Whoopi Goldberg celebrates her 63rd birthday on November 13, 2018. The actress, comedian, and talk show host has had one of the most varied careers in show business and has even achieved the EGOT, which has come to symbolize success across the board in all mediums.

Goldberg won her Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for the film “Ghost.” She had previously been nominated for her screen debut for Steven Spielberg in “The Color Purple” and stood a good chance at becoming the first African-American woman to win Best Actress, but controversy surrounding the film’s depiction of black men scared voters away from the film and it lost all 11 of its nominations.

Goldberg’s Emmy wins both came for daytime work. Her first win was for hosting a documentary about Hattie McDaniel of “Gone With the Wind,” the Best Supporting Actress for that film. She also won a second Emmy for her current job as host of the daytime talk show “The View.”

Goldberg had been doing character comedy and monologues for a while when she was discovered by director Mike Nichols, who brought her to Broadway in a one-woman show. That show, in which Goldberg stood alone onstage and told four different monologues as different characters, made her a bit of a sensation and led to her being cast in films. She would win the Grammy portion of her EGOT for the recording of this show.

It is often thought that Goldberg won her Tony for her one woman show but that isn’t the case. Due to constant rule changes with the Tonys, Goldberg’s show was not eligible for an award the two times she did it on Broadway. Despite also appearing in the shows “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Xanadu”, and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” Goldberg received her Tony not as a performer but as one of the producers of the show “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”

Tour our photo gallery of the 15 greatest films in Goldberg’s film career, ranked worst to best, including “Ghost,” “The Color Purple,” “Sister Act,” “Boys on the Side” and Clara’s Heart.”