Photo credits: Golden Globes (c) HFPA and Touchstone Pictures

Actress Angela Bassett (pictured) has won many nominations for “Best Actress” awards.

However, the A-list thespian took home a big prize on January 22, 1994. On that day, the stunning performer won a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a motion picture, comedy or musical — for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It.

Bassett bested an impressive group of Hollywood actresses, including Anjelica Huston, Stockard Channing, Diane Keaton and Meg Ryan. That same year, Bassett also received an Academy Award nomination for the same role she won her Golden Globe for.

However, she did not win on Oscar night. Nonetheless, Bassett’s 1994 feat was still a success.

Bassett grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was inspired to act after seeing James Earl Jones’ performance in the classic Of Mice and Men during a high school trip to the nation’s capital.

This trip included a visit to the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts. She went on earn an undergraduate degree in Afro-American studies at Yale University. She earned an M.F.A. at its prestigious Ivy League drama school.

While earning her graduate degree, Bassett performed in two August Wilson plays, which were titled Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.

Breaking into film was not easy for the legendary actress. But she ultimately scored major roles playing iconic African-American women, including Katherine Jackson, Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz.

Basset and her husband Courtney B. Vance, who acts as well, are the parents of twins, son Slater and daughter Bronwyn (Jones 2014).

Reference: Jones, J. (2014, January 22) This Day in Black History: Jan. 22, 1994. Retrieved from https://www.bet.com/news/national/2014/01/22/this-day-in-black-history-jan-22-1994.html

*BlackThen.com writer and historian Victor Trammell edited and contributed to this report.