Angela Bassett Movies
A respected actress of the stage, screen, and television, Angela Bassett has been one of the few African-American actresses to break Hollywood's color boundary. She has specialized in playing strong women familiar with adversity and has worked in genres from "chick flick" (Waiting to Exhale) to sci-fi action (Strange Days) to biography (What's Love Got to Do with It?), the last of which featured her in a star-making performance as Tina Turner.Born in New York City on August 16, 1958, Bassett was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida by her mother. Growing up in a household where money was tight, she was taught determination and independence. These values were called into service after an eleventh grade Upward Bound trip to Washington, D.C., when Bassett saw James Earl Jones in a Kennedy Center production of Of Mice and Men. Deciding that acting was her calling, she became involved in a number of local productions in St. Petersburg. She continued to act at Yale University, where she earned a scholarship; after completing a B.A. in African-American studies, she also spent three years at the Yale School of Drama. One of Bassett's mentors at Yale was the drama school's dean, stage director Lloyd Richards, who was so impressed with her talent that he cast her in two of his productions, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Although she enjoyed relative success on the stage, Bassett, like other African-American actors, had a difficult time finding roles in television and film.
In 1986, Bassett made her screen debut in the cult favorite F/X. Following supporting roles in Kindergarten Cop (1990) and John Sayles' City of Hope (1991), she had her first significant screen role in John Singleton's acclaimed Boyz 'N the Hood, playing a struggling single mother. Two years later, after playing the wife of civil rights leader Malcolm X in Spike Lee's biopic and the Jackson Family matriarch in the made-for-TV The Jacksons: An American Dream, Bassett had her screen breakthrough as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It?, a performance that earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe.
As her newfound status allowed her to expand her range of work, Bassett went on to star in a series of diverse films. In 1995, a foray into futuristic action in Strange Days was complemented by a lead in the successful women's ensemble drama Waiting to Exhale (based on the novel by Terry McMillan), in which Bassett starred alongside Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon, and Loretta Devine. In 1998, she starred as the title character in another McMillan adaptation, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, playing a divorcee whose discontent is ably assuaged by a hunky twenty-year-old (Taye Diggs). The following year, she had a supporting role in Music of the Heart and again tried her hand at action in Supernova, a sci-fi thriller. Starring in former Orson Welles collaborator and blacklisted director John Berry's critically panned swansong Boesman and Lena in 2000, Bassett (along with co-star Danny Glover) earned praise for their sensitive performances as a troubled South African couple striving to seek stability in the face of Apartheid.
Since 1997, Bassett has been married to actor Courtney B. Vance, whom she had known since their days at Yale. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Despite its late start in January of 2005 after a hiatus of eight months, the fourth season of Alias more than made up for lost time with a plethora of trials, tribulations, jaw-dropping revelations, big-time betrayals, and near-death experiences for the series' secret-agent heroine, Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner). Reeling from the disillusionment and embarrassment of her demotion, Sydney quits the CIA flat; however, it turns out that this is part of a master plan hatched by new CIA director Hayden Chase (Angela Bassett) to arrange Sydney's membership in Authorized Personnel Only (APO), a top-top secret black-ops organization. Sydney's co-workers at APO include several longtime associates: her father, Jack (Victor Garber); her partner and sometime lover, Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan); her steadfast previous partner Dixon (Carl Lumbly) -- and, much to our heroine's surprise, her duplicitous ex-chief, Sloane (Ron Rifkin), who has proven time and again that he can't be trusted. For her first APO assignment, Sydney is sent to Rio, where she has a fateful encounter with her latest adversary, Tamasaki (Rick Yune), a self-styled 21st century samurai. Previously a recurring character, Sydney's half-sister, Nadia Santos (Mía Maestro), becomes a full regular this season, the better to throw a monkey wrench into Sydney's volatile relationship with her father, Jack -- and to share with Jack a startling secret about Sydney's supposedly dead, supposedly traitorous mother. At the same time, Vaughn has a great deal of difficulty overcoming the treachery of his former wife, Lauren, and an equal amount of difficulty assimilating new and disturbing information about his own father. Major developments this season include a huge revival of interest in the Rambaldi code, which when broken may spell the doom of humankind; the surprising temporary recruitment of another of Sydney's longtime enemies, Julian Sark (David Anders), for a special APO mission; a grim prognostication that Sydney and Nadia are destined to duke it out to the death; and the resurrection of a long-presumed-dead central character, who will reveal anew to Sydney that she can never completely rely upon anyone or believe in anything, not even the evidence of her own eyes. Though the season ends with the good news that Sydney and Vaughn are engaged, any hopes for lasting happiness are dashed by still another shocking revelation -- and a spectacular car crash. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Garner, Victor Garber, (more)
- 2002
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Among the tasks undertaken by the WPA's Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s was to transcribe the memories of those former African-American slaves who were still living. The result was a massive collection of notes, documents, and recordings, all of which found their way into the Library of Congress. Co-produced by the Library and the HBO cable channel, Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives features a truly impressive array of black actors and actresses verbally recreating the reminiscences of those who lived under the yoke of slavery. The performers themselves appeared in modern dress, standing before a neutral background as they read from the transcripts, while directors Ed Bell and Thomas Lennon complemented the words with vivid and disturbing images culled from contemporary photographs of the years 1850-1935. Tied in with a traveling museum exhibit of photos and recordings, Unchained Memories was telecast during Black History Month, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Angela Bassett plays the title role in this meticulously detailed biography of pioneering civil rights activist Rosa McCauley Parks. Even as a child, Rosa stands separate from her fellow African-Americans; instead of being shipped off to a shabby public school, she is enrolled in a private classroom run by Quakers, who encourage the girl to transcend the severe limitations of legalized segregation in her home state of Alabama. In her late teens, Rosa marries barber Raymond Parks (Peter Francis James), a politically savvy and outspoken proponent of equal rights for all. For many years suffering in silence as the iniquities of the South's Jim Crow laws consign her to second-class-citizen status, Rosa finally joins the local branch of the NAACP with the encouragement of her childhood friend Rebecca "Johnnie" Carr (Tonea Stewart) -- much to the dismay of husband Raymond, who feels that the organization is ineffective in its ongoing battle against the white power structure. Rosa's personal struggle against institutionalized racism reaches its zenith on the night of December 1, 1955, when, bone-weary after a long day's work as a seamstress at a Montgomery department store, she refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white man -- and is promptly arrested. Thus are the wheels set in motion for the first major Civil Rights demonstration of the 1950s, with Rosa rising to heroic status in the eyes of her people, an event that also profoundly alters the life of local religious leader Martin Luther King Jr. (played by the Reverend's son, Dexter Scott King). Mostly filmed on location in Alabama, The Rosa Parks Story features Cicely Tyson as Rosa's strong-willed mother Leona and Mrs. Parks' longtime friend Rebecca Daniels Carr in a cameo role. The film was shown as part of CBS' celebration of Black History Month on February 24, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Bassett, Peter Francis James, (more)
Our America is the story of LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman two inner-city Chicago teenagers who eloquently distilled their lives on the Mean Streets into an award-winning Public Radio documentary (and later, a book) titled Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago. When a local NPR broadcaster conducts a search for "two young, intelligent African Americans to be on the radio", Jones (played by Roderick Pannell) and Newman (Brandon Hammond) smooth-talk their way into the offices of radio producer David Isay (Josh Charles), and as a result both young men are hired as reporters. For the next week, LeAlan and Lloyd amble through the Projects, tape recorders in hand, the better to assemble a "sound portrait" of their 'hood. But with the resultant success and fame, Jones and Newman must suffer the admonitions and threats of their neighbors, who feel that the two have sold out to "Whitey" and are exploiting their own people. Things come to a startling climax when, in the course of their investigative reporting, LeAlan and Lloyd put their lives on the line to tell the whole story of a 4-year-old boy who was tossed from a 14th story window to his death by a rampaging gang. Our America made its Showtime cable network debut on July 28, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josh Charles, Vanessa A. Williams, (more)
Angela Bassett stars in this powerful drama set in the Deep South in the early '60s. Ruby Delacroix (Bassett) operates a rough-and-tumble night spot in Louisiana. Between running her business, raising a teenage daughter, and trying to keep tabs on her unfaithful husband, Ruby's life hardly needs any more excitement. However, temptation presents itself in the form of Billy (Kevin Anderson), a white singer who is booked into the club. Ruby and Billy fall into a passionate affair, which proves to be a dangerous thing in the desegregated South. Produced for the Showtime premium cable network, Ruby's Bucket of Blood also features Glenn Plummer, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Jurnee Smollett. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Bassett, Kevin Anderson, (more)
Angela Bassett and Danny Glover star in this gripping film adaptation of Athol Fugard's renowned play. Though written during the apex of apartheid and first staged in 1970, director John Berry downplays the work's historical background and strips the play of its poetic symbolism, lending the film a raw, universal quality. The film opens with stock footage of shantytowns being flattened by bulldozers followed by the two titular characters carrying what they can on their backs and heads. Recalling the tortured human bonds seen in such productions as Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf? and Waiting for Godot, Boesman (Glover) and Lena (Bassett) are a couple united by pain and grief. Stopping at some god-forsaken roadside wasteland for the night, Lena spends much of the first half of the film heaping verbal abuse on her husband, while Boesman doggedly tries to jerry-rig some shelter to protect against the cold of the night. This dynamic changes went an elderly African tribesman shows up. Boesman scorns the old man, while Lena invites him to sit at their campfire. This film, which was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, was the last film that noted director John Berry made before his death on November 29, 1999. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Bassett, Danny Glover, (more)
- 1998
Experience the frenzied decades leading up to the Civil War (1831-1865) and the bitter fight over slavery. This fourth and final volume of the Africans in America series revisits the famous lives and writings of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Tubman, Dred Scott, and John Brown, as well as rediscovering some lost stories and historical figures. Judgment Day tells of the harsh realities of life on one Georgia plantation, Butler Island, through the eyes of a British actress and abolitionist who married the estate's owner and later published her journals condemning the squalid conditions there. The film also describes "the Weeping Time," Pierce Butler's unprecedented two-day auction of all of his "movable property"; the sale ripped apart slave families in order to pay off Butler's gambling debts and finance a trip to Europe. Slave narratives and life on the Underground Railroad are discussed, along with the West's growing identity and appeals for statehood -- events which fanned the flames of conflict between abolitionists, Northern racists, and slavery's apologists in the South. Eventually, of course, this discord broke out into civil war; this final volume of the series ends with an examination of the battles, political maneuvers, and reluctant righteousness that ultimately dealt slavery its fatal blows yet left an enduring legacy of mistrust and inequality. A landmark series; ideal for educational use. ~ Sarah Welsh, All Movie Guide
- 1998
In the years between 1791 and 1831, with the United States newly independent, the Enlightenment spirit of equality and freedom stood directly at odds with the demands of economic expediency. The invention of the cotton gin caused an insatiable demand for cheap labor and led to an ever more vocal proslavery constituency, but abolitionism was also beginning to catch on. Volume Three of WGBH's Africans in America series looks at this tempestuous era through the lives of the dynamic men and women who fought either to maintain or to revolutionize their way of life. The booming urban environment of Philadelphia is covered extensively, including the growth of a black middle class, Absalom Jones' and Richard Allen's Free African Society, the Yellow Fever epidemic, female activism, Benjamin Franklin's involvement with the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and the proposal by some to create a free black homeland back in Africa. The slave revolt in Haiti and several organized rebellions in America are also discussed. ~ Sarah Welsh, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Volume Two of this landmark television series covers the period of 1750 to 1805, exploring the experience of second-generation slavery in the midst of revolution. Born in the tobacco fields and farms of North America rather than in Africa, the new generation's identity and sense of community was defined by the realities of life in the New World. Slaves bore biblical names, visited Christian churches, and, despite their subhuman status, developed an attachment to the only country they had ever known. This documentary tells their story (including figures such as Crispus Attucks), and it also tells the real stories of the revolutionary heroes you might have thought you knew: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other writers of a Constitution that protected slavery. See how moral ambivalence, paradoxical philosophies, and broken promises of "freedom for all" impacted the lives of African-Americans and influenced the fate of the young United States. Features first-person narratives from Abigail Adams and Phyllis Wheatley, and a modern-day perspective from General Colin Powell. ~ Sarah Welsh, All Movie Guide
- 1998
An historical event in itself, this ambitious documentary series from WGBH Boston reexamines the institutions and personal narratives behind America's heritage of slavery, disclosing and inviting viewers to face the undeniable truths they might not have learned in school, truths that still influence life in America. Volume One covers the period from 1450 to 1750: the origins of indentured servitude in Europe, the Portuguese search for gold in Africa and subsequent capture of African laborers, and the growth of the Caribbean and North American colonies. The title, The Terrible Transformation, refers to several concurrent transformations in America, including the slow, deliberate process in which indentured servants became slaves for life, the transformation of free colonies into slave states, and the loss of hope among Africans who began to realize that their children would inherit the scourge of slavery. Finally, this documentary covers the history of preexisting forms of "slavery" in Africa, the Middle Passage in which half of the human cargo perished, the bondage of European laborers in the New World, and the economic realities that fostered the slave system. Africans in America relies heavily on rare images and first-person accounts for its startling revelations and dramatic reenactments. It also features modern perspectives and interpretations by prominent cultural and academic figures, including John Edgar Wideman, Barry Unsworth, and Colin Powell. Ideal for educational use. ~ Sarah Welsh, All Movie Guide
- 1995
In addition to promoting reading for children, the Reading Rainbow series frequently addresses contemporary sociological and cultural issues in a manner that young viewers can understand. The featured book in this episode, The Wonderful Towers of Watts, written by Patricia Zelver and read by Angela Bassett, provides information on the construction of the Los Angeles works of art. Viewers get a close-up look at the towers when host LeVar Burton travels to Watts to discuss the community with some of its citizens. In the book review segment, youngsters analyze The Car Washing Street and Night on Neighborhood Street. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- LeVar Burton
- 1992
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A two-part made for TV effort, this special depicts the dysfunctional Jackson family, which has somehow managed to raise its children in such a way that they have managed to rise above their steel town backgrounds to the tops of the charts in the music field. Though obviously not delving into the more controversial and sensational aspects of their lives, this story is a somewhat rose-colored but still interesting pictorial history of the exceptional musical family. If nothing else, worth watching for the incredible music and choreography. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Angela Bassett, (more)
- 1991
Complete with real ABC News footage shot in Iraq, this made-for-TV film chronicles the lives of a group of American soldiers battling in the Persian Gulf War. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Bassett, Daniel Baldwin, (more)
- 1991
When a self-involved real estate agent is given fifty hours of community service to do by a judge, he becomes the coach for a basketball team of developmentally challenged adults. In trying to teach them, he learns. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Larroquette, Kathy Baker, (more)
- 1991
The whole story is in the title of this made-for-TV heartstopper. Based on a true 1988 incident, the film details the breakout of a fire in a Los Angeles high-rise. The LA fire department does what it can, but their ladder equipment falls short of the 37-story requirement. Lee Majors, Lisa Hartman and Peter Scolari comprise the all-TV star cast of this Towering Inferno clone (which improves upon its role model): Majors is the LAFD supervisor, while Hartman and Scolari are the unlucky entrapped office workers. The focal point of Fire! Trapped on the 37th Floor is not the conflagration itself but the resourcefulness of the professional firefighters and the improvisational skill with which they utilize their equipment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Majors, Lisa Hartman, (more)
- 1991
When a woman is falsely convicted for selling drugs, she asks her sister to raise her young children in this true story. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1991
Corbin Bernsen, fresh out of LA Law, plays a real-life attorney in Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story. As Dees, Bernsen goes head to head with the Ku Klux Klan in the Alabama of the 1980s. Despite having his name included on the "hit list" of every wacko white supremacist in the Nation, Dees manages to break the back of the KKK is his own particular corner of the world. Line of Fire is elaborately produced and hits all the right emotional buttons, but falls short of perfection thanks to stereotypical villains and excessive melodrama. The film was first telecast on Martin Luther King Day in 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
In the Best Interest of the Child was not based on a true story. That's the official line adopted by producer Robert A. Papazian, even though the plot of this made-for-TV movie would seem to be inspired by the exploits of the real-life Dr. Elizabeth Morgan. True or no, there's plenty of conviction in this story of a young woman (Meg Tilly) who risks imprisonment for the sake of her daughter. Having learned that her ex-husband is molesting the child, Ms. Tilly "kidnaps" the girl and heads off to parts unknown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meg Tilly, Ed Begley, Jr., (more)
- 1990
Made for television, The Challenger is at once a tribute and a eulogy to the seven courageous souls who perished when the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986. Though all of the crew members are given three-dimensional, balanced treatment, the one we all remember is schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. As played by Karen Allen, McAuliffe is neither superwoman nor saint: just an average human being with an insatiable thirst to learn more about the universe around her. The other members of the ill-fated crew are Cmdr. Francis R. Scobee (Barry Bostwick), Captain Michael J. Smith (Brian Kerwin), Dr. Judith A. Resnik (Julie Fulton), Lt. Col. Ellison Onizuka (Keone Young), Dr. Ronald E. McNair (Joe Morton) and Gregory B. Jarvis (Richard Jenkins). Wisely, the film concentrates on the crew's training, ending before the tragic real-life denoument. Filmed on location at the Johnson Space Center, the 3-hour The Challenger was originally telecast February 25, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Allen, Barry Bostwick, (more)
- 1990
In this entry in the long-running mystery series, Perry Mason represents a former student who is accused of murdering a singing star. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1990
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The true story of American turncoat John Walker, Jr. is related blow-by-blow in this made-for-TV movie. Powers Boothe stars as Walker, a Navy petty officer who spends half of his career selling secrets to the Soviets. At first the soul of discretion, the hard-drinking, philandering Walker eventually becomes careless enough in his activities to arouse the suspicions of his in-the-dark wife Barbara (Lesley Ann Warren). With the skill and aplomb of the true sociopath, Walker also manages to convince his own son (Andrew Lowry) to join the "family business." The spy ring is ultimately smashed through the joint efforts of the FBI and Walker's embittered ex-wife. Based on the books Family of Spies by Pete Earley and I Pledge Allegiance by Howard Blum, Family of Spies: The Walker Spy Ring was originally telecast in two parts on February 4 and 6, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
For the first time ever, Clair's all-female literary discussion club invites some men to attend. The only one who shows up is Cliff (Bill Cosby), whereupon Clair (Phylicia Rashad) worries that her husband will embarrass himself by exhibiting his ignorance of the book being discussed--but she's in for a big surprise. Meanwhile, the kids spend an eventful night in the shabby apartment of newlyweds Sondra (Sabrina LeBeauf) and Elvin (Geoffrey Owens). Featured among the book-club ladies are future stars Angela Bassett and S. Epatha Merkerson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Based on William Bayer's novel Switch, the made-for-TV Doubletake introduced Richard Crenna to his oft-played role of detective Frank Janek. As always, Janek is assigned to a particularly gruesome and profoundly puzzling murder case. A prim lady schoolteacher and a hooker are both killed on the same evening; their bodies are decapitated, and their heads are switched! The first installment of this two-part movie details the early stages of the investigation, as well as the growing relationship between Janek and photographer Caroline Wallace (Beverly D'Angelo), the daughter of a cop who'd died in a mob hit. Part two reveals the "dark side" of the case, exposing corruption in the highest police circles and implicating someone very close to Janek in the double murder. Doubletake was originally telecast on November 24 and 26, 1985, and has since been reissued as a single three-hour film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
