PRINTER'S NO. 3522
No. 491 Session of 2002
INTRODUCED BY J. WILLIAMS, BISHOP, WATERS, KIRKLAND, JAMES,
D. EVANS, MYERS, CALTAGIRONE, COSTA, COY, CURRY, DALEY,
DeWEESE, DIVEN, EACHUS, FREEMAN, GRUCELA, HANNA, HORSEY,
LEDERER, LESCOVITZ, McCALL, PALLONE, PISTELLA, READSHAW,
ROBERTS, ROBINSON, SANTONI, SHANER, TANGRETTI, THOMAS, WALKO,
WANSACZ, WASHINGTON AND WOJNAROSKI, MARCH 27, 2002
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
MARCH 27, 2002
A RESOLUTION
1 Honoring Halle Berry on her outstanding achievement as the first
2 African-American woman to win the Best Actress Academy Award.
3 WHEREAS, Halle Berry became the first African-American woman
4 to win an Academy Award for a leading role for her portrayal of
5 a death-row widow and down-and-out waitress who becomes
6 romantically involved with a prison warden in "Monster's Ball";
7 and
8 WHEREAS, Halle Berry is a woman whose combination of talent,
9 tenacity and beauty has made her one of Hollywood's most
10 successful actors, a success that has come from years of hard
11 work and her share of career pitfalls; and
12 WHEREAS, Halle Berry is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, where
13 she was born on August 14, 1968; and
14 WHEREAS, Halle Berry won the Miss Teen All-American Pageant
15 and participated in the 1986 Miss U.S.A. Pageant; and
1 WHEREAS, Halle Berry modeled and earned television roles
2 before winning her first big-screen role in Spike Lee's "Jungle
3 Fever" and she went on to supporting roles in "The Flintstones"
4 and the 1998 political satire "Bulworth"; and
5 WHEREAS, Halle Berry's biggest acclaim came for her role in
6 the 1999 television movie "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," in
7 which she played 1950s black movie star Dandridge whose
8 struggles to be accepted in racist Hollywood paved the way for
9 actors like Halle Berry today; and
10 WHEREAS, Halle Berry earned critical praise for her work in
11 "Monster's Ball" and won the 2002 Screen Actors Guild Award for
12 Best Actress and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for
13 her work in that film; and
14 WHEREAS, Halle Berry's historic win at the Academy Awards
15 came during "Women's History Month"; therefore be it
16 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives honor Halle Berry
17 for her outstanding achievement as the first African-American
18 woman to win the Best Actress Academy Award.
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