Angela Bassett

Bassett is currently starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson in the Broadway premiere of Katori Hall’s Olivier Award-winning play “Mountaintop,” a gripping reimagining of events the night before the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In February 2012 Bassett will be seen in the McG-helmed film This Means War for 20th Century Fox. Bassett joins Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, and Reese Witherspoon in the action/romantic comedy in the vein of Mr. and Mrs. Smith about two best friends and international spies who fall in love with the same woman, and, in declaring war on each other, nearly fail to defeat a dangerous arms deal out to steal a nuke. Bassett is playing “Collins,” boss to Pine’s and Hardy’s characters who has dedicated her entire life to the spy business.

Bassett most recently appeared in Green Lantern opposite Ryan Reynolds, Peter Sarsgaard, and Tim Robbins, and Jumping the Broom with Paula Patton. She is perhaps best known for her intense portrayal of Tina Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It, for which she earned a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture, and an Academy Award nomination for her powerful performance. She has also starred in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Waiting to Exhale, Malcolm X, and the television movie The Rosa Parks Story, among numerous others.

Along with her husband, actor Courtney B. Vance, Angela Bassett co-wrote the book, Friends: A Love Story. The inspirational book is the real-life love story of Bassett and Vance, who were friends for many years before marrying. They have also formed Bassett/Vance Productions and their first venture, United States, marks Bassett’s directorial debut; it is based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. Read Less ^