Biography for
Angela Bassett More at IMDb Pro »

Date of Birth

16 August 1958, New York, New York, USA

Birth Name

Angela Evelyn Bassett

Estatura

5' 4" (1.63 m)

Mini Biography

Born in New York City, she grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. Pushed by a high school teacher, she applied for Yale and got a scholarship, ultimately spending 7 years there including 3 post-grad years studying drama. She first appeared in a small role in the cult favorite F/X (1986), but it was not until 1990 that a spate of TV roles brought her notice. Her breakthrough role, though, was playing Tina Turner, whom she had never seen perform before taking the role.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Dan Hartung

Mini Biography

Captivating, gifted, and sensational, Angela Bassett's presence has been felt in theaters, stages, and television screens throughout the world. A native of New York City, New York, Bassett & her sister D'nette grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida with their mother Betty. As a single mother & social worker, Betty stressed the importance of education for her children.

With the assistance of an academic scholarship, Bassett matriculated into Yale University. She received her B.A. in African-American studies from Yale in 1980.

In 1983, she earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Yale School of Drama. It was at Yale that Bassett met her husband, Courtney B. Vance, an '86 graduate of the Drama school.

Soon after graduating from Yale, Bassett appeared in her first film Doubletake (1985) (TV). However she is more recognized for her role in the F/X (1986) series.

It wasn't until 1993 that she earned widespread recognition for her portrayal of Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). Bassett's performance garnered a Golden Globe for Best Actress as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Bassett currently resides with her husband in California.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Mykwain A. Gainey

Esposo/a

Courtney B. Vance

(12 October 1997 - present) 2 children

Trivialidades

Engaged to Courtney B. Vance. [1997]

Bassett has built her career around playing some of the most celebrated real-life, pioneering black women of the twentieth century. She was Oscar-nominated and won both the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy/Musical and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture for her star-making performance as Tina Turner/Anna Mae Bullock in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). She won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her work as the late-Dr. Betty Shabazz (widow of the slain civil rights pioneer Malcolm X) in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992). She would later play Dr. Shabazz in a cameo appearance in Mario Van Peebles' Panther (1995). She delivered the only three-dimensional performance in the 1992 ABC miniseries about The Jackson Five and their family, The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992) (TV). In 1999, she played Janet Williams--the principal of the school where Roberta Guaspari taught in Music of the Heart (1999). She was also in the running to play Dorothy Dandridge, until Halle Berry beat her to the punch with HBO's Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) (TV). Her first and only Emmy nomination to date was for her lead role in The Rosa Parks Story (2002) (TV).

She was once employed as a photo researcher at U.S. News & World Report magazine.

In 1974 she began to consider acting as a career choice after an 11th-grade class trip to Washington, DC during which she saw actor James Earl Jones perform in a Kennedy Center production of the play "Of Mice and Men".

Turned down the role of Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball (2001) because she did not want to perform nude.

Won the 2002 Lena Horne Award for Outstanding Career Achievements in the Field of Entertainment.

Measurements: 34B-25-37 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Played Muslim activist Betty Shabazz in two different movies: Malcolm X (1992) and Panther (1995).

Graduated from Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport, Florida, Class of 1976.

Born on the same day as Madonna.

As of 2005, she is the first and only African American recipient of the Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993).

Graduated from Yale with a B.A. in African-American studies (1980)

Graduated from Yale drama school with a Master of Fine Arts Degree (1983)

Angela and her husband, Courtney B. Vance, became the parents of twins, Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, on January 27, 2006 in California through a surrogate.

Her performance as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) (1993) was ranked at #95 on Premiere Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Film Performances of all time.

Is one of only 7 African-American actresses to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination. The others in chronological order are: Dorothy Dandridge, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Whoopi Goldberg and Halle Berry.

In 1993, she and Jenifer Lewis played daughter and mother in the movie What's Love Got To Do With It, which earned her an Oscar nomination and a golden globe. Nearly fifteen years later, they both teamed up with Oscar nominee Margaret Avery in Meet the Browns, in which Bassett and Lewis played sisters.

Bassett's line "Right here! Right now!" from Strange Days was sampled as the only 'lyrics' used repeatedly in the song 'Right Here, Right Now' by Fatboy Slim, his best known song.

Salario

The Score (2001)	$3,500,000.00
Supernova (2000/I)	$3,500,000.00
Waiting to Exhale (1995)	$2,500,000
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)	$250,000.00

Where Are They Now

(July 2005) Starring with her husband, Courtney B. Vance, in John Guare's rendition of "His Girl Friday" at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN.

(December 2006) Release of the book, "Friends: A Love Story" by Angela and her husband, Courtney B. Vance.

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