Whoopi gives Swayze credit for her Oscar...
Whoopi Goldberg shared with viewers of “The View” this week that she would never have landed her Oscar-winning role of psychic Oda Mae Brown had it not been for leading man Patrick Swayze who we recently learned is battling pancreatic cancer.
"There’s been a lot of talk and (stories) in the news about my friend Patrick Swayze,” said Whoopi who went on to explain: “When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick.”
She said the star of “Dirty Dancing” had said to director Jerry Zucker: ‘I’m not making this movie unless you put Whoopi Goldberg in there.’
“That’s how I got the job,” Whoopi said.
It wasn’t that the actor was close friends with Whoopi at that time, he just knew she would be ideal for the part of Oda Mae who puts the spirit of Swayze’s murdered character in touch with widow (Demi Moore) and also helps him catch his killer.
“We had never met but he liked what I did and he knew I was right and there was some resistance,” she said. “I won an Oscar because of Patrick Swayze.”
Whoopi became only the second female African American performer to win an Oscar in 1990 and first since 1939 when Hattie McDaniel won for “Gone With the Wind.”
She wrapped up her comments on Swayze by looking into the camera and saying: “We want you to feel better and we’ll talk soon, I hope.”
Greg Hernandez has covered the entertainment industry for the Daily
News since 2001. He's considered a bit odd by some for his obsession
with box office numbers, has been known to camp out near the kitchen
at premieres for first crack at the hors d'oeurves, and Greg's never
seen a red carpet he didn't want to stroll down.