Totally Random Video: Some powerful scenes of Oprah Winfrey as Sofia in “The Color Purple”

It’s difficult to imagine Oprah Winfrey as anybody other than Oprah these days.

But there was a time, when her talk show was in its early days and she didn’t have her own cable network, magazine, school in Africa, book club and all the rest, that Oprah was an Academy Award nominated actress.

The role was the strong-willed Sofia in 1985’s The Color Purple and Oprah absolutely nailed it as you can see in these two scenes.

Although she is a terrific actress, Oprah rarely took on any after more roles during the run of her syndicated tank show with her most notable acting forays during those years being the miniseries Women of Brewster Place, the TV movies There Are No Children Here and Before Women Had Wings and the 1998 feature film Beloved.

But in more recent years, she’s been far more prolific with roles in The Butler, A Wrinkle in Time, Selma, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and a recurring role in the OWN series Greenleaf.