Viola Davis came full circle in celebration of her 55th birthday on Tuesday (Aug. 11). The How to Get Away with Murder star purchased her childhood home and the surrounding land, she excitedly announced on social media.
“The above is the house where I was born on August 11, 1965. It the birthplace of my story. Today on my 55th year of life..I own it…all of it,” Davis revealed.
The above is the house where I was born August 11, 1965. It is the birthplace of my story. Today on my 55th year of life….I own it….all of it.
“May you live long enough to know why you were born.”
-Cherokee Birth Blessing- pic.twitter.com/CatJK405BL— Viola Davis (@violadavis) August 11, 2020
The dilapidated home, located in South Carolina, was built on a former slave planation which later became her grandmother’s farm. Although Davis was born in the home, her family moved to +Rhode Island when she was two months old.
The youngest of six children, Davis has never been shy to speak about growing up in poverty and going hungry most nights. As a child, Davis came up with different ways to get food, which included joining summer programs for free lunch, and rummaging through trash cans. “I was always so hungry and ashamed,” she told Glamour magazine in 2018. “I couldn’t tap into my potential. I couldn’t get at the business of being me.”
The Oscar-winning actress found her footing in the theater and earned a scholarship to Rhode Island College, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City. She made her silver screen debut in the 1996 film, The Substance of Fire. Davis earned a Tony Award in 2001 for her performance in Broadway’s King Hedley II, and booked small roles in films like Out of Sight, Ocean’s Eleven, and Traffic. Davis landed her first Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her riveting performance in 2008’s Doubt.