Famous Pageant
Winners
From Vanessa Williams
to Oprah Winfrey -
famous pageant winners and losers
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Vanessa Williams
 The
first African-American woman ever to win the Miss America Pageant,
Williams was a stand-out won both the swimsuit and talent competitions at the
national contest.
Sadly, she was asked to resign when Penthouse
magazine published sexually-explicit photos she had posed for
earlier.
 Despite initially appearing to be ruined by scandal,
she rebounded and achieved fame as a recording artist. 1988 marked
her professional debut, with her first album, The Right Stuff.
It was followed by four hits: Dreamin, Darling I, He
Got the Look which earned her first three Grammy nominations,
including Best New Artist. Vanessa's album, Colors of the Wind,
won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and a Grammy Award for Best
Song in a Motion Picture.
She has
conquered Broadway, starring as the lead in Kiss of the Spider Woman,
and films. In 1996 she starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in
the action film, Eraser.
In
2006, she added television stardom to her repertoire when she was signed
to play Wilhelmina Slater on the ABC hit,
Ugly Betty.
•
Vanessa
Williams:
ABC TV bio
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View Vanessa Williams movies
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Purchase Vanessa Williams music
Oprah Winfrey
 Before becoming
an Emmy Award-winning television talk show host, Oprah Winfrey
won the 1971 Miss Fire Prevention and Miss Black Tennessee titles.
When asked what she would do with a million dollars, Winfrey
delighted the judges when she blurted out, "I'd be a spending
fool!" She competed in the Miss Black America Pageant, but
failed to make the finals.
Oprah
began her career in broadcasting at Nashville's radio-WVOL while she was
in high school. At age, she became the youngest person and the first
African-American woman to anchor the news at Nashville's WTVF-TV.
In 1985,
the A.M. Chicago Show which she hosted, was re-named The Oprah
Winfrey Show - which became the highest rated talk show in
television history. That year, she
made her acting debut
as "Sofia" in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple. She was
nominated for both Academy Award® and Golden Globe honors.
 In
1988, she started Harpo Studios, her production company, based in in
Chicago, which now produces The Oprah
Winfrey Show.
In 2000,
Oprah and Hearst Magazines launched
O, The Oprah Magazine, a monthly women's lifestyle magazine.
In 2006,
she fulfilled her dream of founding an elite private educational
program for impoverished African girls when she founded
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy.
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View Oprah Winfrey movies
Michelle Yeoh
Named,
Miss Malaysia in 1983, most Americans know
her as Pierce Brosnan's sidekick, Chinese secret agent Wai Lin,
in the James Bond flick, Tomorrow Never Dies. But the
former Miss Malaysia (1983) is known throughout Asia as a kung-fu
queen who has starred in nine movies including the mega-hit,
Police Story III: Supercop. And, yes, she performs her
own dangerous stunts.
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Michelle Yeoh movies
Paula Zahn
 After competing
in numerous pageants and making the finals of the 1973 Miss Teenage
America Pageant, Zahn entered television journalism, wracking
up credits on The Health Show, ABC's World News This Morning,
and CBS This Morning with Harry Smith.
She now anchors the
CNN news program Paul Zahn Now, which focusing
on exposing intolerance and social injustice.
•
Paula Zahn - Bio - CNN
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