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BY DEBORAH TANNEN
 he
Sudanese-born supermodel Alek Wek stands poised and insouciant as the
talk-show host, admiring her classic African features, cradles Wek's cheek
and says, "What a difference it would have made to my childhood if
I had seen someone who looks like you on television." The host is
Oprah Winfrey, and she has been making that difference for millions of
viewers, young and old, black and white, for nearly a dozen years.
Winfrey stands as a beacon, not only in the worlds
of media and entertainment but also in the larger realm of public discourse.
At 44, she has a personal fortune estimated at more than half a billion
dollars. She owns her own production company, which creates feature films,
prime-time TV specials and home videos. An accomplished actress, she won
an Academy Award nomination for her role in The Color Purple, and
this fall will star in her own film production of Toni Morrison's Beloved.
But it is through her talk show that her influence
has been greatest. When Winfrey talks, her viewers--an estimated 14 million
daily in the U.S. and millions more in 132 other countries--listen. Any
book she chooses for her on-air book club becomes an instant best seller.
When she established the "world's largest piggy bank," people
all over the country contributed spare change to raise more than $1 million
(matched by Oprah) to send disadvantaged kids to college. When she blurted
that hearing about the threat of mad-cow disease "just stopped me
cold from eating another burger!", the perceived threat to the beef
industry was enough to trigger a multimillion-dollar lawsuit (which she
won). |
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BORN Jan. 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Miss.
1971
Competes in Miss Black America pageant
1973 First
black and first woman hired to anchor TV news in Nashville, Tenn.
1977
Starts co-hosting People Are Talking morning show in Baltimore,
Md.
1986
The Oprah Winfrey Show goes national; Oscar-nominated for The
Color Purple
1996
Launches book club
1998
Produces, stars in Toni Morrison's Beloved
" More than a great star, you are a 20th century political figure.
Your good works have touched all of us. "
-- Phil Donahue, when Oprah received an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement
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