Denzel Washington

Acting • Born 1954-12-28

Acting6Mount Vernon, New York, USA

Biography

Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, he is widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, with The New York Times declaring him the greatest actor of the 21st century in 2020. Over his career, he has received several accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. Washington has been honoured with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022. After training at the American Conservatory Theatre, Washington began his career in theatre, acting in performances off-Broadway. He first came to prominence in the NBC medical drama series St. Elsewhere (1982–1988) and in the war film A Soldier's Story (1984). He won two Academy Awards, his first for Best Supporting Actor for playing an American Civil War soldier in the war drama Glory (1989) and his second for Best Actor for playing a corrupt police officer in the crime thriller Training Day (2001). He was Oscar-nominated for his performances in Cry Freedom (1987), Malcolm X (1992), The Hurricane (1999), Flight (2012), Fences (2016), Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), and The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021). A prominent leading man, Washington also acted in Mo' Better Blues (1990), Mississippi Masala (1991), Philadelphia (1993), Courage Under Fire (1996), Remember the Titans (2000), Man on Fire (2004), Inside Man (2006), American Gangster (2007), and The Equalizer trilogy (2014–2023). Washington directed and starred in the films Antwone Fisher (2002), The Great Debaters (2007), and Fences (2016). On stage, he has acted in productions of both Coriolanus (1979) and The Tragedy of Richard III (1990) at the Public Theater. He made his Broadway debut in the Ron Milner play Checkmates (1988). He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as a disillusioned working-class father in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's play Fences (2010). He has also acted in the Broadway revivals of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (2005), Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (2014), and Eugene O'Neill's play The Iceman Cometh (2018).

Filmography

121 credits

Inside Man

Movie • 2006

Keith Frazier

Training Day

Movie • 2001

Alonzo

Out of Time

Movie • 2003

Matt Lee Whitlock

Malcolm X

Movie • 1992

Malcolm X

Remember the Titans

Movie • 2000

Coach Herman Boone

Courage Under Fire

Movie • 1996

Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling

The Hurricane

Movie • 1999

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter

The Book of Eli

Movie • 2010

Eli

American Gangster

Movie • 2007

Frank Lucas

The Mighty Quinn

Movie • 1989

Xavier Quinn

The Preacher's Wife

Movie • 1996

Dudley

Déjà Vu

Movie • 2006

Doug Carlin

John Q

Movie • 2002

John Quincy Archibald

Much Ado About Nothing

Movie • 1993

Don Pedro of Aragon

Devil in a Blue Dress

Movie • 1995

Easy Rawlins

Crimson Tide

Movie • 1995

Lt. Commander Ronald "Ron" Hunter

Fallen

Movie • 1998

John Hobbes

He Got Game

Movie • 1998

Jake Shuttlesworth

The Bone Collector

Movie • 1999

Lincoln Rhyme

Man on Fire

Movie • 2004

John W. Creasy

Virtuosity

Movie • 1995

Parker Barnes

Ricochet

Movie • 1991

Nick Styles

A Soldier's Story

Movie • 1984

Private First Class Peterson

The Pelican Brief

Movie • 1993

Gray Grantham

Philadelphia

Movie • 1993

Joe Miller

Cry Freedom

Movie • 1987

Steve Biko

Glory

Movie • 1989

Pvt. Trip

The Siege

Movie • 1998

Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard

Antwone Fisher

Movie • 2002

Dr. Jerome Davenport

Gladiator II

Movie • 2024

Macrinus

The Great Debaters

Movie • 2007

Melvin B. Tolson

The Manchurian Candidate

Movie • 2004

Major Bennett Ezekiel Marco

Mississippi Masala

Movie • 1991

Demetrius Williams

Heart Condition

Movie • 1990

Napoleon Stone

Mo' Better Blues

Movie • 1990

Bleek Gilliam

The George McKenna Story

Movie • 1988

George McKenna

For Queen & Country

Movie • 1988

Reuben

Unstoppable

Movie • 2010

Frank Barnes

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Movie • 2009

Walter Garber

Power

Movie • 1986

Arnold Billings

License to Kill

Movie • 1986

Martin Sawyer

The Equalizer 3

Movie • 2023

Robert McCall

Carbon Copy

Movie • 1981

Roger Porter

Safe House

Movie • 2012

Tobin Frost

The Equalizer

Movie • 2014

Robert McCall

2 Guns

Movie • 2013

Robert 'Bobby' Trench

Flight

Movie • 2012

Whip Whitaker

Highest 2 Lowest

Movie • 2025

David King

The Magnificent Seven

Movie • 2016

Sam Chisolm

The Equalizer 2

Movie • 2018

Robert McCall

Rabbit Ears - John Henry

Movie • 1990

Narrator (voice)

Rabbit Ears - Anansi

Movie • 1991

Narrator (voice)

Wilma

Movie • 1977

Robert Eldridge, age 18

Flesh & Blood

Movie • 1979

Kirk

Coriolanus

Movie • 1979

Roman Soldier / Volscian Soldier

Mother Goose: A Rappin' and Rhymin' Special

Movie • 1997

Humpty Dumpty / The Crooked Man (voice)

By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X'

Movie • 2005

Self

Sidney

Movie • 2022

Self

Giving Voice

Movie • 2020

Self

Fences

Movie • 2016

Troy Maxson

Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II

Movie • 1992

Narrator (voice)

Chasing Trane

Movie • 2017

John Coltrane (voice)

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Movie • 2017

Roman J. Israel

Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway

Movie • 1992

Narrator (voice)

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Movie • 2021

Macbeth

The Little Things

Movie • 2021

Joe 'Deke' Deacon

We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial

Movie • 2009

Self

Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King

Movie • 2020

Self (archive footage)

Quentin Tarantino: From a Movie Buff to a Hollywood Legend

Movie • 2021

Self (archive footage)