THEN AND NOW: The cast of 'The Color Purple' 38 years later
Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" was released in 1985.
The movie starred Whoopi Goldberg as Celie, Oprah Winfrey as Sofia, and Margaret Avery as Shug.
Here's what the cast has been up to since the movie came out.
Nearly four decades ago, Steven Spielberg's adaption of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Color Purple" was released in theaters.
The 1985 movie starred Whoopi Goldberg as the main character and landed 11 total Academy Award nominations. Walker's novel also spawned a Broadway production in the 2000s followed by a Tony-winning revival. The legacy of "The Color Purple" continues with a reimagining directed by Blitz Bazawule and set for release on Monday.
Here's what the cast of Spielberg's iteration has been up to since the film's release.
Whoopi Goldberg, who played protagonist Celie Harris Johnson, is now an EGOT winner.
Shortly before "The Color Purple," Goldberg wrote and performed in a self-titled one-woman show on Broadway, which led to her first-ever Grammy win in 1986 for best comedy album. But the comedian's acting career took off after her critically praised, Oscar-nominated performance in Spielberg's movie.
To date, Goldberg has appeared in more than 100 films and TV shows. This includes her Oscar-winning role in "Ghost," plus starring roles in "Girl, Interrupted," "Boys on the Side," and the "Sister Act" movies. She's also done voice work for "The Lion King," "Toy Story 3," and "The Rugrats Movie." Goldberg is known for playing Guinan on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," as well.
Goldberg earned a Tony Award in 2002 for producing the Broadway play "Thoroughly Modern Millie."
Goldberg achieved EGOT status in 2002 after winning an Emmy for outstanding special class special for "Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel." She won another Emmy in 2009 for her job as a host on ABC's long-running talk show "The View."
Goldberg has served as a cohost on "The View" since 2007.
Akosua Busia, who portrayed Celie's younger sister, Nettie Harris, appeared on Broadway.
After starring in "The Color Purple," Busia appeared in various TV shows and movies. She appeared on "St. Elsewhere," "The Twilight Zone," and "ER."
Busia is an accomplished writer, too.
Her first novel, "The Seasons of Beento Blackbird," was released in 1996. Busia also cowrote the screenplay for the 1998 drama film "Beloved," which was adapted from Toni Morrison's book of the same name and starred "The Color Purple" actors Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. She cowrote the Stevie Wonder track, "Moon Blue," which appears on his 2005 album "A Time to Love."
Busia made her Broadway debut in 1991 as Daisy in the play "Mule Bone." She returned to the stage in 2016 for the play "Eclipsed," which was written by "Black Panther" star Danai Gurira.
The "Color Purple" star also cofounded the Busia Foundation International (BFI) with her sister, Abena Busia.
Busia, who was born in Ghana, now splits her time between her home country and the US. She has one daughter named Hadar Busia-Singleton, from her previous marriage to director John Singleton.
After playing the strong-willed Sofia, Oprah Winfrey became the queen of talk-show TV.
Winfrey has more than a dozen Daytime Emmys thanks to her hugely successful series, "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which ran for 25 seasons between 1986 and 2011. She also received a lifetime achievement award at the 1998 Daytime Emmys and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2002 Primetime Emmys.
After landing an Oscar nomination for her role in "The Color Purple," Winfrey earned another nod years later for being a producer on the film "Selma," which was nominated for best picture.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Winfrey with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Oscar, in 2011.
Winfrey's many other accolades include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which Barack Obama presented her with in 2013, a Peabody Award, a Tony Award, and honorary doctorates from Duke and Harvard.
Winfrey also launched the cable network known as OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network).
Although Winfrey still acts, she's leaned more heavily into producing in recent years. She serves as a producer on Bazawule's 2023 iteration of "The Color Purple."
Margaret Avery, who earned an Oscar nomination for her role as Shug Avery, recently appeared in "The Nana Project."
Avery told Essence in 2015 that she struggled to book jobs in the years after "The Color Purple," despite her critically acclaimed performance.
"At the time, most women of color who were in the business were limited to Black film," she said.
"What saved me was the college lecture circuit," Avery said, adding that she faced "backlash" for that decision.
After "The Color Purple," she guest-starred on TV series like "Miami Vice," "MacGyver," and "The Cosby Show."
In more recent years, she starred alongside Gabrielle Union on the BET series "Being Mary Jane" and guest-starred on season 15 of "Grey's Anatomy." She also appeared in the 2018 film "Proud Mary," which coincidentally starred Avery's "Color Purple" costar Danny Glover and Taraji P. Henson, who plays Shug in the 2023 reimagining.
Avery showed her support for the new remake of "The Color Purple" by attending its LA premiere in early December.
Desreta Jackson made her film debut as young Celie in "The Color Purple." She's now the founder of hair and beauty line BlackSilk.
Jackson was 12 years old when she auditioned for "The Color Purple." She appeared in a few shows and movies after its release but hasn't acted professionally since 2017.
Nowadays, she keeps busy as the founder and CEO of BlackSilk. Jackson was a professional braider for 29 years, per the company's site. She created her own hair products before launching BlackSilk to address the needs of Black consumers.
Jackson is also the author of the book "The Black Hair Conspiracy."
Danny Glover played Albert Johnson, aka Mister. The actor is known for his role as Roger Murtaugh in the "Lethal Weapon" franchise.
Glover starred in all four "Lethal Weapon" movies directed by Richard Donner and released between 1987 and 1998.
Outside of his role in the buddy-cop franchise, Glover earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in the 1987 TV movie "Mandela."
The actor also guest-starred on shows like "ER" and appeared in the films "Saw" and "Dreamgirls." Most recently, he played Santa Claus in the Disney movie "The Naughty Nine."
Aside from acting, Glover is known for his activism in politics and unions. He received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2022.
Willard E. Pugh played Mister's son, Harpo Johnson. He continues acting, most recently in the 2023 film "Lucky Louie."
His "Lucky Louie" character, Pete, is an ex-convict.
Pugh has appeared in various shows and movies over the years, including "RoboCop 2," "NYPD Blue," and "Air Force One."
Rae Dawn Chong, who played Mary Agnes/Squeak, recently appeared on season one of "Interview With the Vampire."
Chong portrays Florence de Pointe du Lac on the AMC series, based on Anne Rice's popular vampire novel of the same name.
Chong, the daughter of "That '70s Show" actor Tommy Chong, has been acting since she was a child.
The same year that "The Color Purple" was released, Chong collaborated with The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. She appeared in his music video for "Just Another Night" and costarred in the 1985 film "Running Out of Luck."
In the late '80s, Chong took a break from acting.
"I was finished," she told The Flashback Files in 2020. "I was miserable. I quit my agency, left Hollywood, moved to Woodstock, New York, and went into therapy."
After returning to acting, Chong guest-starred on shows like "Melrose Place," "That's So Raven," and "9-1-1."
In 2021, she played Betty Curie, former US President Bill Clinton's personal secretary, on season three of the anthology series "American Crime Story.'"
Adolph Caesar, who played Old Mister Johnson, died of a heart attack in March 1986 at 52 years old.
After "The Color Purple," Caesar guest-starred on the shows "The Twilight Zone" and "Fortune Dane."
He experienced a heart attack while on the set of the movie "Tough Guys,'' costarring Kirk Douglas, in Los Angeles. Caesar died minutes after arriving at the ER, the Los Angeles Times reported. His role in "Tough Guys" was recast.
His last completed role was in the comedy film "Club Paradise," released in summer 1986.
Laurence Fishburne had a small role as a musician named Swain. He's now a Tony winner, an Emmy winner, and an Oscar nominee.
Fishburne won a Tony Award in 1993 for best featured actor in a play for his performance in "Two Trains Running." He's since been nominated for best actor in a play for "Thurgood" in 2008.
The actor also received an Academy Award nomination for portraying Ike Turner in the 1993 Tina Turner biopic "What's Love Got to Do With It."
Fishburne has been nominated for more than 10 Emmys throughout his decades-long career. He won the coveted award in 1993, 1997, and 2020.
You may recognize the star for his roles as Morpheus in the "Matrix" films, Perry White in the "Superman" films that starred Henry Cavill, Bowery King in the "John Wick" franchise, and Dr. Bill Foster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He's also known for parts on the TV shows "Hannibal" and "Black-ish."
Most recently, Fishburne did voice work for the animated TV series "Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur."
Dana Ivey, who played the mayor's wife Miss Millie, is a five-time Tony nominee.
Ivey earned her first Tony nominations a year before "The Color Purple" was released, for her performances in "Sunday in the Park With George" and "Heartbreak House." She again landed nominations in 1997, 2005, and 2007.
"The Color Purple" was one of the earliest films Ivey starred in. She's since appeared in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "The Addams Family" movies, "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York," "Sleepless in Seattle," "Two Weeks Notice," "Sabrina," "The Help," and more.
Ivey's most recent film role was in the 2018 movie "Ocean's Eight."
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