Halle Berry is an American actress, former fashion model and beauty queen; who starred as the Bond girl Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson in the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day with Pierce Brosnan.
Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, won an Academy Award for Best Actress, and was also nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2009, only woman of African American descent to have won the award for Best Actress. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and also a Revlon spokeswoman. She has also been involved in the production side of several of her films.
Career[]
Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing runner-up in the Miss USA (1986), and winning the Miss USA World 1986 title. Her breakthrough feature film role was in the 1991 Jungle Fever. This led to roles in The Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx Johnson in Die Another Day (2002). She also won a worst actress Razzie Award in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person.
Personal life[]
Divorced from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, Berry has been dating French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry since November 2005. Their first child, a girl named Nahla Ariela Aubry, was born on March 16, 2008.
Trivia[]
- Following Berry's Best Actress win at the 2002 Oscars, she became the first Academy Award winner to be a leading Bond girl in the EON Productions film series, winning her award while shooting Die Another Day. Conversely, Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2023 for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, 26 years after her main Bond Girl portrayal of Chinese spy Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies. Kim Basinger (who played Domino in the unofficial Never Say Never Again) won her Oscar for L.A. Confidential long after she had been a Bond Girl. Judi Dench who plays M also has an Oscar from Shakespeare in Love.
- Berry wasn't the only member of the Die Another Day cast and crew to do well at the Oscars during filming. Sound recordist Chris Munro also won the Oscar for Best Sound for his work on Black Hawk Down. Coincidentally, the award was presented to him by Berry.
- The fuchsia crystal dress Jinx wears during the Ice Palace party in Die Another Day was designed by Donatella Versace. Costume designer Lindy Hemming saw a similar Versace design in a fashion magazine and requested Donatella to make one to Halle Berry's specifications.
- A spin-off of Die Another Day was planned, featuring Halle Berry's character Jinx as the lead. Neal Purvis and Robert Wade wrote for two months and even a director was hired (Stephen Frears). However, after the failure of other female-character-driven action films like Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, MGM pulled the plug on the project. Halle Berry has said that she would love to return as Jinx in another Bond movie. She has allegedly said that she would like to do it so much she would do the role for free.
- Berry's bikini scenes in Die Another Day were shot in Cadiz and were not sunny and warm as they appeared onscreen but quite the opposite. Berry had to be wrapped up in thick towels in between takes to avoid catching a chill.
- Debris from a smoke grenade landed in Halle Berry's eye during the filming of Die Another Day. The actress required a 30 minute operation to remove it.
- After the release of Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnan was approached by a man in a Dublin bar who asked to shake his hand. Brosnan complied and then cracked up when the man quipped, "That's the closest my hand will ever get to Halle Berry's arse".
- The scene where Berry's Jinx walks out of the sea in a bikini, wearing a white belt and a diving knife is a tribute to Honey Ryder's in Dr. No. So is the gun that Jinx has to surrender to Miranda Frost on board the plane- a Beretta Cheetah.