Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an Emmy, Golden Globe,
and Academy Award-winning American actress and former fashion model and beauty queen.
Berry's parents selected her first name from that of Halle's Department Store,
which was then a local landmark in her birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio.
She is the daughter of Judith Ann Hawkins, a Liverpudlian,and Jerome J. Berry,
who was African American. Berry's maternal grandmother, Nellie Dicken, was born in Sawley,
Derbyshire, England, while her maternal grandfather, Earl Ellsworth Hawkins,
was born in Ohio.Berry's parents divorced when she was 4 years old and she subsequently
was raised by her mother, a psychiatric nurse. Her father was an orderly in the same
psychiatric ward where her mother worked. Berry has an older sister, Heidi who was born seven years before her.
