The actor and comedian was Oscar-nominated for her film debut 40 years ago, then won an Academy Award just five years later. As she turns 70, we rate Goldberg’s greatest hits
Or: Winona, Overshadowed. Predominantly, that is, by Angelina Jolie, whose movie-stealing turn as one of Ryder’s fellow patients at a late-1960s US psychiatric hospital won her an Oscar. Don’t discount Goldberg’s contribution, though. Soothingly understated as Valerie, the chief nurse, she and fellow staff members, played by Vanessa Redgrave and Jeffrey Tambor, provide the emotional grounding over which their younger co-stars (also including Elisabeth Moss and Brittany Murphy) can soar.
Goldberg is the owner of an African bookstore whose daughter (Nia Long) tracks down her sperm-donor father (Ted Danson). It’s hate at first sight for the parents, but antipathy turns to amorousness. Despite plenty of histrionics, and some regrettable slapstick involving a runaway elephant, Goldberg somehow clings to her dignity. There are bizarre moments, such as Danson gazing at a photograph of his daughter as a baby and saying softly to himself: “Funny thing, sperm.” Or Goldberg commanding him to “smell me” before they first lock lips. But the smooch itself is not to be sniffed at. Even in 1993, interracial romance was all but taboo in US cinema: a love scene between Goldberg and Sam Elliott was cut from Fatal Beauty only six years earlier.
