Angela Bassett - Biography, Filmography, Photos

Angela Bassett: Biography

Name:
Angela Bassett
Date of Birth:
August 16, 1958
Place of Birth:
New York, New York, USA

A respected actress of the stage, screen, and television, Angela Bassett has been one of the few African-American actresses to break Hollywood's color boundary. She has specialized in playing strong women familiar with adversity and has worked in genres from "chick flick" (Waiting to Exhale) to sci-fi action (Strange Days) to biography (What's Love Got to Do with It?), the last of which featured her in a star-making performance as Tina Turner.

Born in New York City on August 16, 1958, Bassett was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida by her mother. Growing up in a household where money was tight, she was taught determination and independence. These values were called into service after an eleventh grade Upward Bound trip to Washington, D.C., when Bassett saw James Earl Jones in a Kennedy Center production of Of Mice and Men. Deciding that acting was her calling, she became involved in a number of local productions in St. Petersburg. She continued to act at Yale University, where she earned a scholarship; after completing a B.A. in African-American studies, she also spent three years at the Yale School of Drama. One of Bassett's mentors at Yale was the drama school's dean, stage director Lloyd Richards, who was so impressed with her talent that he cast her in two of his productions, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Although she enjoyed relative success on the stage, Bassett, like other African-American actors, had a difficult time finding roles in television and film.

In 1986, Bassett made her screen debut in the cult favorite F/X. Following supporting roles in Kindergarten Cop (1990) and John Sayles' City of Hope (1991), she had her first significant screen role in John Singleton's acclaimed Boyz 'N the Hood, playing a struggling single mother. Two years later, after playing the wife of civil rights leader Malcolm X in Spike Lee's biopic and the Jackson Family matriarch in the made-for-TV The Jacksons: An American Dream, Bassett had her screen breakthrough as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It?, a performance that earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe.

As her newfound status allowed her to expand her range of work, Bassett went on to star in a series of diverse films. In 1995, a foray into futuristic action in Strange Days was complemented by a lead in the successful women's ensemble drama Waiting to Exhale (based on the novel by Terry McMillan), in which Bassett starred alongside Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon, and Loretta Devine. In 1998, she starred as the title character in another McMillan adaptation, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, playing a divorcee whose discontent is ably assuaged by a hunky twenty-year-old (Taye Diggs). The following year, she had a supporting role in Music of the Heart and again tried her hand at action in Supernova, a sci-fi thriller. Starring in former Orson Welles collaborator and blacklisted director John Berry's critically panned swansong Boesman and Lena in 2000, Bassett (along with co-star Danny Glover) earned praise for their sensitive performances as a troubled South African couple striving to seek stability in the face of Apartheid.

Since 1997, Bassett has been married to actor Courtney B. Vance, whom she had known since their days at Yale.

Angela Bassett: Photos




Angela Bassett: Filmography

Mama Black Widow (2008) (pre-production)

ER (15 episodes, 2008-2009)
Notorious (2009)
Nothing But the Truth (2008)
Meet the Browns (2008)
Of Boys and Men (2008)
Gospel Hill (2008)
Meet the Robinsons (2007) (voice)
Time Bomb (2006)
Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
Alias (4 episodes, 2005)
Mr 3000 (2004)
The Lazarus Child (2004)
Masked and Anonymous (2003)
Sunshine State (2002)
The Rosa Parks Story (2002)
Ruby's Bucket of Blood (2001)
The Score (2001)
Boesman and Lena (2000)
Whispers: An Elephant's Tale (2000) (voice)
Supernova (2000)
Music of the Heart (1999)
Our Friend, Martin (1999) (voice)
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)
Contact (1997)
Waiting to Exhale (1995)
Strange Days (1995)
Panther (1995)
Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
Malcolm X (1992)
The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992)
Innocent Blood (1992)
Passion Fish (1992)
One Special Victory (1991)
Locked Up: A Mother's Rage (1991)
City of Hope (1991)
The Heroes of Desert Storm (1991)
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Fire: Trapped on the 37th Floor (1991)
Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story (1991)
Critters 4 (1991)
Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer (1990)
In the Best Interest of the Child (1990)
Challenger (1990)
Alien Nation (1 episode, 1990)
Family of Spies (1990)
227 (1 episode, 1989)
Tour of Duty (2 episodes, 1989)
A Man Called Hawk (2 episodes, 1989)
The Cosby Show (2 episodes, 1985-1988)
Ryan's Hope (1975)
Liberty (1986)
F/X (1986)
Spenser: For Hire (1 episode, 1985)
Doubletake (1985)