Actress Angela Bassett

Twenty years ago, Angela Bassett was an unknown actress with only walk-on parts to her credit. Now she's one of the most accomplished actresses in Hollywood today.



Though she played Malcolm X's wife Betty Shabazz in Spike Lee's 1992 biopic on the black nationalist leader, her starmaking role was playing Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic What's Love Got To Do With It?

She's appeared in non-biopic films as well - everything from Waiting To Exhale to Akeelah and the Bee - and she currently plays Dr. Cate Banfield in what will be the final season of the long-running hospital TV Series "ER."