7 Comedians Who Have Successfully Gone Dark

2) Whoopi Goldberg – The Color Purple (1985)

While the cinematic output of Whoopi Goldberg has largely been in the comedic genre, her film debut in 1985’s The Color Purple was most decidedly dramatic. Taking the central role of Celie Harris, Goldberg shed her effusive stage persona and anchored this deeply moving tale. Depicting the problems faced by African American women in the early 20th century, Whoopi Goldberg gives an Academy Award nominated performance of a girl beset by domestic violence, misogyny, racism and poverty.

During the film, Celie is physically and sexually abused by her father, subjected to forced pregnancies, stripped of the resulting children and forced into marriage with an equally abusive older man. As this man manipulates her and destroys her relationships with others, Celie undergoes a gradual but determined transformation – from being intimidated into near silence, to confidently confronting her abuser, to being a small business owner, free of those men and their toxic, ruinous influence.

The fact that this was the film debut of comedian Whoopi Goldberg, and it earned her an Oscar nomination, as well as a Golden Globe win speaks volumes as to the impact of her performance. While she would later become the second black actress in history to win an Oscar – for her humorous turn in Ghost – it remains The Color Purple that saw Whoopi Goldberg truly flex her formidable dramatic talent in the first place.