Angela Bassett - Black Actresses, Life Achievements and Personal Life

Angela Evelyn Bassett was born on August 16, 1958, in New York City, to Betty Jane and Daniel Benjamin Bassett. Her father was an electrician and her mother worked as a nurse's aide.

After her mother got pregnant again when she was only 10 months old, her parents sent her to Winston-Salem to live with her father's sister, Aunt Golden. Her parents separated soon after, and her mother took her and her younger sister, D'nette, to St. Petersburg, Florida, to live with her grandparents.

Angela used to go to the church on Sundays and was a part of the youth choir. She loved to listen to popular Motown hits on the radio, and her mother would often make her and her sister perform on the songs. Later, a lady in their neighborhood helped them in forming a dance group.

Her mother, who slacked off in high school, didn't want her children to suffer the same fate, and was extra cautious that they do well in school. Angela attended Boca Ciega High School, where she became a member of the Upward Bound program. She also participated in the debate team, student government, drama club and choir.

She received her bachelor's degree in African-American studies from Yale University in 1980. Three years later, she earned Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama.

Angela Bassett, who studied under renowned stage director Lloyd Richards, started her acting career on stage under his direction. She appeared in two August Wilson plays, 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' (1984) and 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone' (1986), at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Around the same time, she was featured in J. E. Franklin's 'Black Girl' at Second Stage Theatre.

She soon switched to TV and films, but initially she was mostly cast in stereotypical roles reserved for African-American women. Her first major role came in 1991 when she was cast in John Singleton's 'Boyz N The Hood'. Her friend Laurence Fishburne, who also acted in the movie, had recommended her for the role.

Bassett, who was a big 'Jackson 5' fan, was offered the role of Katherine Jackson in the mini-series 'The Jacksons: An American Dream' in 1992. She went on to play the role of Betty Shabazz in the biopic 'Malcolm X', which released in the same year. She would portray Betty Shabazz again in 'Panther', released in 1995.

In 1993, she got the breakthrough role of her career, playing Tina Turner in the biographical film 'What's Love Got to Do with It'. Her friend, Laurence Fishburne, who had previously turned down the role of Ike Turner five times, portrayed the character after Bassett was roped in to play the lead role.

In 1995 and 1998, she played major roles in two film adaptations of books by Terry McMillan, 'Waiting to Exhale' and 'How Stella Got Her Groove Back'. In the former, she worked alongside Whitney Houston, the most awarded female artist of all time.

Angela Bassett continued to appear on stage productions, working with her husband Courtney B. Vance in 'His Girl Friday' in 2005. The next year, she starred in another August Wilson play, 'Fences', alongside Fishburne.

In 2002, she played the protagonist in the biographical telefilm 'The Rosa Parks Story'. In 2006, she worked with Keke Palmer and Laurence Fishburne in the critically acclaimed movie 'Akeelah and the Bee'. She went on to appear in a major role in the 2009 biopic 'Notorious'.

On television, she made guest appearances in a number of shows, before being cast as Dr. Cate Banfield in the final season of the long-running medical drama 'ER' in 2008. More recently, she has appeared in four seasons of 'American Horror Story', earning a number of award nominations for her performance.

Angela Bassett is best known for portraying strong black women in a number of biographical films and TV series. She received much praise for playing Betty Shabazz in 'Malcolm X' and in 'Panther'. She charmed the audience with her portrayal of the titular character in the TV movie 'The Rosa Parks Story'.

'What's Love Got to Do with It' is her most critically acclaimed work so far and earned her a number of prestigious awards and nominations. The film boasts of a 96% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed nearly $40 million in the US.

For her portrayal of Tina Turner in the biopic 'What's Love Got to Do with It', Angela Bassett was nominated for the 'Academy Award' for 'Best Actress'. She has received a bunch of awards for this role, including the 'Golden Globe Award' for 'Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy'.

She has received three 'Primetime Emmy Awards' nominations so far, with two back-to-back nominations in 2014-15 for her role in the television series 'American Horror Story'. She also received two 'Screen Actors Guild Awards' nominations for 'Ruby's Bucket of Blood' and 'Betty and Coretta'.

In 1997, Angela Bassett married actor, Courtney B. Vance, whom she met while studying at Yale. After going through seven years of failed fertility treatments, the couple gave birth to twins Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah via a surrogate mother. The family currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

As a black woman, she considered it important for her to actively participate in politics during Barack Obama's reelection campaign in 2012. She also supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

When Angela Bassett was very young, most girls her age only had white dolls like Barbie. However, she loved the black dolls her Aunt Golden gave her after several companies started making black dolls following the release of the James Brown song 'Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud'.

She was injured during the filming of a domestic violence scene in 'What's Love Got to Do with It'. It was the same footage that was used in the movie.