Winfrey, Oprah (b. 1954)

U.S. talk show host and television producer

Born to unwed parents in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in 1954, Oprah Winfrey was raised by her maternal [Page 1647]grandmother, who taught her how to read and nourished her lifelong love of public speaking. She still lives by the philosophy she learned growing up in a small farming community in a house without electricity or running water: “You're good, but you could be better.” As a Biography documentary on Winfrey noted, “Oprah's growing-up years were stormy, difficult, and marked by abuse. Yet she somehow managed not just to survive but to excel” (“Oprah Winfrey” 2002).

It is hard to overstate the importance of Oprah Winfrey as a business and cultural force over the past ten years. Perhaps better than any other American, Oprah Winfrey symbolizes a brand celebrity whose opinions shape which authors make the best-seller list and which products come to be seen as “must buys” by the public. One magazine article stated that Winfrey has “more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, political, or religious leader except the pope” (Vanity Fair).

The fact that her talk show is watched by more than 22 million people every week, that she is the first African-American woman (the second person of African-American origin after Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television) to make it to Forbes magazine's list of billionaires, and that Time magazine named her one of the hundred most influential people of the twentieth century overshadows the important impact of her multifaceted leadership style on the American private and public landscape. While no one disputes her as status as a talk show host or as an entertainment business executive, it is arguably her leadership that will be the lens through which history books examine her life. She may be the only self-made billionaire who “happily admits that she cannot read a balance sheet” and has declined invitations to serve on the corporate boards of AT&T, Ralph Lauren, and Intel because she was not sure what she would be doing as a board member (Sellers 2002).