Angela Bassett Biography And Filmography:

This beautiful African American performer has distinguished herself on stage, television and film, often portraying long-suffering women who display strength, tolerance and sophistication. Angela Bassett has worked with some of Hollywood's most well-known black leading men including Laurence Fishburne, Denzel Washington and Eddie Murphy. She has also worked with prominent black filmmakers like Ossie Davis, Spike Lee and John Singleton. 

Bassett  was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida where she attended Jordan Elementary and Azalea Junior High. She then attended Boca Ciega High School, becoming the first African-American student from the school to be accepted into the National Honor Society. She later attended the Yale School of Drama where she began an important relationship with the dean, stage director Lloyd Richards, who later directed the actress on Broadway in two plays: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1985) and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" (1988).

Her onscreen career began in 1985 with a guest shot on the detective drama "Spenser: For Hire" and a short role as a hooker on the miniseries "Doubletake.” While the action thriller "F/X" (1986) marked her move into features, the actress stayed regularly employed in television during the late 1980s and early 90s with guest appearances and small roles as recurring characters, and bit parts on high-profile television movies and miniseries. She did better as the wife of doomed astronaut Ronald McNair in the 1990 Theater presentation "Challenger.” She received great reviews for her role as Katherine Jackson, Michael's mom, in the miniseries "The Jackson's: An American Dream" in 1992.

Angela first grabbed attention in movies as the separated, go-getting wife of Laurence Fishburne in John Singleton's "Boyz in the Hood" (1991). Her impressive list of roles grew to include the "good-girl" wife of politician Joe Morton in "City of Hope" (1991), and an excellent portrayal of Betty Shabazz, the wife of activist and preacher Malcolm X in Spike Lee's film "Malcolm X" (1992) with Denzel Washington and Spike Lee. A trim and fit Bassett earned great reviews, celebrity status, and a Best Actress Oscar nomination in her first movie lead in "What's Love Got To Do With It" (1993). Her spellbinding and convincing role of thirty years in the life of pop music icon Tina Turner altered her career.

After a short vacation, she returned to the screen with starring roles in three highly publicized 1995 Hollywood releases: the sci-fi action film "Strange Days," the Eddie Murphy horror comedy "Vampire in Brooklyn", and the adaptation of Terry McMillan's best-selling book "Waiting to Exhale.” The first two films built upon her figure as a strong black woman by giving her guns and fangs, the other temaed her with recording star Whitney Houston in a comedy drama that was a huge box-office success. 

Bassett undertook another superwoman role playing a divorcee who starts a relationship with a much younger man in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" (1998). In 2002, she was cast as Rosa Parks in the television movie "The Rosa Parks Story.” For her work as the civil rights icon, she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie.

She then gave a great performance as a woman trying to confront her twisted past in John Sayles' "Sunshine State" (2002). After appearing as herself on an episode of the Fox sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show" (2001-06) she joined the series main star for the baseball comedy "Mr. 3000" (2004), playing a sexy, but hard nosed reporter who had a romantic fling with a talented, but egotistical baseball player (Bernie Mac) trying to make a comeback after realizing he quit the game three hits short of 3000.

In “Akeelah and the Bee” (2006), she was the overbearing mother of a talented 11-year-old (Keke Palmer) who tries to keep her daughter away from the pressures of the national spelling bee dominated by rich, privileged children so she can concentrate on her schoolwork. She then returned to TV as the Undersecretary of Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection in the terrorist thriller “Time Bomb” (2006). She then lent her voice talents to Mildred in the animated comedy "Meet the Robinsons" (2007), as the caretaker of the orphanage that houses a boy genius and inventor whose search for a family leads him to discover time travel, a mysterious stranger and the futuristic Robinson family.

Next was "Gospel Hill" (2008), about haunted men and the former sheriff of the town dealing with past sins, and the former civil rights worker withdrawn since the death of his brother thirty years earlier. Their final altercation comes when a corporation descends on the small town, echoing a struggle thirty years old. The actress next had an appearance in the comedy "Meet The Browns" (2008), about a single mom who takes her family to Georgia for the funeral of her father, a man she never met. There, her family is introduced to the fun-loving Brown family. She was then cast in ""Of Boys And Men" (2008), about the father of a family who is distraught when his wife is killed in a senseless car accident. 

Bassett ended the year with the dramatic "Nothing But The Truth" (2008) featuring Kate Beckinsale and Noah Wyle, set in Washington, D.C., where a female reporter faces a possible jail sentence for outing a CIA agent and refusing to reveal her source. A dramatic music biography followed with "Notorious" (2009) about the life and death story of Notorious B.I.G., who came from Brooklyn to take the world of rap music by storm. She ended the year with "Toussaint" (2009), a historical action epic based on the life of Toussaint Louverture, who led a successful slave rebellion in the 18th century that sparked the Haitian Revolution.

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