1954-12-28 Mount Vernon, New York, USA
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).
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Denzel Washington: Falling Forward | 2025-10-20 | |
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Highest 2 Lowest | David King | 2025-08-14 |
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Gladiator II | Macrinus | 2024-11-13 |
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Denzel Washington: American Icon | Self | 2024-10-24 |
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The Piano Lesson: Legacy and a Vision | Self | 2024-11-21 |
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The Making of Gladiator II | Self | 2024-11-18 |
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The Equalizer 3 | Robert McCall | 2023-08-30 |
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Whoopi Goldberg: The Winning Act | Self (archive footage) | 2022-02-15 |
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Sidney | Self | 2022-09-10 |
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The Tragedy of Macbeth | Macbeth | 2021-12-05 |
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The Little Things | Joe 'Deke' Deacon | 2021-01-28 |
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Quentin Tarantino: From a Movie Buff to a Hollywood Legend | Self (archive footage) | 2021-01-02 |
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Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King | Self (archive footage) | 2020-08-30 |
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Giving Voice | Self | 2020-01-26 |
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The Equalizer 2 | Robert McCall | 2018-07-19 |
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Denzel Washington: Reel Life | Self | 2018-08-17 |
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Roman J. Israel, Esq. | Roman J. Israel | 2017-11-17 |
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Chasing Trane | John Coltrane (voice) | 2017-04-14 |
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The Magnificent Seven | Sam Chisolm | 2016-09-14 |
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Fences | Troy Maxson | 2016-12-16 |
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The Equalizer | Robert McCall | 2014-09-24 |
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2 Guns | Robert 'Bobby' Trench | 2013-08-02 |
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Safe House | Tobin Frost | 2012-02-08 |
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Flight | Whip Whitaker | 2012-02-22 |
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The Book of Eli | Eli | 2010-01-14 |
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Unstoppable | Frank Barnes | 2010-11-04 |
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We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial | Self | 2009-01-18 |
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The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 | Walter Garber | 2009-06-10 |
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Fallen Empire: Making 'American Gangster' | Self | 2008-10-14 |
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American Gangster | Frank Lucas | 2007-11-02 |
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The Great Debaters | Melvin B. Tolson | 2007-12-25 |
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Déjà Vu | Doug Carlin | 2006-11-22 |
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Number 4 | Self | 2006-08-08 |
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Inside Man | Keith Frazier | 2006-03-17 |
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By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X' | Self | 2005-02-08 |
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Man on Fire | John W. Creasy | 2004-04-23 |
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The Manchurian Candidate | Major Bennett Ezekiel Marco | 2004-07-30 |
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The Evolution of an American Filmmaker | Self | 2003-05-20 |
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Out of Time | Matt Lee Whitlock | 2003-10-03 |
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John Q | John Quincy Archibald | 2002-02-15 |
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Antwone Fisher | Dr. Jerome Davenport | 2002-12-19 |
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Training Day | Alonzo | 2001-10-05 |
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Remember the Titans | Coach Herman Boone | 2000-09-29 |
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Straight from the Streets | Self | 2000-09-19 |
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The Bone Collector | Lincoln Rhyme | 1999-11-04 |
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The Hurricane | Rubin "Hurricane" Carter | 1999-09-17 |
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Fallen | John Hobbes | 1998-01-16 |
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He Got Game | Jake Shuttlesworth | 1998-05-01 |
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The Siege | Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard | 1998-11-06 |
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Mother Goose: A Rappin' and Rhymin' Special | Humpty Dumpty / The Crooked Man (voice) | 1997-10-12 |
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NBA at 50 | Self - Host | 1996-11-01 |
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The Preacher's Wife | Dudley | 1996-12-13 |
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Courage Under Fire | Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling | 1996-07-04 |
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Devil in a Blue Dress | Easy Rawlins | 1995-09-29 |
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Virtuosity | Parker Barnes | 1995-08-04 |
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The Making of 'Crimson Tide' | Self | 1995-01-01 |
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Crimson Tide | Lt. Commander Ronald "Ron" Hunter | 1995-05-12 |
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Much Ado About Nothing | Don Pedro of Aragon | 1993-05-07 |
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The Pelican Brief | Gray Grantham | 1993-09-17 |
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Philadelphia | Joe Miller | 1993-12-22 |
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Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II | Narrator | 1992-11-11 |
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Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway | Narrator | 1992-11-02 |
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Malcolm X | Malcolm X | 1992-11-18 |
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Mississippi Masala | Demetrius Williams | 1991-09-18 |
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Ricochet | Nick Styles | 1991-10-04 |
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Rabbit Ears - Anansi | Narrator (voice) | 1991-08-17 |
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Mo' Better Blues | Bleek Gilliam | 1990-08-03 |
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Heart Condition | Napoleon Stone | 1990-02-02 |
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Rabbit Ears - John Henry | Narrator (voice) | 1990-09-01 |
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Glory | Pvt. Trip | 1989-12-15 |
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The Mighty Quinn | Xavier Quinn | 1989-02-17 |
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The George McKenna Story | George McKenna | 1988-08-01 |
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For Queen & Country | Reuben | 1988-05-17 |
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Cry Freedom | Steve Biko | 1987-11-06 |
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License to Kill | Martin Sawyer | 1986-12-16 |
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Power | Arnold Billings | 1986-01-31 |
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A Soldier's Story | Private First Class Peterson | 1984-09-14 |
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Carbon Copy | Roger Porter | 1981-08-06 |
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Flesh & Blood | Kirk | 1979-10-14 |
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Coriolanus | Roman Soldier / Volscian Soldier | 1979-03-31 |
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Wilma | Robert Eldridge, age 18 | 1977-12-19 |
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American Gangster Special | Self | |
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Black Panther 3 | ||
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Here Comes the Flood | ||
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The Equalizer 4 | Robert McCall | |
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The Equalizer 5 | Robert McCall |
