BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Born on August 16, 1958, in New York City, Angela Bassett attended the Yale School of Drama and went on to star in the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do With It, for which the actress received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award. Other films have included Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Strange Days, Supernova and Mr. 3000. She wed fellow actor Courtney Vance in 1997.
Early Life and Career
Born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on August 16, 1958, Angela Bassett is known for her many dramatic roles in films, television and on stage. Bassett was raised with her sister, D'nette, in St. Petersburg, Florida by her single mother, Betty, a social worker. On a high school trip, she became inspired to act after seeing a Kennedy Center production of the classic story Of Mice and Men, starring James Earl Jones.
Encouraged by a teacher, Bassett went on to study at Yale on a scholarship, earning a B.A. in Afro-American Studies and an M.F.A. in drama. While there, she studied under the renowned stage director Lloyd Richards, who cast her in the Broadway productions of two August Wilson plays: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner'sCome and Gone.
Film Career
Despite her early success on stage, Bassett had to work hard to break through the stereotypical roles usually assigned to African American women on screen. Her first role was a bit part in the cult favorite, F/X (1986). In 1991, she had a key role in the seminal anti-gang film, Boyz 'N the Hood. A year later, she landed the role of Katherine Jackson, mother of the Jackson Five singing group, in The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992). Bassett continued her stream of strong female roles by portraying Betty Shabazz in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992) with Denzel Washington in the title role. She turned in an outstanding performance in her breakthrough role as Tina Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It? (1993), earning an Academy Award nomination for best actress.
Bassett costarred with Whitney Houston in the adaptation of Terry McMillan's Waiting To Exhale in 1995. In 1998, she headlined another McMillan adaptation, How Stella Got Her Groove Back. In Jodie Foster's extraterrestrial-encounter film, Contact (1997), Bassett portrayed a top-level presidential advisor.Back on stage, Basett played Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Hamlet, costarring Alec Baldwin, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York City in 1998.
Recent Projects
A versatile performer, Bassett has continued to tackle a diverse mix of projects. She shared the stage with her husband Courtney B. Vance in a regional production of His Girl Friday in 2005. The pair also appeared together in the final season of the hit television drama ER from 2008 to 2009.
On the big screen, Bassett starred in 2006's Akeelah and the Bee with Keke Palmer and Laurence Fishburne. She plays the mother of an inner city spelling whiz who tries for a national championship.
Bassett went on to play the mother of slain rapper Christopher "Biggie" Wallace in 2009's biopic Notorious. In 2011, she had several films, including the wedding comedy Jump the Broom and comic book adaptation Green Lantern.
Bassett co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson on Broadway in The Mountaintop. In the drama,Personal Life she played a maid who spends time with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. before his assassination. On the small screen, she will play King's widow, Coretta Scott King, in the upcoming television movie Betty & Coretta. Mary J. Blige co-stars as Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X.
Bassett is married to actor Courtney B. Vance. They wed on October 12, 1997. The couple welcomed twins in 2006. Son Slater and daughter Bronwyn were delivered by a surrogate.
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