Where Are They Now: The Cast of the Color Purple
The film's stars 30 years later.
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The Color Purple - There are a handful of films that are iconic within the African-American community, and the period drama The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, is one of them. Thanks largely in part to the experienced cast, the film — which hit theaters on this day in 1985 — was a major success. But, that was almost 30 years ago. Here's what the cast is up to today.— By Moriba Cummings(Photo: Warner Bros.)
Photo By Photo: Warner Bros.
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Danny Glover - Danny Glover, who played the aggressive Albert "Mister" Johnson in the film, went on to have a massively successful film and television career, starring in films like Gone Fishin', Beloved and Dreamgirls. Most recently, the Hollywood vet starred as Nate Parker's father in the 2014 film Beyond the Lights.(Photo: Dominique Charriau/Getty Images)
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Whoopi Goldberg - Playing the lead role of Celie Harris, a mistreated Black woman, Whoopi Goldberg had her first major breakthrough in Hollywood. Her performance was so impressive that she received an Oscar nomination. Since The Color Purple, Goldberg went on to win a 1991 Oscar for her role in Ghost, starred in several high profile movies, including the Sister Act films, and is most recently a host on ABC's The View.(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Glamour)
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Margaret Avery - Margaret Avery, who played the role of jazz singer Shug Avery, also received an Oscar nomination for her role in the film in the category for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. After The Color Purple, Avery went on to star in a slew of high-profile projects, including The Jacksons: An American Dream, The Cosby Show and, currently, BET's Being Mary Jane.(Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
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Oprah Winfrey - After making her film debut in The Color Purple as Sofia, Oprah went on to basically conquer all things media. A year after the film's premiere, she launched The Oprah Winfrey Show, which stands as the highest-rated program of its kind in history, launched the Oprah Winfrey Network and went on to become the richest African-American of the 20th century.(Photo: Rob Kim/Getty Images)
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Rae Dawn Chong - Playing the role of Squeak in the film saw this Canadian-American actress shine in her own right. Following the success of The Color Purple, she went on to star in other high profile movies and television shows, including Rude Awakening and Wild Card. However, what really resparked the world's interest in the actress is her 2013 rant against her The Color Puple co-star Oprah Winfrey, where she called the queen of all media the n-word.(Photo: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
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Adolph Caesar - Who could forget Old Mister? Adolph Caesar, the iconic actor who played this role, gave literally the performance of a lifetime as he passed a year after The Color Purple premiered. While he was working on the set of the 1986 film Tough Guys, he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 52.(Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage)
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Quincy Jones - Though Quincy Jones did not act in The Color Purple, his presence was massive as he wrote the original score for the film. Following the movie's success, he continued producing music for high-profile artists and was even, most recently, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the winner of the Ahmet Ertegün Award. He was also named TIME magazine's most influential jazz musician of the 20th century.(Photo: Angela Weiss/Getty Images)
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Laurence Fishburne - Since his portrayal of Swain in the 1985 film, Laurence Fishburne has stayed booked. He went on to become the first African-American to play Shakespeare's Othello in a motion picture and, most notably, starred as Ike Turner in the iconic biopic What's Love Got to Do with It. Today, he stars as Pops in the new blockbuster ABC series Black-ish alongside Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis-Ross.(Photo: Mark Davis/Getty Images)
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Desreta Jackson - After playing a young Celie Harris in the iconic period drama, Desreta Jackson kept a low profile, appearing in a sprinkling of film projects here and there, including a minor role in Sister Act and Mighty Pawns. She has since taken a break from the acting world and has founded her own hair care company called BlackSilk Products, where she makes oils, hair treatments, shampoos and conditioners.(Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty Images)
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Akosua Busia - The Ghanaian actress went on from playing Celie's sister Nettie in The Color Purple to co-writing the equally iconic screenplay adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved in 1998. Since the film, she has married and divorced famed American film director John Singleton.(Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)