Recently it was the 55th birthday of Halle Berry, who was for our purpose memorably the female counterpart to 007 in Die Another Day 2002 and famously filmed her entrance on a beach in Cadiz, Spain, paying homage to the first Bond girl entrance in Dr No – the character was so popular there was talk of a spin-off film. She had by now shown her acting skills and whilst making the Bond film, she became the first African-American actress to win the Best Actress Oscar – for Monster’s Ball 2001 - having already won a Golden Globe for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge 1999. Her path to stardom was by no means easy and she never knew her father. Her mother came from Liverpool and her maternal grandmother from Sawley, Derbyshire and she still has dual US/UK citizenship – but she was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Oakwood Village, Bedford, where her family still live; she graduated from Bedford High School and was a Bearcats cheerleader. Her success stemmed from her beauty initially as at 17 she won the Miss Teen All-American Pageant representing Ohio, then a year later was first runner-up in Miss USA, which led to modelling. She starved herself to break into acting in New York City and was recognised from a TV programme Living Dolls in 1989, after which she moved to Los Angeles. Her breakthrough was in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever 1991, whence she has amassed 60 screen credits – other films include The Flintstones 1994 - Executive Decision 1996 – Bulworth 1998 - X-Men as Storm 2000 & sequels 2003 & 2006 & 2014 - Swordfish 2001 -– Catwoman 2004 - Their Eyes Were Watching God 2005 – Perfect Stranger 2007 – Frankie & Alice 2010 – Dark Tide & Cloud Atlas 2012 - Extant 2014-5 – Kingsman: The Golden Circle 2017 – John Wick: Parabellum 2019. Whilst from her career she has had houses in Malibu, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, and also lived in Manhattan, the path to a fulfilling love has not been smooth and she has lived in Saint-Hypolite north of Montreal, Sandy Springs in Atlanta, and Chicago and with her current partner spends a lot of time in Las Vegas. We believe she is more than worthy of a match in her honour and hope you do too; if the numbers or ratings do not suit, then please make contact.
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