Date of Birth: December 28, 1954
Place of Birth: Mt. Vernon, NY, USA
Sign: Sun in Capricorn, Moon in Aquarius
Relations: Father: Denzel Washington (preacher); mother: Lennis Washinton (beautician); wife: Paulette Pearson; kids: John David, Katia, Malcolm and Olivia (twins)
Education: Fordham University
EQUALLY LAUDED BY by co-stars and audiences, Denzel Washington personifies integrity on screen as well as in his personal and professional life. One almost pines for Denzel role that is just the least bit dastardly, not to mention smarmy or depraved. We must, alas, content ourselves with humility and honor--so far.
Denzel's rise to movie star status followed six years of integrity as Dr. Phillip Chandler on the critically acclaimed NBC hospital drama St. Elsewhere. He began his film career with a critically acclaimed performance as the outspoken recruit in Norman Jewison's A Soldier's Story, re-creating the role that he had originated in the stage version, A Soldier's Play. The movie role that established him as a viable big screen property was as a Civil War soldier in director Ed Zwick's historical drama Glory (1989), for which he won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor.
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 BA 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 making 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’s 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 Lee’s films, playing a jazz trumpeter in Mo' Better Blues (1990), the title role in the 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.
Movies:
2000 Remember the Titans
1999 The Bone Collector
1999 The Hurricane
1998 The Siege
1998 He Got Game
1998 Fallen
1996 The Preacher's Wife
1996 Courage Under Fire
1995 Virtuosity
1995 Devil In a Blue Dress
1995 The Crimson Tide
1993 The Pelican Brief
1993 Much Ado About Nothing
1993 Philadelphia
1992 Mississippi Masala
1992 Malcom X
1991 Ricochet
1990 Mo' Better Blues
1990 Heart Condition
1989 For Queen and Country
1989 The Mighty Quinn
1989 Glory
1987 Cry Freedom
1986 Power
1984 A Soldier's Story
1981 Carbon Copy
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
