Denzel Washington (born December 28, 1954, Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.) is an American actor celebrated for his engaging and powerful performances. Throughout his career he has been regularly praised by critics, and his consistent success at the box office helped to dispel the outdated perception that African American actors could not draw mainstream white audiences.
Early life and education
Washington is named after his father, who was a Pentecostal minister in the Church of God in Christ, Inc. His mother, Lennis Washington, was a beautician who owned and operated several salons. His parents divorced when he was 14 years old, and his mother sent him to a military boarding school in upstate New York for high school.
Washington enrolled at Fordham University, initially as a premed major but changed his focus to journalism before deciding to join the theater program, where he had lead roles in student productions of The Emperor Jones and Othello. After graduating with a B.A. in 1977, Washington pursued further acting studies at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where he stayed for a year before moving back to New York City. He had several successful stage performances in these years, most notably in A Soldier’s Play, for which he shared an Obie Award for distinguished ensemble performance in 1982.
First years in Hollywood
Washington’s first film roles were in the TV movies Wilma (1977) and Flesh & Blood (1979). His regular screen debut was in the comedy Carbon Copy (1981). He first began to receive national attention for his work as Dr. Phillip Chandler on the popular television drama St. Elsewhere (1982–88). For the film Cry Freedom (1987), he portrayed South African activist Stephen Biko, and he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. Two years later he won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance as a formerly enslaved man fighting in the Union army in the American Civil War film Glory (1989).
Washington’s astonishing skill and range as an actor and his popular appeal as a leading man were firmly established in the 1990s. He gave memorable performances in the romantic comedy Mississippi Masala (1991), the Shakespearean comedy Much Ado About Nothing (1993), alongside Tom Hanks in the courtroom drama Philadelphia (1993), the hard-boiled mystery Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), and the military thriller Crimson Tide (1995). The latter was the first of several popular movies he made with director Tony Scott.
