Recently, when Viola Davis walked onstage at the 89th Academy Awards to accept her award for Best Supporting Actress, she also got positioned into one of the most prestigious acting clubs in the world. She became the first Black woman to win an Oscar®, Emmy ® and Tony® for acting.
B.B. King, born Riley B. King, was one of the most influential and celebrated blues musicians of all time. From his roots as a sharecropper’s son, working in the cotton fields of Mississippi, he rose to become a living legend — the most renowned blues singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer of the past 40 years — earning the moniker ‘King of the Blues’. King’s story of struggle and triumph is chronicled in American Masters: B.B. King: The Life of Riley, premiering nationwide during Black History Month on Friday, February 12 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listing). Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman narrates and appears in the film.