made in atlantis - actor biographies
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Directors, producers, editors, composers, executive producers, writer/co-producers, directors of photography, production designers, costume designers, screenwriters, cnematographers, animal trainers, visual effects supervisors, special effects supervisors and more.
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 Birth Date: December 28, 1954
Birth Place: Mount Vernon, New York, USA
Denzel Washington is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor who has amazed and entertained moviegoers with a rich and colorful array of characters. From Trip, an embittered runaway slave in Glory, to South African freedom fighter Steven Biko in Cry Freedom; from Shakespeare's tragic historical figure in Richard III, to the womanizing trumpet player, Bleek Gilliam, in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues, Washington makes each character distinctly his own.
Washington had two successful films released in 2004: director Tony Scott's Man on Fire, in which he starred as an ex-Marine hired to protect a young girl (Dakota Fanning) from kidnapping threats; and director Jonathan Demme's modern remake of the 1962 classic The Manchurian Candidate, taking on the role Frank Sinatra made famous and starring alongside Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber. In 2003, Washington was seen opposite Eva Mendes and Sanaa Lathan in Carl Franklin's murder mystery, Out of Time.
Perhaps one of his most critically acclaimed performances to date is his Academy Award®-winning turn in Training Day, directed by Antoine Fuqua. The film revolves around a grizzled LAPD veteran, played by Washington, who shows a rookie narcotics cop, played by Ethan Hawke, the ropes on his first day of the soul-city beat. The film was only one of two in 2001 that spent two weeks in the number one box office spot.
December 2002 marked Washington's feature film directorial debut with Antwone Fisher. The film-which is based on a true-life story and inspired by the best-selling autobiography Finding Fish-follows Fisher, a troubled young sailor (played by newcomer Derek Luke) as he comes to terms with his past. The film won critical praise and was awarded the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America, as well as winning an NAACP Award for Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Washington. Also during the year, Washington was seen in John Q, which established an opening day record for Presidents' Day weekend, grossing $24.1 million, and provided the highest weekend gross in Washington's career. The film also garnered Washington a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture.
In 2000, he starred in Jerry Bruckheimer's box office sensation ($115 million domestic gross) Remember the Titans and in Norman Jewison's The Hurricane. Washington received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (Drama) and an Academy Award® nomination (his fourth) for his portrayal of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who was the world middleweight champion boxer during the 1960s wrongfully imprisoned twice for the murder of three whites in a New Jersey bar.
Among Washington's list of additional recent starring motion picture roles are: The Bone Collector, co-starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Phillip Noyce; director Gregory Hoblit's Fallen; Spike Lee's He Got Game; a re-teaming with director Edward Zwick in The Siege, co-starring Annette Bening and Bruce Willis; the critically acclaimed military drama Courage Under Fire, also for Ed Zwick; the romantic comedy The Preacher's Wife, opposite Whitney Houston for director Penny Marshall; Tony Scott's underwater action adventure Crimson Tide, opposite Gene Hackman; the futuristic thriller Virtuosity; and the period romantic thriller Devil in a Blue Dress.
Washington delivered a towering and award-winning performance in director Spike Lee's biographical epic Malcolm X, which chronicled the life of the complex and controversial Black activist from the 1960s. Monumental in scope and filmed over a period of six months in the United States and Africa, Malcolm X was hailed by critics and audiences alike as one of the best films of 1992. For his portrayal, Washington received a number of accolades, including an Oscar® nomination for Best Actor.
In addition to his accomplishments onscreen, Washington took on a very different type of role in 2000, serving as producer of the HBO documentary Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks, which garnered three Emmy nominations. He also served as executive producer on Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream, a biographical documentary for TBS, which also received an Emmy nomination. Additionally, Washington's narration of the legend of John Henry was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award in the category of Best Spoken Word Album for Children; he was also awarded the 1996 NAACP Image Award for his performance in the animated children's special Happily Ever After: Rumpelstiltskin.
A native of Mt. Vernon, New York, Washington had his career sights set on medicine when he attended Fordham University. During a stint as a summer camp counselor, he appeared in one of their theater productions and, that fall, returned to Fordham wishing to study the craft under the tutelage of Robinson Stone, one of the school's leading professors. Upon graduation from Fordham, Washington was accepted into San Francisco's prestigious American Conservatory Theater. Following an intensive year of study in their theater program, he returned to New York after a brief stop in Los Angeles.
Washington's professional New York theater career began with Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park and was quickly followed by numerous off-Broadway productions, including Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, When the Chickens Came Home to Roost (in which he portrayed Malcolm X), One Tiger to a Hill, Man and Superman Othello and A Soldier's Play, for which he won an Obie Award (and later re-created the role in Norman Jewison's 1982 motion picture adaptation, A Soldier's Story). Washington's additional stage appearances include the Broadway production of Checkmates and Richard III, which was produced as part of the 1990 free Shakespeare in the Park series hosted by Joseph Papp's Public Theater in New York City. In 2005, Washington headlined an impressive ensemble cast in the sold-out Broadway production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, directed by Daniel Sullivan.
Washington was `discovered' by Hollywood when he was cast in 1979 in the television film Flesh & Blood. But it was his award-winning performance on stage in A Soldier's Play that captured the attention of the producers of the NBC television series St. Elsewhere, and he was soon cast in that long-running hit series as Dr. Philip Chandler. Washington went on to star in Sidney Lumet's Power, Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom (for which he received his first Oscar nomination), For Queen and Country, The Mighty Quinn, Heart Condition, Edward Zwick's Glory (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues, the action-adventure Ricochet, Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala. Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, Jonathan Demme's controversial Philadelphia (opposite Tom Hanks) and The Pelican Brief, based on the John Grisham novel.
Washington is currently filming Déjà Vu for director Tony Scott.
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