Born This Week in Film: Leonardo DiCaprio and Whoopi Goldberg

This week’s birthdays belong to two Academy Award winners. Both started performing as children and both broke through in the 1980s or 1990s. Leonardo DiCaprio turns 52 on November 11, 2026. Whoopi Goldberg turns 71 on November 13, 2026.

Leonardo DiCaprio: Born November 11, 1974

DiCaprio was born November 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. He started young. At age five he appeared on the children’s TV show Romper Room, and he did commercials and educational films as a teenager. His first film was the 1991 horror movie Critters 3.

His first major film role came in This Boy’s Life (1993), where he played the author Tobias Wolff. In the same year he played a developmentally disabled boy in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), which brought him his first Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

Two romances made him a star around the world: Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997). Titanic stayed the highest-grossing movie ever made for more than a decade. To move past romantic leads, he took roles in two crime dramas in 2002, Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York. The second was his first film with director Martin Scorsese, and the two have now made six movies together. They include The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006).

Signature films: Titanic (1997), The Departed (2006), The Revenant (2015).

Career note: He has been nominated six times for the Oscar for best actor and has won once, for The Revenant (2015). Away from acting, he started the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998, which focuses mainly on climate change and wildlife conservation.

Whoopi Goldberg: Born November 13, 1955

Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson on November 13, 1955, in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. She first acted at age eight, in a children’s theater company. She moved to California in the mid-1970s, worked in improvisational theater and took her stage name there.

Her stage show Whoopi Goldberg played in New York City from 1984 to 1985, and its recording won her the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. Her breakthrough screen role came in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple (1985), which brought her an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award.

Her biggest film success was Ghost (1990). In it she played the medium Oda Mae Brown opposite Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, and the role won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She became the second African American actress to win an acting Oscar. She also starred in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986) and Sister Act (1992).

Signature films: The Color Purple (1985), Ghost (1990), Sister Act (1992).

Career note: She has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, the set known as the EGOT. She was the first Black woman to complete it. She is also a television host: in 2007 she began a long run as moderator of the talk show The View.

FAQ

– Which film won Leonardo DiCaprio his Oscar?

The Revenant (2015). It was his only win out of six nominations for best actor. His first Oscar nomination came for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).

– Is Whoopi Goldberg her birth name?

No. She was born Caryn Elaine Johnson. She started using the stage name while doing improvisational theater in California in the mid-1970s.

– What was Whoopi Goldberg’s breakthrough film?

The Color Purple (1985). It earned her an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award.

Header photo: Raph_PH / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0, modified: resized and blended with an AI-generated background. The person in the header is a real photo; only the background is AI-generated.