Dreadlocked actress and comedienne Whoopi Goldberg was inspired to take up acting by seeing Nichelle Nichols on TV as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek. After working as a bricklayer, mortuary assistant, and in bit parts on Broadway, Whoopi began doing a one-woman show on Broadway. On the strength of her performance, she landed her first major film role playing Celie Johnson in The Color Purple in 1985, for which she received a nomination for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. In 1990 she was nominated again for the film Ghost. Whoopi also conquered the boob tube as a regular on HBO’s Comic Relief in the ’80s and in 2007 as the replacement for Rosie O’Donnell on the ABC daytime talk show The View. Whoopi has never seen fit to whip out her chest cushions, though she came close in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986). Too bad it wasn’t a gash, gash, gash.