Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American
actor,
screenwriter,
director and
film producer. He has garnered much critical acclaim for his work in film since the 1990s, including for his portrayals of real-life figures, such as
Steve Biko,
Malcolm X,
Rubin Carter,
Melvin B. Tolson,
Frank Lucas and
Herman Boone.
Washington has been awarded three
Golden Globe awards and two
Academy Awards for his work. He is notable as the second
African American man (after
Sidney Poitier) to win the
Academy Award for Best Actor, which he received for his role in the 2001 film
Training Day.
[(April 4, 2002). "Halle Berry, Denzel Washington get historic wins at Oscars. Jet. Digital version retrieved March 17, 2008.]
Early life
Denzel Washington was born in
Mount Vernon, near
New York City, in 1954. His mother, Lennis "Lynne", was a
beauty parlor-owner and operator born in
Georgia and partly raised in
Harlem. His father, Reverend Denzel Washington, Sr., was an ordained
Pentecostal minister and also worked for the Water Department and at a local department store, "S. Klein".
[Denzel Washington Biography (1954-)]
Washington attended grammar school at
Pennington-Grimes Elementary School in Mount Vernon, and in 1968, at the age of 14, he was sent to a private preparatory school,
Oakland Military Academy, in
New Windsor in New York State, followed by
Mainland High School, a public high school in
Daytona Beach,
Florida, from 1970-71.
Washington was interested in attending
Texas Tech University: "I grew up in the
Boys Club in Mount Vernon, and we were the Red Raiders. So when I was in high school, I wanted to go to Texas Tech in
Lubbock just because they were called the
Red Raiders and their uniforms looked like ours."
Nevertheless, Washington earned a
B.A. in
Drama and
Journalism from
Fordham University in 1977. At Fordham, he played
collegiate basketball as a Freshman
guard[SPURS COACH STICKS NECK OUT FOR CARLESIMO] under coach
P. J. Carlesimo.
[PRO BASKETBALL: NOTEBOOK; Chicago's Jordan-Jackson-Pippen Triangle, page 2] After a period of bouncing from major to major and briefly dropping out of school for a semester, Washington worked as a counselor at an overnight summer camp called Camp Sloane YMCA in Lakeville CT. After participating in a staff talent show for the campers, a colleague suggested he try acting. Returning to Fordham that fall with a renewed purpose and focus, he enrolled at the Lincoln Center campus to study acting, snagging the title character in both
Eugene O'Neill's
The Emperor Jones, and
William Shakespeare's
Othello, where he earned rave reviews. Upon graduation, he was given a scholarship to attend graduate school at the prestigious
American Conservatory Theatre in
San Francisco, where he stayed for one year before deciding to return to New York to begin a professional acting career.
Career
Early career
[
]]]
Washington spent the summer of 1976 in Southern Maryland, in St. Mary's City, acting
summer stock theater in the
Wings of the Morning, the Maryland State play. Shortly after graduating from Fordham, Washington made his professional acting debut in the 1977
made-for-television movie
Wilma. He made his film debut in the 1981 film
Carbon Copy.
His big break came when he starred in the popular television hospital drama,
St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988. He was one of a few actors to appear on the series for its entire six-year run. In 1987, after appearing in several minor television, film and stage roles, Washington starred as South African Anti-Apartheid political activist Steve Biko in
Richard Attenborough's
Cry Freedom, a role for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1989, Washington won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing a defiant, self-possessed ex-slave in the film
Glory. Also that same year, he gave a powerful performance as the conflicted and disillusioned Reuben James, a Caribbean-born British soldier who, despite a distinguished military career abroad, turns to a life of vigilantism and violence upon his return to civilian life in
For Queen and Country.
1990s
In March, 1990 he starred in the
Spike Lee movie
Mo' Better Blues as Bleek Gilliam. In the Summer of 1992 he starred in a movie called
Mississippi Masala where he played the character Demetrius Williams. Washington played one of his most critically acclaimed roles in
1992's Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee. His performance as the
Black Nationalist leader earned him an
Oscar nomination. Both the influential film critic
Roger Ebert and the highly acclaimed film director
Martin Scorsese called the movie one of the ten best films made during the 1990s.
Malcolm X transformed Washington's career, turning him, practically overnight, into one of
Hollywood's most respected actors. He turned down several similar roles, such as an offer to play
Martin Luther King, Jr., because he wanted to avoid being typecast. The next year, in 1993, he took another risk in his career by playing Joe Miller, the homophobic lawyer of a homosexual man with
AIDS in the movie
Philadelphia starring
Tom Hanks. During the early and mid 1990s, Washington became a renowned Hollywood leading man, starring in several successful thrillers, including
The Pelican Brief and
Crimson Tide, as well as in comedy
Much Ado About Nothing and alongside legendary singer
Whitney Houston in the romantic drama
The Preacher's Wife.
While filming the 1995 film
Virtuosity, Washington refused to kiss his white female co-star,
Kelly Lynch, during a romantic scene between their characters. During an interview, Lynch stated that while she wanted to, "Denzel felt very strongly about it. I felt there is no problem with interracial romance. But Denzel felt strongly that the white males, who were the target audience of this movie, would not want to see him kiss a white woman." Lynch further stated, "That's a shame. I feel badly about it. I keep thinking that the world's changed, but it hasn't changed quick enough."
[Quotes from Jet magazine, 1995] A similar situation occurred during the filming of
The Pelican Brief when
Julia Roberts expressed in an interview her desire to have her character in the film engaged in a romantic relationship with Washington's character.
In 1999, Washington starred in
The Hurricane, a movie about
boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, whose conviction for triple murder was overturned after he had spent almost 20 years in prison. Various newspaper articles have suggested that the controversy over the film's accuracy may have cost Washington the Oscar for which he was nominated. Washington did receive a
Golden Globe Award in 2000 and a 'Silberner Bär' (Silver Berlin Bear) at the
Berlin International Film Festival for the role.
He also presented the
Arthur Ashe ESPY Award to
Loretta Claiborne for her courage. He appeared as himself in the end of
The Loretta Claiborne Story movie. Washington has been cited as an example of human
physical attractiveness due to the
symmetry of his facial features.
[ Excerpted by ]2000s
In 2000, Washington appeared in the
Disney film,
Remember the Titans, which grossed over $100 million at the
United States box office. He was nominated and won an
Oscar for Best Actor for his next film, the 2001 cop thriller,
Training Day, as Det. Alonzo Harris, a rogue LAPD cop with questionable law-enforcement tactics. The role was a much-acclaimed change-of-pace for the actor, who was known for playing many heroic leads. Washington was the second African-American performer ever to win an
Academy Award in the category of Best Actor (for
Training Day), the first being
Sidney Poitier, who happened to receive an
Honorary Academy Award the same night that Washington won for Best Actor. Washington holds the record for most Oscar nominations by an actor of African descent; so far he has earned five.
After appearing in 2002's box office success, the
health care-themed
John Q., Washington directed his first film, a well-reviewed drama called
Antwone Fisher, in which he also co-starred.
Between 2003 and 2004, Washington appeared in a series of thrillers that performed generally well at the box office, including
Out of Time,
Man on Fire, and
The Manchurian Candidate.
In 2006 he starred in
Inside Man, a
Spike Lee-directed bank heist thriller co-starring
Jodie Foster and
Clive Owen, and
Déjà Vu released in November 2006.
In 2007, he co-starred with
Russell Crowe in
American Gangster. Later, Denzel directed and starred in the drama
The Great Debaters with
Forest Whitaker. Washington next appeared as New York City subway security chief Walter Garber in
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a remake of the '70s thriller,
The Taking of Pelham One, Two Three, opposite
John Travolta and directed by
Tony Scott; the film opened in June 2009.
Return to theater
In 2005, after a 15-year hiatus (he was seen last in the summer of 1990 in the title role of the
Public Theater's production of
Shakespeare's Richard III), Washington appeared onstage again in another Shakespeare play as Marcus Brutus in
Julius Caesar on
Broadway. The production's limited run was a consistent sell-out, averaging over 100% attendance capacity nightly despite receiving mixed reviews.
["A Big-Name Brutus in a Caldron of Chaos", by Ben Brantley, The New York Times, April 4, 2005.]
Upcoming projects
Washington is attached to star as
CIA intelligence officer Brandon Scofield in the film adaptation of
Robert Ludlum's
Cold War spy thriller
The Matarese Circle, and in February 2009, he will begin filming
The Book of Eli, a post-Apocalyptic drama set in the near future.
Washington is set to star as an veteran
railroad engineer in the action film,
Unstoppable, which is about an unmanned, half-mile-long runaway freight train that is carrying dangerous liquids and poisonous gases that is set to wipe out a city, and an engineer and a young train conductor on another freight train must find a way to stop it. The film will be directed by Tony Scott and it will be the fifth collaboration between the two. Previous films include
Crimson Tide (1995),
Man on Fire (2004),
Déjà Vu (2006) and
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009).
Chris Pine is in talks to join Washington and Scott as a young train conductor who also helps the engineer to stop the train. Production is set to begin in the Fall of 2009.
Personal life
In 1983, Washington married actress
Pauletta Pearson (now Pauletta Washington), whom he met on the set of his first screen role,
Wilma. The couple have four children:
John David (b. July 28, 1984), who signed a
football contract with the
St. Louis Rams in May 2006 after playing college football at
Morehouse;
Katia (b. November 1987), who is attending
Yale University, and twins Olivia and Malcolm (named in honor of Malcolm X)
[www.imdb.com/name/nm0000243/bio](b. April 10, 1991). In 1995, the couple renewed their wedding vows in
South Africa with
Archbishop Desmond Tutu officiating.
Washington and his family visited soldiers at the
Brooke Army Medical Center in
San Antonio, Texas. He later made a sizable donation to the Fisher Houses, small hotels that provide rooms for soldiers' families while the soldiers are hospitalized. In October 2006, he published a bestseller entitled
A Hand to Guide Me, featuring actors, politicians, athletes, and other public figures recalling their childhood mentors. The book was published in commemoration of the Boys and Girls Club of America's centennial anniversary, because Washington had participated in the club as a child.
Washington is a devout Christian.
He attends the same church as actress
Angela Bassett at LA's West Angeles
Church of God in Christ.
The
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia named Washington as one of three people (the others being directors
Oliver Stone and
Michael Moore) with whom they were willing to negotiate for the release of three
defense contractors that the group had held captive from 2003 to 2008.
On May 18, 1991, Washington was awarded an honorary doctorate from his
alma mater,
Fordham University, for having "impressively succeeded in exploring the edge of his multifaceted talent".
He also was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities from
Morehouse College on May 20, 2007.
Filmography
