her the first African American woman to have a nationally syndicated program. She also formed her own company that later became Harpo Productions, a company that still belongs to her, and bought an elegant penthouse condominium on Chicago's lakefront.Following her success in The Color Purple, she played a role in a movie based on another famous novel, Native Son, and a year after that had a cameo role in the movie Throw Momma from the Train. Moviemaking of various kinds became a part of her work, something she continues to this day. Through the years, she has continued to appear in and produce films, including Waiting to Exhale, a work based on a very popular novel.By 1988, having gained ownership and control of Harpo, Oprah became the first black woman to own both a studio and production company. With increased income, she was able to buy a farm and other homes. Even as she continued to expand her interests in various types of films, series, and documentaries, she initiated the National Child Protection Act, which President Clinton signed in 1993. In 1996, she made news by running in the 25-mile Marine Marathon. Additionally, she helped her chef in the writing of In the Kitchen with Rosie, as well as doing a small part of Bob Greene's exercise book, Make the Connection. Another chef, Art Smith, gained fame and fortune through his association with Oprah, appearing on her show, writing a cookbook, participating in charities, and opening restaurants in prime locations, including one in Washington, DC, during the period when thencandidate Barack Obama was running for president. Because of his connection to Oprah, when Smith and his partner were married in 2010, the event was covered by multiple newspapers.Over two decades, Oprah was given one award after another for her many achievements, including the prestigious Peabody Award. Another great success came with the introduction on her show of what became the most famous book club in the United States. There were, however, some roadblocks in her career along the way, one of which was a suit brought by the Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas, which claimed that on her show she had been disparaging beef products, production, and distribution. It was necessary for Oprah to move her daily show to Texas for a short time while fighting the case. While there, she met Dr. Phil McGraw, who became one of her advisers and joined her television program after the cattlemen lost the case. McGraw became a star when Oprah sponsored a new show for him, and he continues with his own program. Oprah has proved to have another skill—that of star maker, with her support of chef Rachel Ray's program as well as the exceedingly popular medical guru Dr. Oz. After joining the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, where he remained for five years, Mehmet Oz became host of his own immediately successful show.Briefly, Oprah had a foray in politics, something she has always avoided in the past. The nomination of a black presidential candidate in 2007 brought her into the activities of a democratic partisan as she campaigned vigorously for Barack Obama. Every involvement of hers in the election was reported, bringing strong support and equally strong anger among Oprah's fans. With the conclusion of the campaign and election, which brought an ecstatic and tearful Oprah before the public, she appears to have retired from her role in the political arena.Ten years earlier, Oprah had created the Angel Network, a charity that flourished until Oprah decided to bring it to an end in 2010 in order to focus on her future shows as well as other charitable activities. Harpo Productions has continued to produce successful movies, while Oprah, with the support of the Hearst Company, created O, The Oprah Magazine, first publishing it in the United States, then later an international version followed in South Africa. Two years after the first issue of the magazine appeared, Oprah announced the discontinuation of her very popular book club, because, she claimed, there were no more worthwhile current books to read. However, when a strong reaction among her followers and much public criticism ensued, the club was reborn, but, as her daily television show comes to an end, she suggests the club also, again, will be dropped.Oprah's interest in South Africa was fanned by Nelson Mandela, who convinced her of the need for schools in his country. His persuasion led to the construction in the beginning of 2003 of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. In 2005, the academy was opened to much acclaim as well as dire predictions about failure. The road has not been a smooth one, with scandals reported throughout the media. Lawsuits in Africa and in the United States have been brought; questions have been raised about the validity of her efforts to establish schools abroad. But the difficulties appear to be resolved, and the first graduates have been visiting U.S. colleges and universities to make choices of future education. Oprah has emphasized her determination to continue with this type of philanthropy, even as she winds down her 25-year-old television show and makes plans for the coming years of her different role in television.