The View’s Whoopi Goldberg Has Come a Long Way! See the Iconic Actress Through the Years

1983

The A-lister looked amazing at the 1983 Academy Awards, which was an event she attended just one year after making her on-screen debut.

1985

Here is a photo of Whoopi arriving for her one-woman show in New York City. She called it Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From Broadway.

By 1985, Whoopi was making headways in Hollywood, especially when she landed the role of Celie Johnson in Steven Spielberg‘s The Color Purple. Although she didn’t know it at the time, Whoopi’s performance would help her get her first Oscar nomination. It was an award she would eventually win with 1991’s Ghost.

But even though those films are just a couple of great highlights from her career, Whoopi became known for so many more projects like 1992’s Sister Act and her voice work in The Lion King.

1986

Aside from her career though, the legendary star also focused on having a family.

The For Colored Girls star tied the knot three times, and had her daughter, Alex Martin, with her first husband, Alvin Martin, in May 1973. In 1979, the couple got divorced, but Whoopi didn’t take it personally. She eventually realized that marriage just wasn’t going to make her happy.

“One day I thought, I don’t have to do this. I don’t have to conform. I tried marriage, and it wasn’t for me,” Whoopi told The New York Times in 2019. “You can’t be in a marriage because everybody’s expecting you to.”

The mom of one posed alongside fellow actor Michael J. Fox at the 1986 Oscars. Don’t they look great?

1990

Whoopi and late actor Robin Williams posed at the Women in Film Festival in 1990.

1991

Congratulations! The actress won her first Oscar in 1991.

1996

Whoopi hosted the Oscars four times. In 1996, she looked absolutely incredible.

2000

One to always give back. Here is the Rio star at the Revlon’s seventh annual Run/Walk for Women event.

2002

Whoopi was all smiles at Paramount Pictures’ 90th Anniversary celebration in Los Angeles in 2002.

2006

A family affair! Here’s Whoopi with her only child, Alex, at the Kids Choice Awards.

2008

When you’re famous, sometimes you find yourself at the All Stars Legends Celebrity Softball game alongside former ballplayer Wade Boggs and actor Billy Crystal.

2011

Sister Act is one of Whoopi’s most notable roles, and in 2011 she attended the opening night of the Sister Act Musical Show. On the red carpet, she ran into Barbara Walters and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

2014

One legend next to another — Whoopi and Robert De Niro pose at the Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro Sr HBO documentary screening in 2014.

2016

Just a mother and daughter at the 88th Annual Academy Awards!

2018

The dreadlocked beauty was excited to attend the NY Special Screening of Black Panther in 2018.

2021

Whoopi rocked a red and black flannel shirt while hanging out at her home in New Jersey in February 2021. For the last year, the Little Rascals alum has been social distancing at her 9,486-square-foot mansion amid the coronavirus pandemic. Despite being cooped up, she appeared in good spirits in the post on Instagram.

2022

In March 2022, Whoopi joined Gina Belafonte during a 95th birthday tribute to singer Harry Belafonte in New York. The Grammy winner wore a long black gown with white lace embellishments going down the front and on the sleeves.

2023

Whoopi attended the Thom Browne fashion show during New York Fashion Week.

2024

She posed for photos at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, just weeks before announcing the launch of her cannabis brand, Emma & Clyde.

“Cannabis is probably the greatest medicine on the planet that everybody can have,” she told Forbes. “For people like me, it was always used to stop the [menstrual] cramps – and the side hustle of that is that it was fun, it made you laugh and stuff.”