The Backstory: Halle's father deserted her family when she was 4, leaving the sole job of parenting to her mother. As a teenager, she blossomed, winning the Miss Teen All-American Pageant, representing the state of Ohio, in 1985. Halle would go on to score the first runner-up slot at the Miss USA Pageant and win the evening-gown competition at the Miss World Pageant.

The Big Break: Early work on TV ( Knots Landing , the short-lived supermodel series Living Dolls ) led to the 1992 Eddie Murphy comeback comedy Boomerang . As Murphy's smart, beautiful and intelligent love interest, Halle won the hearts of pinup-starved boys.

Career High Points: More renown for her looks than her acting chops, Halle took a stab at thespian respectability in the 1999 HBO TV-movie, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge . The biopic about the pioneering (and doomed) black singer had long been toiling in Hollywood's development hell. Enter Berry, who championed the script, produced and starred in the flick. Her rewards: An Emmy, a Golden Globe, a SAG award and respectability. By 2001, her stature was such that she was able to extract an extra $500,000 from producers of the John Travolta action flick, Swordfish , for bearing her highly sought after breasts onscreen. In 2002 won an Academy Award for leading actress for her role in Monster's Ball .

Career Low Points: The Last Boy Scout (1991), The Flintstones (1994) and last and certainly least, B*A*P*S (1997). Personally, Halle endured a P.R. nightmare following a February 2000 two-car crash in which she was accused of leaving the scene of the crash. (She eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge and paid $13,500 in fines.)

Famous Fling: Shemar Moore, soap-opera actor

Notable Quotable: "I spent a lot of time with a crown on my head." —Halle Berry, on her beauty-pageant days