Denzel Washington
Two-time Oscar winner and stage legend.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and producer. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, an Actor Award, two Golden Globes, two Silver Bears and a Tony Award as well as nominations for a Grammy Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards. He has also been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2025, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $5.1 billion worldwide.
- born
- December 28, 1954
- field
- Actor, producer
- nationality
- American
- known_for
- Dramatic roles on stage and screen; Academy Award wins for Glory and Training Day
Lore & Background
After training at the American Conservatory Theater, Washington began his career in theater, 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). Washington won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for playing an American Civil War soldier in the war drama Glory (1989) and for Best Actor for playing a corrupt police officer in the crime thriller Training Day (2001). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles 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).
Reader's Guide
Washington has starred in other notable films, including The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia (both 1993); Crimson Tide, Devil in a Blue Dress (both 1995); He Got Game (1998); Remember the Titans (2000); Man on Fire (2004); Déjà Vu, Inside Man (both 2006); American Gangster (2007); Unstoppable, The Book of Eli (both 2010); The Equalizer trilogy (2014–2023), Gladiator II (2024), and Highest 2 Lowest (2025). Washington has also directed the films Antwone Fisher (2002), The Great Debaters (2007), Fences (2016), and A Journal for Jordan (2021). On stage, he has acted in The Public Theater productions of Coriolanus (1979) and The Tragedy of Richard III (1990). 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) and Othello (2025), Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun (2014), and Eugene O'Neill's play The Iceman Cometh (2018).
Did You Know?
- Washington was born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York.
- He earned a BA in Drama and Journalism from Fordham University in 1977.
- He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989) and Best Actor for Training Day (2001).
- He made his screen acting debut in the 1977 made-for-television film Wilma.
- He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the Broadway revival of Fences (2010).
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