DOB: Dec. 28, 1954
Where: Mt. Vernon, New York
Occupation: Actor, screenwriter, director, producer
Years active: 1977-present
Spouse: Pauletta Pearson (1983-present)
He is known for playing real life figures, such as Steven Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas and Herman Boone.
His mother Lennis was a beauty parlor owner and his father, Rev. Denzel H. Washington was an ordained Pentecostal minister. When he was 14, his parents split, and his mother sent him to a preparatory school in New Windsor, New York.
Career
He spent the summer of 1976 at St. Mary's City, Maryland in summer stock theater, performing Wings of the Morning. A major break came for him when he was cast to play Dr. Philip Chandler in the TV show St. Elsewhere from 1982-1988. In 1987, he starred as Steven Biko in Cry Freedom.
In 1992, he starred in the movie Malcolm X, playing the title character, and in 1993, starred in Philadelphia, starring alongside Tom Hanks, defending a lawyer who was wrongly fired because he had AIDS. In 2000, he starred in Remember the Titans, in 2007 he starred in American Gangster, based on the life of Frank Lucas, a gangster in Harlem.
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