“This was her win, and in a way mine too”: Whoopi Goldberg recalls losing her first Oscar for The Color Purple to Geraldine Page

Ghost star Whoopi Goldberg has opened up about losing her very first Oscar nomination for The Color Purple to late actress Geraldine Page in 1985. The actress was nominated in the Best Actress category but lost to Page's performance in The Trip to Bountiful. Goldberg later ended up bagging a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Ghost in 1990.

In her latest book, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me, launched on Tuesday, May 7, Goldberg recalled the moment in 1985 when Geraldine Page's name was read out. Whoopi lavished praise on the late artist and called her a "be-all and end-all" actor. She wrote:

"This was her win, and in a way mine too because I was also a New York actor."

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Whoopi Goldberg recalled "applauding like crazy" when Geraldine Page won her Academy Award

Multi-award winner Whoopi Goldberg's new memoir Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me saw the actress open up about her family and their influence on her craft. At one point in the book, Goldberg talked about her 1985 Oscar nomination for Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, which told the daunting story of a young African-American woman named Celie Harris, portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg.

Goldberg recalled in her book that when she got her Oscar nomination for the movie, she did not know how she felt about it. The actress knew that her performance was nomination-worthy but didn't really expect one. Whoopi further stated she got plenty of calls, with people telling her she would win it.

Whoopi Goldberg in 'The Color Purple' (Image via YouTube/Warner Bros. Entertainment)

The 58th Academy Awards saw Anne Bancroft, Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, and Geraldine Page getting nominated for the Best Actress award apart from Whoopi. Even though Page took home the award that night, every single one of those nominations has now won at least one Academy Award, making it quite the special list.

The actress recalled telling her late mother Emma Johnson that this was all "very odd" and that she didn't know how to feel about it. According to her memoir, Whoopi Goldberg's mother told her:

"‘Well, the first thing you should remind yourself of is that you may not win. I know people are already saying to you that you’re gonna get it. That may not happen. You may not. So you need to just be glad you got here, the first time out."

Goldberg and her mother Emma (Image via Instagram/@whoopigoldberg)

Whoopi also shared her admiration for eventual winner Geraldine Page. Even though she never had the money to see Page's revered Broadway shows as a kid, she would always read about her in the paper. She wrote:

"I also knew she (Geraldine Page) had been nominated for an Oscar many times and had never won one. To me, she is one of those be-all and end-all actors."

Geraldine Page has received seven Academy Award nominations and her penultimate victory came at the 58th Academy Awards, which was also her last Academy Award nomination. Page passed away due to a heart attack a little more than a year after her win, in 1987.

When presenter F. Murray Abraham announced that he had "revered the winner for decades" Whoopi knew that it was not her who won. When he called Page's name Goldberg was elated. She narrated:

"I was applauding like crazy. As she was walking to the stage, the actor sitting next to me said, 'Why did you applaud so much when she beat you?' I said, 'What do you mean? That’s Geraldine Page. You know, she’s Geraldine Page.'"

Whoopi Goldberg ended up winning her Academy Award in 1990 in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in Jerry Zucker's supernatural romance movie, Ghost.