Which actress played the lead in The Color Purple?

Whoopi Goldberg played the lead role of Celie in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple.

Released in 1985, the film adapts Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel. Celie is an African American woman in the early 20th-century American South whose story follows her struggle against poverty, racism, sexism, and abuse before she gradually finds independence and a stronger sense of self.

Goldberg’s performance was her breakthrough film role. She was selected after Alice Walker saw her acclaimed one-woman stage show and recommended her to producer Quincy Jones and Spielberg. The cast also included Danny Glover as Albert, Margaret Avery as Shug Avery, and Oprah Winfrey as Sofia in Winfrey’s film debut.

The role earned Goldberg an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. A frequent mix-up is confusing the lead with the supporting performers: Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were both prominent in the film, but Goldberg is the central character and billed lead.