Page
1
of 1

Denzel Washington Biography

(1954–)

Video & Images

Watch Denzel Washington Videos

Related Works

Films
1981 A Carbon Copy
1984 A Soldier's Story
1986 Hard Lessons

1986 Power
1987 Cry Freedom
1989 The Mighty Quinn
1989 For Queen and Country
1989 Glory
1990 Heart Condition
1990 Mo' Better Blues
1991 Ricochet
1992 Mississippi Masala
1992 Malcolm X
1993 Much Ado About Nothing
1993 The Pelican Brief
1993 Philadelphia
1995 Crimson Tide
1995 Virtuosity
1995 Devil In A Blue Dress
1996 Courage Under fire
1996 The Preacher's Wife
1998 Fallen
1998 He Got Game
1998 The Siege
1999 The Bone Collector
1999 The Hurricane
2000 Remember the Titans
2001 Training Day
2002 John Q
2002 Antwone Fisher
2003 Out of Time
2004 Man On Fire
2004 The Manchurian Candidate
2006 Inside Man
2006 Déjà Vu
2007 American Gangster
2007 The Great Debaters
2009 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Theatre
1980 One Tiger To A Hill
1981 A Soldier's Play
1988 Checkmates
1989 A Soldier's Play
Selected Television
1977 Wilma
1979 Flesh & Blood
1982–8 St Elsewhere
1986 The George McKenna Story

» More

Related People

Russell Crowe

» More

Related Sites

Actor, director. Born Denzel Jermaine Washington, Jr. on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York, where the Boys & Girls Club would help keep him out of trouble. When he was 14, his parents' marriage broke down and he and his older sister were sent away to boarding school.

Washington went to Fordham University to study journalism. But when he got the acting bug, Washington won a scholarship to the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and afterwards worked with the Shakespeare in the Park ensemble.

Washington made his feature film debut in the comedy A Carbon Copy (1981). He also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions and in television movies before being cast in a starring role in the hit television medical drama St Elsewhere (1982–88).

Washington grabbed his first of five Oscar nominations for Cry Freedom (1987) as real-life South African apartheid martyr Steve Biko. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Glory (1989).

Washington proved time and again he could disappear into a role and mesmerize audiences.

He appeared in several notable films throughout the 1990s, including his first of four Spike Lee collaborations Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992) in another Oscar-nominated performance, Philadelphia (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Courage Under Fire (1996) and The Hurricane (1999), for which he received a Golden Globe for Best Actor and another Oscar nomination.

In 2001, he received his second Oscar (this time in a leading role) for the cop thriller Training Day. The following year, he directed his first film, the drama Antwone Fisher, in which he also co-starred.

Several blockbusters followed, including Man on Fire (2004), The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and Spike Lee's Inside Man (2006). He also starred as Frank Lucas, a real-life heroin kingpin from Harlem, in the 2007 film American Gangster, opposite Russell Crowe. In 2009, Washington starred as MTA Dispatcher Walter Garber in the remake of the classic film The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

Denzel Washington married actress Pauletta Pearson in 1983; they have four children. Their oldest son, John David, was drafted in 2006 by the NFL's St. Louis Rams. Their other children are daughter Katia, who attends Yale University and twins Olivia and Malcolm.