Denzel Washington

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• Born: 28 December 1954
• Birthplace: Mt. Vernon, New York
• Best Known As: Star of Malcolm X and Training Day

Denzel Washington won an Oscar as best actor for his role as a rogue cop in the 2001 film Training Day. It was his second Academy Award; he also won in 1989 as best supporting actor for the Civil War film Glory. Washington got his early break on TV, playing Dr. Phillip Chandler in the television drama St. Elsewhere (1982-88). He received critical praise for his role in the movie A Soldier's Story (1984), and was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for Cry Freedom (1987). Washington worked steadily throughout the 1990s in big-budget thrillers, comedies and dramas, including Philadelphia (1993, with Tom Hanks), Crimson Tide (1995, opposite Gene Hackman) and The Preacher's Wife (1996, with Whitney Houston). His portrayal of boxer Ruben Carter earned him another Oscar nomination for the movie The Hurricane (1999).

Washington was the first African-American to win a best actor Oscar since Sidney Poitier in 1963... 2002 was the first year that African-Americans won both the best actor and best actress Oscars; Washington won for Training Day and Halle Berry won for her role in Monster's Ball... Washington has collaborated several times with director Spike Lee; their films together include Mo' Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992, based on the life of civil rights leader Malcolm X) and He Got Game (1998)... His son, John David "J.D." Washington, was a football star at Morehouse College and plays for NFL Europa's Hamburg Sea Devils.

• Born: Dec 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York
• Occupation: Actor, Director
• Active: '80s-2000s
• Major Genres: Drama, Thriller
• Career Highlights: A Soldier's Story, Glory, He Got Game
• First Major Screen Credit: Carbon Copy (1981)

Biography

One of Hollywood's sexiest and most magnetic leading men, Denzel Washington's poise and radiantly sane intelligence permeate whatever film he is in, be it a socially conscious drama, biopic, or suspense thriller. More importantly, Washington's efforts, alongside those of director Spike Lee, have done much to dramatically expand the range of dramatic roles given to African-American actors and actresses.

The son of a Pentecostal minister and a hairdresser, Washington was born in Mount Vernon, NY, on December 28, 1954. His parents' professions shaped Washington's early ambition to launch himself into show business: from his minister father he learned the power of performance, while hours in his mother's salon (listening to stories) gave him a love of storytelling. Unfortunately, when Washington was 14, his folks' 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 later attended Fordham University, where he attained a B.A. in Journalism in 1977. He still found time to pursue his interest in acting, however, and after graduation he moved 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 John Falsey and Joshua Brand's 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 alongside Kevin Kline, and though the film itself alienated some critics (Pauline Kael called it "dumbfounding"), Washington's powerful performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.

Two years later, Washington netted another Best Supporting Actor nod -- and won the 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. 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), as a man in love with an Indian woman; Philadelphia (1993), as a slightly homophobic lawyer who takes on the cause of an AIDS-stricken litigator (Tom Hanks); and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), as a 1940s private detective, Easy Rawlins. Washington also reeled in large audiences in action roles, with the top box-office draw 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 another strong performance as a high-school football coach in Boaz Yakin's Remember the Titans, Washington cut dramatically against his "nice guy" typecast to play a corrupt policeman in Training Day, a gritty cop drama helmed by Antoine Fuqua. Washington surprised audiences and critics with his change of direction, but in the eyes of many, this change of direction made him a more compelling screen presence than ever before. (It also netted him an Oscar for Best Actor.)

2002 marked an uneven year for Washington. He joined the cast of Nick Cassavetes' absurd melodrama John Q., as a father so desperate to get medical attention for his ailing son that he holds an entire hospital hostage and contemplates killing himself to donate his own heart to the boy. Critics didn't buy the film; it struck all but the least-discriminating as a desperate attempt by Washington to bring credulity and respectability to a series of ludicrous, manipulative Hollywood contrivances. John Q. nonetheless performed healthily at the box (it grossed over a million dollars worldwide from a 36-million-dollar budget). That same fall, Washington received hearty praise for

his directorial and on-camera work in Antwone Fisher (2002), in which he played a concerned naval psychiatrist, and even more so for director Carl Franklin's 2003 crime thriller Out of Time. Somewhat reminiscent of his role in 1991's crime drama Ricochet, Out of Time casts Washington as an upstanding police officer framed for the murder of a prominent citizen.

In 2004, Washington teamed up with Jonathan Demme for the first occasion since 1993's Philadelphia, to star in the controversial remake of 1962's The Manchurian Candidate. Washington stars in the picture as soldier Bennett Marco (the role originally performed by Frank Sinatra), who, along with his platoon, is kidnapped and brainwashed during the first Gulf War. Later that year, Washington worked alongside Christopher Walken and Dakota Fanning in another hellraiser, director Tony Scott's Man on Fire, as a bodyguard who carves a bloody swath of vengeance, attempting to rescue a little girl kidnapped under his watch.

Washington made no major onscreen appearances in 2005 -- and indeed, kept his activity during 2006 and 2007 to an absolute minimum. In '06, he joined the cast of Spike Lee's thriller Inside Man as a detective assigned to thwart the machinations of a psychotically cunning burglar (Clive Owen). The film opened to spectacular reviews and box-office grosses in March 2006, keeping Washington on top of his game and bringing Lee (whose last major feature was the disappointing 2004 comedy She Hate Me) back to the pinnacle of success. That same year, Washington joined forces once again with Tony Scott in the sci-fi action hybrid Déjà Vu, as an ATF agent on the trail of a terrorist, who discovers a way to "bridge" the present to the past to view the details of a bomb plot that unfolded days earlier. The Scott film garnered a fair number of respectable reviews but ultimately divided critics. Déjà Vu bowed in the U.S. in late November 2006. Meanwhile, Washington signed on for another action thriller, entitled American Gangster -- this time under the aegis of Tony Scott's brother Ridley -- about a drug-dealing Mafioso who smuggles heroin into the U.S. in the corpses of deceased Vietnam veterans. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Man on Fire Buy this Movie	Out of Time Buy this Movie	John Q. Buy this Movie	Antwone Fisher Buy this Movie
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Personal Information

Born December 28, 1954, in Mt. Vernon, NY; son of a pentecostal minister and a beautician; married Pauletta Pearson (an actress), c. 1983; children: John David, Katia, Malcolm, and Olivia.
Education: Fordham University, B.A., ca. 1981.

Career

Actor in motion pictures, stage plays, and television dramas, 1981--. Television appearances include: Flesh and Blood, St. Elsewhere (as Dr. Phillip Chandler), c. 1982-87; License To Kill, The George McKenna Story, and Wilma. Stage appearances include: A Soldier's Play, Richard III, Othello, The Emperor Jones, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, When the Chickens Come Home To Roost, Coriolanus, Spell #7, The Mighty Gents, and Checkmates. Film appearances include: Carbon Copy, A Soldier's Story, Cry Freedom, Power, The Mighty Quinn, For Queen and Country, Glory, Mo' Better Blues, Heart Condition, Ricochet, Mississippi Masala, Malcolm X, Much Ado About Nothing, Philadelphia, The Pelican Brief, Crimson Tide, Virtuosity, Devil in a Blue Dress, Courage Under Fire, The Preacher's Wife; Fallen, The Siege, The Bone Collector, The Hurricane, Training Day, John Q., Antwone Fisher, Out of Time, Man on Fire, The Manchurian Candidate, Inside Man. Appeared in a Broadway production of Julius Caesar, 2005.

Life's Work

Denzel Washington describes himself as "that minority among minorities--a working black actor." Washington has forged a solid career with a string of highly regarded performances, most recently The Manchurian Candidate, a 2004 adaptation of the 1962 psychological and political thriller. Chicago Tribune correspondent Hilary de Vries wrote: "From his smoldering Private Peterson in 'A Soldier's Story' to the coolly understated Steve Biko in 'Cry Freedom' to the defiant Civil War infantryman Trip in 'Glory', Washington creates morally complex characters shaded by wit, intelligence and barely concealed anger." The critic added that Washington "is riding a series of cinematic successes that are not only buoying his own career but also helping shape the role of black Americans in Hollywood."

An actor blessed with good looks and a wide range of talent, Washington has chosen his roles with care. Washington Post contributor Donna Britt noted: "It's ironic that this man whose race almost certainly has diminished his opportunities as an actor has used his career to explore his blackness." Washington admits that he has felt stifled by the "role model" and "torch bearer" tags by which critics identify him, but at the same time he is a dedicated artist seeking to make an impression. "All I can do is play the part," he told the Washington Post. "I can't do [a] part for 40 million black people, or orange or green. On the other hand I'm not going to do anything to embarrass my people."

Denzel Washington was born late in 1954, the son of a Pentecostal minister and a gospel singer. He grew up right on the edge of the Bronx, in the middle class neighborhood of Mt. Vernon, New York. "My father was down on the movies, and his idea of something worthwhile would be 'The King of Kings', 'The Ten Commandments' and '101 Dalmatians'," the actor told the Chicago Tribune. "And I knew no actors. It's a wonder I ever went into acting." Washington was a good student as a youth, and he drew his friends from the melting pot of races that formed the Bronx. He described his childhood as "a good background for somebody in my business. My friends were West Indians, blacks, Irish, Italians, so I learned a lot of different cultures."

When Washington was 14, his parents divorced. The subject is still sensitive for him, although he remains on cordial terms with both his mother and his father. "I guess it made me angry," he told the Washington Post. "I went through a phase where I got into a lot of fights. Working it out, you know." A guidance counselor at his high school suggested that Washington apply to a private boarding school ("very rich and very white") in upstate New York. He did, and to his astonishment was accepted with a full scholarship. After graduating from that academy, he attended Fordham University in the Bronx, where he declared a pre-med major. In retrospect, Washington attributes his strong showing as a youngster to his mother's influence. "She was very, very tough, a tough disciplinarian," he told the Washington Post. "Even when I was 15 or 16, I had to be home by the time the street lights went on. She saw to it I was exposed to a lot of things. She couldn't afford it, but she was very intelligent. She is basically responsible for my success."

A longstanding membership in the YMCA also contributed to Washington's career choice. In college he drifted through several majors, including biology and journalism, and took an acting workshop "but underwent no great revelation." During the summer recess, however, he served as a counselor at a YMCA-sponsored camp. "I had grown up in the organization and had worked as a leader," he told the Chicago Tribune. "I organized a talent show, and someone told me, 'You seem real natural on the stage; did you ever think of becoming an actor?' Bing! That's all it took." When he returned to Fordham in the fall, he auditioned for the university's production of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, and won the part over a number of theater majors. He went on to star in several more dramas at Fordham, including Shakespeare's Othello.

Robinson Stone, a retired actor, was Washington's drama instructor at Fordham. Remembering his gifted student, Stone told the Chicago Tribune: "Oh, God, he was thrilling even then. Denzel was from the Bronx campus--not even a theater major--and he got the lead in the school production of Othello. He was easily the best Othello I had ever seen, and I had seen Paul Robeson play it. I remember Jose Ferrer came to look at it. He and I agreed that Denzel had a brilliant career ahead of him. He played Othello with so much majesty and beauty but also rage and hate that I dragged agents to come and see it."

The agents too were impressed. Even before Washington graduated from Fordham he was offered a small role in a television drama, Wilma, based on the life of runner Wilma Rudolph. After he earned his degree, Washington embarked on a hectic round of professional activities, including theater work, television, and films. Early in his career he appeared opposite George Segal in Carbon Copy, a comic movie, and he also took a role in the television mini-series Flesh and Blood. These parts introduced Washington to the Hollywood production companies, and he was cast as doctor Phillip Chandler in the television drama St. Elsewhere. Although he was not nearly as demanding about his St. Elsewhere character as he has since become, Washington was nevertheless able to infuse the role with non- stereotyped humanity. Washington Post writer Megan Rosenfeld concluded that the actor's five-year association with St. Elsewhere gained him "the kind of popular recognition that is both the boon and the curse of serious actors. Chandler is an intelligent and ambitious young man, portrayed not as a black paragon, but as a human being with all the flaws and problems of anyone else."

It was a stage role that assured Washington's success, however. Early in the 1980s he was cast in the pivotal role of Private Peterson in the drama A Soldier's Play. The part won Washington an Obie Award for his Off-Broadway performance, and he was invited to work as Peterson in the film version of the play. Washington took a break from St. Elsewhere to undertake the film role, and he was quite pleased when A Soldier's Story earned the respect of film critics worldwide. In A Soldier's Story, Washington turned in a memorable performance as the young private goaded to murder by an abusive drill sergeant. After viewing A Soldier's Story, Chicago Tribune correspondent Bob Thomas called Washington "one of the most versatile of the new acting generation."

The Hollywood establishment recognized that Denzel Washington possessed a near phenomenal potential. He was at once handsome, articulate, and dignified, and he appeared to be at ease in both comic and dramatic situations. Inevitably (and unfortunately), his race still restricted the number and size of roles he was offered. Even after he appeared in the Oscar-nominated role of activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom, he was still not considered a high-visibility star. As late as 1989 the actor told the Washington Post that he often found himself "waiting for an opportunity to come [my] way but realizing there's no group of people like [me] who are successful, who can give you the faith to say, 'Well, if I wait, it will come.' So you end up taking [roles] ... that are not necessarily the best, that aren't optimum."

One of the roles Washington did not consider "optimum" was that of the runaway slave Trip in the film Glory. The original script for Glory concentrated on the Civil War general, Robert Gould Shaw, who led the first black regiment into battle and died with them in an unsuccessful assault. At Washington's suggestion, the screenplay was significantly revised in order to explore the concerns of the black foot soldiers. Satisfied with the revisions, Washington accepted the part of Trip. He studied histories of the Civil War and of slavery in the South, learning enough to assure that both he and his character would be in a fit of controlled rage. "When we were making Glory," he told the Chicago Tribune, "people kept asking me, 'Why are you so angry?' I haven't been through anything like [slavery and soldiering], but I've read about it. I've studied the history, and that's enough to make you angry. How can I be 35 and never been taught about black soldiers being a part of the Civil War. That's something to ask: How can that happen?"

Washington's performance in Glory earned him an Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1990. It was his second nomination, but more importantly, it was only the fifth Oscar ever won by a black actor. After winning the prestigious award, Washington was finally able to secure leading-man roles in dramas, such as Malcolm X, Mo' Better Blues, Philadelphia, and The Pelican Brief and in comedies such as Heart Condition. Detroit Free Press movie critic Kathy Huffhines observed that Washington has "the knife's-edge intensity that makes quick, deep impressions. Usually, actors begin with comic, romantic or action roles, then move toward seriousness. Washington is taking that trip in reverse, keeping serious roles while trying to move toward romance, action and comedy." His work with Gene Hackman in the military thriller Crimson Tide in 1995 earned both Image and an MTV awards for Washington. Courage Under Fire in 1996, and The Siege in 1998 kept Washington in government and military personnel mode in terms of acting roles. In 1999 he explored a twist on the classic police detective by portraying Lincoln Rhyme, a paraplegic homicide detective. Washington's roles as a falsely imprisoned boxer in The Hurricane and as the coach of a racially divided high school football team added greater diversity to his film accomplishments as he approached the inevitable moment in 2002 when he received the Academy Award for best actor in a lead role for his portrayal of Detective Alonzo Harris in Training Day.

Washington has definitely made his mark on Hollywood. Commanding a hefty $10 million per film salary in 1999, a figure which doubled within two years. "Denzel is magnetic, he's a great actor, and women love him," Spike Lee told the Detroit Free Press. "Women love them some Denzel." But wife Pauletta isn't worried about anybody taking her husband. "Yes women come on to my husband," she said in Essence. "It's a natural thing for a woman to see a man in Denzel's position and want him. But it's also ridiculous because they don't know him. They know a character, an image, a movie star that they've made bigger than life. So it would be senseless for me to get upset when women flirt with my husband. I take it as a compliment, because I know he's with me," she added. In 2005, she and Washington were both awarded the BET Humanitarian Award.

In that same year, he also put his film career on hold temporarily to play Brutus in a Broadway production of Julius Caesar. Showing his desire to continually expand his abilities as an actor, Washington told Allison Samuels in Newsweek, "I guess I saw this as a way of redeveloping muscles I haven’t had to use in a while."

Washington is not particularly forthcoming about his private life, but his family is very important to him. In his rare moments of leisure he stays home, avoiding the celebrated Hollywood party circuit. In the Washington Post, the actor called his wife and three children "the base that keeps me solid." He added: "Acting is just a way of making a living. Family is life. When you experience a child, you know that's life." The actor scoffs at the "sexy" label despite persistent claims in the press. Acting, he said, enables him to explore the spiritual self, regardless of race or creed. "I enjoy acting," he told the Washington Post. "This is when I feel most natural. This is really my world. I was obviously destined to get into this, and I guess I have the equipment to do it."

Awards

Obie Award (with Adolph Caesar and Larry Riley), 1982, for A Soldier's Play; NAACP Image Award, 1988, for Cry Freedom; Golden Globe Award, 1989, and Academy Award, 1990, both for best supporting actor in Glory; NAACP Image Award, 2000, and Golden Globe, 2000, for The Hurricane; Image Award for outstanding actor in a motion picture, BET Award for best actor, all for Remember the Titans, all 2001; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for best actor, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for best actor, BSFC Award for best actor, MTV Movie Award for best villain, all for Training Day, all 2001; nominated for People's Choice Awards for favorite motion picture actor and for favorite motion picture star in a drama, 2001; AFI Film Award for male actor of the year, Academy Award for best actor in a leading role, Image Award for outstanding actor in a motion picture, all 2002, all for Training Day; People magazine, 50 most beautiful people, 2002; has also won two Best Actor Awards at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1993 and 2000, four Black Reel Awards, 2000-2003; Image Awards in 1988, 1992, 1994-1998, 2000-2003 ; BET Humanitarian Award (shared with his wife Pauletta), 2004.

Further Reading

Sources

• Boston Globe, February 1, 1990.
• Chicago Tribune, March 15, 1986; December 30, 1987; August 5, 1990.
• Detroit Free Press, July 29, 1990.
• Ebony, November 2005, p. 80; January 2005, p. 96.
• Entertainment Weekly, July 19, 1996.
• Essence, December, 1996.
• International Motion Picture Almanac, 1997.
• Newsweek, April 18, 2005, p. 52.
• New York Times Online, movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=288545, August 9, 2004.
• People, August 9, 2004, p. 71.
• Washington Post, September 18, 1985; August 25, 1989.

— Mark Kram

For more information on Denzel Washington, visit Britannica.com.

Quotes:

"I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me-spiritually and financially."

"A film is just like a muffin. You make it. You put it on the table. One person might say, Oh, I don't like it. One might say it's the best muffin ever made. One might say it's an awful muffin. It's hard for me to say. It's for me to make the muffin."

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