Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York, to a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. He was the middle of three children. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University, intending to pursue a career in journalism. However, he caught the acting bug while appearing in student drama productions and, upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco and enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater.
He left A.C.T. after only one year to seek work as an actor. His first paid acting role was in a summer stock theater stage production in St. Mary's City, Maryland, where he played the part of Mathias Da Sousa in the play "Wings of the Morning". The play was about the founding of the colony of Maryland and the early days of the Maryland colonial assembly. He began to pursue screen roles in earnest, with his acting versatility and powerful presence allowing him to find work in numerous television productions.
Denzel made his first big screen appearance in Carbon Copy (1981) with George Segal. He worked in both movies and television throughout the 1980s and was chosen for the plum role of Dr. Philip Chandler in NBC's hit medical series St. Elsewhere (1982),a role he would play for six years. In 1989, his film career began to take precedence when he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Tripp, the runaway slave in Edward Zwick's powerful historical masterpiece Glory (1989).
Washington has received much critical acclaim for his film work since the 1990s, including his portrayals of real-life figures such as Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987),Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992),Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in The Hurricane (1999),football coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (2000),poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson in The Great Debaters (2007),and drug kingpin Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007). He was nominated for Best Actor for his roles in Malcolm X and The Hurricane, before winning the Oscar for his lead role in Training Day (2001).
Through the 1990s, Denzel co-starred in big budget productions such as The Pelican Brief (1993),Philadelphia (1993),Crimson Tide (1995),The Preacher's Wife (1996),and Courage Under Fire (1996),for which he was paid $10 million. He continued to define his onscreen persona as the tough, no-nonsense hero through the 2000s in films like Out of Time (2003),Man on Fire (2004),Inside Man (2006),and The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009).
