Women We Love: Angela Bassett

Although she made notable appearances in such films as Boyz N the Hood, City of Hope and Passion Fish, it was when she started portraying real life figures that we really started to notice Angela Bassett.

In 1992, she played both the mother of Michael Jackson (in the TV movie The Jacksons: An American Dream) and the wife of Malcolm X. The following year she strutted her stuff (in every sense of that phrase) as the ultimate rock survivor, Tina Turner (another Woman We Love) in the musical biopic What's Love Got To Do With It. As Turner, Bassett ran the gamut of emotions from naive country girl to humiliated victim to triumphant diva, and we were with her every high-heeled step of the way.

She followed up that Oscar nominated, Golden Globe winning role with her fierce performance as the ultimate woman scorned in Waiting to Exhale and then showed us all How Stella Got Her Groove Back (opposite the delectable Taye Diggs). A string of strong supporting turns was next (Music of the Heart, The Score, Sunshine State), and she played another historical icon in the award-winning TV movie, The Rosa Parks Story.

Roles for so-called "mature" actresses are rare in Hollywood (at least in the movies), and those for women of color even more so, but Bassett consistently delivers in whatever part she plays, no matter the size.

Links via Imdb.com and LATimes.com.