A tribute to all the actors and actresses who have brought legends back to life through films.
1. Usher
Usher will play famed boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.
2. Alexandra Shipp
Alexandra played Aaliyah in the Lifetime biopic about her life.
3. Mo’Nique
According to reports, Mo’Nique has officially signed on with HBO for a film about Bessie Smith. She was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She passed away at age 43 from injuries sustained in an auto accident.
4. Toni Braxton
OWN announced that Toni Braxton is set to star as Darlene Love in the network’s first scripted TV film “My Name is Love: The Darlene Love Story.”
5. Idris Elba
Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in Mandela
6. Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson as Winnie Mandela in Winnie
7. Will Smith
Will Smith as Muhammad Ali in Ali
8. Beyonce
Beyonce as Etta James in Cadillac Records
9. Andre 3000
Andre 3000 as Jimi Hendrix
10. Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone
11. Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It and Coretta Scott King in Coretta and Betty.
12. Chadwick Boseman
Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson in 42 and James Brown
13. Charlayne Woodard
Charlayne Woodard as Gail Devers in Run for the Dream: The Gail Devers Story
14. Cuba Gooding Jr.
Cuba Gooding Jr. as Ben Carson and James Robert Kennedy
15. Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomn Northrup in 12 Years A Slave
16. Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington as Steve Biko in Biko and Malcolm X
17. Derek Luke
Derek Luke as Antwone Fisher
18. Dorian Harewood
Dorian Harewood as Jesse Owens The Jesse Owens Story
19. Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker as Eugene Allen in The Butler
20. Imani Hakim
Imani Hakim as Gabby Douglas (ages 14-16) in The Gabby Douglas Story
21. Halle Berry
Halle Berry as Dorothy Dandridge
22. Jamal Woolard
Jamal Woolard as Christopher “Biggie” Wallace in Notorious
23. Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray
24. Jeffrey Wright
Jeffrey Wright as Martin Luther King, Jr.
25. Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne as Hannibal Lee in The Tuskegee Airmen
26. Lynn Whitfield
Lynn Whitfield as Josephine Baker in the Josephine Baker Story
27. Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige as Betty Shabazz in Coretta and Betty
28. Michael B. Jordan
Michael B. Jordan as Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station
29. Quinton Aaron
Quinton Aaron in the Blind SIde
30. Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson as Ken Carter in Coach Carter
31. Shirley Jo Finney
Shirley Jo Finney as Wilma Rudolph in Wilma
32. Sydney Mikayla
Sydney Mikayla as Gabby Douglas (age: 7-12) in The Gabby Douglas Story
33. Terrence Howard
Terrence Howard as James ‘Jim’ Ellis in Pride
34. Diana Ross
Diana Ross as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues
