The shallow ones remember her breasts, very much on display during the pivotal sex scene between her widowed waitress and Billy Bob Thornton’s bigoted former death row prison guard who presided over her husband’s execution.

After years of slog playing sexy sidekicks, Berry was finally given the chance to prove she could act, delivering a raw, fierce, flinty performance of unbridled honesty.

Intensely moving, she bagged herself an Oscar and a place on the A-list – a position she did her best to squander with a one-two sucker punch of Gothika and Catwoman.

Greatest Moment: Grief-stricken at the hospital, having just lost her son.