Denzel Washington life and biography

Born Denzel Jermaine Washington, Jr. on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York, where the Boys & Girls Club would help keep him out of trouble. When he was 14, his parents' marriage broke down and he and his older sister were sent away to boarding school.

Washington went to Fordham University to study journalism. But when he got the acting bug, Washington won a scholarship to the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and afterwards worked with the Shakespeare in the Park ensemble.

Washington made his feature film debut in the comedy A Carbon Copy (1981). He also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions and in television movies before being cast in a starring role in the hit television medical drama St Elsewhere (1982–88).

Washington grabbed his first of five Oscar nominations for Cry Freedom (1987) as real-life South African apartheid martyr Steve Biko. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Glory (1989).

Washington proved time and again he could disappear into a role and mesmerize audiences.

He appeared in several notable films throughout the 1990s, including his first of four Spike Lee collaborations Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992) in another Oscar-nominated performance, Philadelphia (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Courage Under Fire (1996) and The Hurricane (1999), for which he received a Golden Globe for Best Actor and another Oscar nomination.

In 2001, he received his second Oscar (this time in a leading role) for the cop thriller Training Day. The following year, he directed his first film, the drama Antwone Fisher, in which he also co-starred.

Several blockbusters followed, including Man on Fire (2004), The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and Spike Lee's Inside Man (2006). He also starred as Frank Lucas, a real-life heroin kingpin from Harlem, in the 2007 film American Gangster, opposite Russell Crowe. In 2009, Washington starred as MTA Dispatcher Walter Garber in the remake of the classic film The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

Denzel Washington married actress Pauletta Pearson in 1983; they have four children. Their oldest son, John David, was drafted in 2006 by the NFL's St. Louis Rams. Their other children are daughter Katia, who attends Yale University and twins Olivia and Malcolm.

Washington was last seen onstage in the summer of 1990 in the title role of the Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's Richard III) and in 2005 after a 15-year hiatus he appeared onstage again in another Shakespeare play as Marcus Brutus in Julius Caesar on Broadway. The production's limited run was a consistent sell-out averaging over 100% attendance capacity nightly despite receiving mixed reviews.

In February 2009 Washington began filming The Book of Eli a post-Apocalyptic drama set in the near future which was released in January 2010. He is also set to star as a veteran railroad engineer in the action film Unstoppable which is about an unmanned, half-mile-long runaway freight train carrying a dangerous cargo. The film is to be directed by Tony Scott and it will be the fifth collaboration between the two with previous films Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006) and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009).

On May 4, 2010, Washington was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role in the play Fences.

Personal life

In 1983 Washington married actress Pauletta Pearson who he met on the set of his first screen work the TV-movie Wilma. The couple have four children John David (b. July 28, 1984) who signed a football contract with the St. Louis Rams in May 2006 after playing college football at Morehouse, Katia (b. November 1987) who is attending Yale University and twins Olivia and Malcolm (named in honor of Malcolm X) (b. April 10, 1991). Malcolm is attending University of Pennsylvania where he plays for the basketball team. In 1995 the couple renewed their wedding vows in South Africa with Archbishop Desmond Tutu officiating.

Washington is a devout Christian. In 1995 he donated 2.5 million dollars to help build the new West Angeles COGIC facility in Los Angeles at the city's West Angeles Church of God in Christ.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia named Washington as one of three people (the others being directors Oliver Stone and Michael Moore) with whom they were willing to negotiate for the release of three defense contractors that the group had held captive from 2003 to 2008.

On May 18, 1991 Washington was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Fordham University, for having "impressively succeeded in exploring the edge of his multifaceted talent". He also was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities from Morehouse College on May 20, 2007.

In 2008 Washington visited Israel with a delegation of African American artists in honor of the Jewish State's 60th birthday.

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