One of Hollywood's hottest leading
men, Denzel Washington is an actor whose poise and sexy intelligence permeate
whatever film he is in, be it socially conscious drama, comedy, or suspense
thriller.
The son of a Pentecostal minister and a hairdresser,
Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York on December 28, 1954. His
parents' professions shaped Washington's early ambition to go into show
business: from his minister father he learned the power of performance,
while hours spent in his mother's salon listening to stories gave him
a love of storytelling. Unfortunately, when Washington was fourteen, his
parents' marriage took a turn for the worse, and he and his older sister
were sent away to boarding school so that they would not be exposed to
their parents' eventual divorce.
Washington went on to college, attaining a B.A. in Journalism from Fordham
University in 1977. He still found time to pursue his interest in acting,
and after graduation he went to San Francisco, where he won a scholarship
to the American Conservatory Theatre. Washington stayed with the ACT for
a year, and, after his time there, he began acting in various television
movies and made his film debut in the 1981 Carbon Copy. Although he had
a starring role as the illegitimate son of a rich white man, Washington
didn't find real recognition until he joined the cast of the long-running
TV series St. Elsewhere in 1982. He won critical raves and audience adoration
for his portrayal of Dr. Phillip Chandler, and he began to attract Hollywood
notice. In 1987, he starred as anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Richard
Attenborough's Cry Freedom, and his powerful performance earned him a
Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.
Two years later, Washington won that award for his turn as an embittered
yet courageous runaway slave in the Civil War drama Glory. The honor effectively
put him on the Hollywood A-List, a place Washington managed to retain
even as he appeared in films of wildly varying quality over the subsequent
years. Some of his more notable work came from his collaboration with
director Spike Lee; over the course of the 1990s, Washington starred in
three of his films, playing a jazz trumpeter in Mo' Better Blues (1990),
the title role in Lee's epic 1992 biopic Malcolm X (for which he received
a Best Actor Oscar nomination), and the convict father of a high school
basketball star in He Got Game (1998).
Washington also turned in powerful performances in a number of other films,
such as Mississippi Masala (1991), in which he played a man in love with
an Indian woman; Philadelphia (1993), in which he portrayed a homophobic
lawyer who takes on the cause of an AIDS-stricken man (Tom Hanks); and
Devil in a Blue Dress (1994), which cast him as a 1940s private detective.
Washington also proved himself believable as an action star, with the
success of such thrillers as The Pelican Brief (1993), Crimson Tide (1995),
and The Siege (1998) attesting to his capabilities. In 1999, Washington
starred in another thriller, The Bone Collector, playing a paralyzed forensics
expert who joins forces with a young policewoman (Angelina Jolie) to track
down a serial killer. That same year, he starred in the title role of
Norman Jewison's The Hurricane. Based on the true story of a boxer wrongly
accused of murdering three people in 1966, the film featured stellar work
by Washington as the wronged man, further demonstrating his remarkable
capacity for telling a good story. His performance earned him a number
of honors, including a Best Actor Golden Globe and a Best Actor Oscar
nomination.
After giving another strong performance as a high school football coach
in Boaz Yakin's Remember the Titans, Washington went against type to play
a corrupt policeman in Training Day, Antoine Fuqua's gritty cop drama.
Washington surprised both audiences and critics with his change of direction,
although more than a few noted this change of direction made him a more
compelling screen presence than ever in addition to earning him an Oscar
for Best Actor. ~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide
Filmography
People Like Us: Making 'Philadelphia'
(2003) (V) (archive footage) .... Himself
Out of Time (2003) .... Marty Walsh
Behind the Scenes of 'John Q' (2002) (V) .... Himself
Antwone Fisher (2002) .... Jerome Davenport
AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Tom Hanks (2002) (TV) .... Himself
Shirtless: Hollywood's Sexiest Men (2002) (TV) (uncredited) (archive footage)
.... Himself
74th Annual Academy Awards, The (2002) (TV) .... Himself (winner, Best
Actor)
John Q (2002) .... John Quincy Archibald
... aka John Q. (2002) (USA: poster title)
E! Rank: 25 Toughest Stars (2001) (TV) .... Himself/#12
Training Day (2001) .... Detective Alonzo Harris
Bamboozled (2000) (archive footage) (uncredited) .... Malcolm X
Remember the Titans (2000) .... Coach Herman Boone
Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light (2000) (TV) (uncredited) .... Himself
... aka American Masters: Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light (2000) (TV)
(USA: series title)
Hurricane, The (1999) .... Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter
Bone Collector, The (1999) .... Lincoln Rhyme
Straight from the Streets (1998) (V)
Siege, The (1998) .... Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard, Assistant Special Agent-in-charge
FBI Counter-intelligence Task Force
He Got Game (1998) .... Jake Shuttlesworth
70th Annual Academy Awards, The (1998) (TV) (uncredited) .... Himself
(Past Oscar Winner Tribute Sequence)
Fallen (1998) .... John Hobbes
Mother Goose: A Rappin' and Rhymin' Special (1997) (TV) (voice) .... Humpty
Dumpty/The Crooked Man
27th NAACP Image Awards (1996) (TV) .... Himself/Host
Preacher's Wife, The (1996) .... Dudley 'Dud'
Courage Under Fire (1996) .... Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling
"Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child" (1995) TV
Series (voice) .... Humpty Dumpty
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) .... Ezekiel 'Easy' Rawlins
... aka Diable en robe bleue, Le (1995)
Virtuosity (1995) .... Lieutenant Parker Barnes
Crimson Tide (1995) .... Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter, Executive Officer
USS Alabama
Century of Cinema, A (1994) .... Himself
1993 MTV Movie Awards (1993) (TV) .... Himself/Presenter
Philadelphia (1993) .... Joe Miller
Pelican Brief, The (1993) .... Gray Grantham, Reporter Washington Herald
Much Ado About Nothing (1993) .... Don Pedro of Aragon
65th Annual Academy Awards, The (1993) (TV) (uncredited) .... Himself
American Film Institute Salute to Sidney Poitier, The (1992) (TV) ....
Himself
Malcolm X (1992) .... Malcolm X/Malcolm Little
Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II (1992) (TV) (voice)
.... Narrator
Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway (1992) (TV) .... Narrator
Ricochet (1991) .... Nick Styles
Mississippi Masala (1991) .... Demetrius
63rd Annual Academy Awards, The (1991) (TV) (uncredited) .... Himself
Motown 30: What's Goin' On! (1990) (TV) .... Himself
Mo' Better Blues (1990) .... Bleek Gilliam
Heart Condition (1990) .... Napoleon Stone
Glory (1989) .... Pvt. Trip
For Queen and Country (1989) .... Reuben James
Mighty Quinn, The (1989) .... Xavier Quinn
Cry Freedom (1987) .... Steve Biko
19th Annual NAACP Image Awards (1986) (TV) .... Himself/Host
George McKenna Story, The (1986) (TV) .... George McKenna
... aka Hard Lessons (2002) (TV) (USA: video title)
Power (1986) .... Arnold Billing, Billing Associates President
Soldier's Story, A (1984) .... Pfc. Peterson
License to Kill (1984) (TV) .... Martin Sawyer
"St. Elsewhere" (1982) TV Series .... Dr. Philip Chandler
Carbon Copy (1981) .... Roger Porter
Flesh & Blood (1979) (TV) .... Kirk
Wilma (1977) (TV) .... Robert Eldridge, age 18
