Winfrey, Oprah (1954—)
Oprah Winfrey, who began her career as a Midwest talk show host in 1985, wielded such clout in the entertainment field at the endof the twentieth century that her participation in a project guaranteed its success. Her strong identification with her audience could be witnessed again and again; when she did something as simple as starting a diet, or as complex as taking a stand against social injustice, millions of people across the United States followed suit. Yet, her considerable influence was neither happenstance nor opportunism. Her social and political views came from a lifetime of struggle that has imbued her with a missionary zeal to get her message across.
The television persona of "Oprah" is virtually inseparable from the person herself. She was born into poverty in 1954 in rural Mississippi and then spent many of her formative years living in a Milwaukee ghetto with her divorced mother. As a teenager, her life began a downward spiral marked by sexual abuse and early signs of delinquency that were only interrupted by the reappearance of her father, a Nashville barber. He took custody of her, brought her to Tennessee and placed her in a local high school where she developed an interest in oratory.
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