Angela Bassett as Rita Veder
Maximillian is the only survivor from a race of vampires on a Caribbean Island, and as a vampire, he must find a mate to keep the line from ending. He knows that a child had been born to a woman who had a vampire father, and he searches for her in Brooklyn. Rita's mother, who has died in an asylum, was that woman and Rita has nightmares that she does not understand. Not knowing that she is part vampire, Max woos her and attempts to bring her to her blood sucking destiny. Even though Rita has strange dreams and actions, Justice, her partner, has feelings for her and does not want her involved with this stranger Max. But it is Rita who must decide her destiny.
Biography for Angela Bassett
Date of birth
16 August 1958
New York, New York, USA
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Born in New York City, she grew up in St. Pete. Pushed by a high school teacher, she applied for Yale and got a scholarship, ultimately spending 7 years there including 3 post-grad years studying drama. She first appeared in a small role in the cult favorite F/X, but it was not until 1990 that a spate of TV roles brought her notice. Her breakthrough role, though, was playing Tina Turner whom she had never seen perform before taking the role.
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Trivia
Bassett has built her career around playing some of the most celebrated real-life, pioneering black women of the twentieth century. She was Oscar-nominated and won both the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy/Musical and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture for her star-making performance as Tina Turner/Anna Mae Bullock in What's Love Got To Do With It (1993). She won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her work as the late-Dr. Betty Shabazz (widow of the slain civil rights pioneer Malcolm X) in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992). She would later play Dr. Shabazz in a cameo appearance in Mario Van Peebles' Panther (1995). She delivered the only three-dimensional performance in the 1992 ABC miniseries about The Jackson Five and their family, Jacksons: An American Dream, The (1992) (TV). In 1999, she played Janet Williams--the principal of the school where Roberta Guaspari taught in Music of The Heart (1999). She was also in the running to play Dorothy Dandridge, until Halle Berry beat her to the punch with the HBO telefilm, "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge".
She was once employed as a photo researcher at U.S. News & World Report magazine.
In 1974 she began to consider acting as a career choice after an 11th-grade class trip to Washington, DC during which she saw actor James Earl Jones perform in a Kennedy Center production of the play "Of Mice and Men".
Attended Yale.
Shares the same date of birth as Madonna, 16 August 1958.
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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
After working her way up from bits to supporting roles in films, Bassett landed the lead as soul singer Tina Turner in the biopic What's Love Got to Do With It (1993), and scored a knockout with her electric, and totally credible, performance. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Bassett worked on Broadway and put in her time on a TV soap opera before winning small parts in films like F/X (1986), Kindergarten Cop (1990), and the John Sayles films City of Hope (1991) and Passion Fish (1992). Meatier roles finally came her way in Boyz N the Hood (1991, opposite her What's Love Got to Do With It costar Laurence Fishburne) and Malcolm X (1992, as Betty Shabazz, the black leader's wife). She also impressed as Michael Jackson's mom Katherine in the TV miniseries "The Jacksons: An American Dream" (1992), but it was the Tina Turner movie that propelled Bassett to the brink of stardom and an Oscar nomination.
Rosa Parks (2002) (TV) .... Rosa Parks
Sunshine State (2001)
Ruby's Bucket of Blood (2001) (TV) .... Ruby Delacroix
Score, The (2001) .... Diane
Boesman and Lena (2000) .... Lena
... aka Boesman & Lena (2001) (France)
Whispers: An Elephant's Tale (2000) (voice) .... Groove
Supernova (2000/I) .... Kaela Evers
Our Friend, Martin (1999) (V) (voice) .... Miles' Mom
Music of the Heart (1999) .... Janet Williams
"Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery" (1998) (mini) TV Series .... Narrator
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1998) .... Herself
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) .... Stella Payne
Contact (1997) .... Rachel Constantine
Waiting to Exhale (1995) .... Bernadine 'Bernie' Harris
Strange Days (1995) .... Lornette 'Mace' Mason
Panther (1995) .... Betty Shabazz
Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) .... Rita Veder
"Century of Women, A" (1994) (mini) TV Series (voice)
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) .... Tina Turner
Locked Up: A Mother's Rage (1992) (TV) .... Willie
... aka Other Side of Love (1992) (TV)
Malcolm X (1992) .... Betty Shabazz
Jacksons: An American Dream, The (1992) (TV) .... Katherine Jackson
Innocent Blood (1992) .... U.S. Attorney Sinclair
... aka French Vampire in America, A (1992)
Passion Fish (1992) .... Dawn/Rhonda
Critters 4 (1991) (V) .... Fran
One Special Victory (1991) (TV)
City of Hope (1991) .... Reesha
Heroes of Desert Storm, The (1991) (TV) .... Lieutenant Jeter
Fire! Trapped on the 37th Floor (1991) (TV) .... Allison
Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story (1991) (TV) .... Pat
... aka Blind Hate (1991) (TV)
Boyz N the Hood (1991) .... Reva Devereaux
... aka Boys in the Hood (1991)
Kindergarten Cop (1990) .... Stewardess
In the Best Interest of the Child (1990) (TV) .... Lori
Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer (1990) (TV) .... Carla Peters
Challenger (1990) (TV) .... Cheryl McNair
Family of Spies (1990) (TV) .... Bev Andress
Liberty (1986) (TV) .... Linda Thornton
F/X (1986) .... T.V. Reporter
... aka F/X - Murder by Illusion (1986)
... aka Murder by Illusion (1986)
Doubletake (1985) (TV) .... Prostitute at Headquarters