Oprah Winfrey will be the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 75th Golden Globe Awards. Winfrey’s acquiring of this award will be a historic moment as she will be the first ever African American woman and the fourth Black actor ever to receive the prestigious award. She is being recognized for her “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.” The news comes just weeks after the news broke of her selling the majority of her shares in OWN to Discovery.
President of the HFPA, Meher Tatna, said in a statement, “The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is delighted to announce Oprah Winfrey as the recipient of the 2018 Cecil B. DeMille Award. As a global media leader, philanthropist, producer, and actress, she has created an unparalleled connection with people around the world, making her one of the most respected and admired figures today. For generations, Oprah has celebrated strong female characters on and off screen and has been a role model for women and young girls for decades.”
Previous Black recipients of The Cecil B. DeMille Award are Sidney Poitier (1982); Morgan Freeman (2012); and Denzel Washington in 2016.
We know what we'll be watching on January 7th 🙌🏾https://t.co/bu3cvXmGu9
— O The Oprah Magazine (@oprahmagazine) December 14, 2017
Winfrey’s career, which spans almost three decades has seen her flourish as the host of her award-winning talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show. At present, she is the CEO and Chairwoman of her cable network OWN, the Founder and CEO of Harpo Productions, the founder of O, The Oprah Magazine as well as a correspondent for CBS News‘ “60 Minutes”.
Oprah has also achieved mainstream success on the big screen. She landed a Golden Globe for the 1985 Steven Spielberg film adaptation of The Color Purple. She starred in Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Ava DuVernay’s Academy Award-winning film Selma and is starring in the upcoming Ava DuVernay-directed Disney adaptation, A Wrinkle In Time.
