Actress Angela Bassett has won many nominations for "Best Actress" awards, but took home the gold on Jan. 22, 1994 when she won the Golden Globe 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 actresses, including Anjelica Huston, Stockard Channing, Diane Keaton and Meg Ryan. That same year, she also received an Academy Award nomination for the role, but did not win.

Bassett, who grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, 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 that included a visit to the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts. She went on earn an undergraduate degree in Afro-American studies at Yale University and an M.F.A. at its prestigious drama school. While earning her graduate degree, Bassett performed in two August Wilson plays: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

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

She and husband Courtney B. Vance, also an actor, are the parents of twins, son Slater and daughter Bronwyn.

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 (Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage)