 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
DENZEL
WASHINGTON
Natural Born
Actor
Denzel Washington is considered to be among the sexiest man alive, but he has never been known as one of the funniest. His reputation has been crafted over a decade of playing intense, brooding, cool characters, like the guilt-ridden colonel in Courage Under Fire, and the justice-seeking attorney in Philadelphia. And then there have been the intense, brooding, fiery types, such as the title character in Malcolm X, Steve Biko in Cry Freedom, and the itching-to-fight slave in Glory, for which he won an Oscar for the Best
Supporting Actor. Washington’s image did change a bit after The Preacher’s Wife, a comedy in which he played an angel who literally plops down from Heaven into a snowdrift. In his recent release, The Bone Collector, Washington plays a detective, who is paralysed while on work, and his performance, besides winning him rave reviews, makes him a hot conetnder for the Best Actor Oscar this year...
Given the theatrical environment in which he was raised,
it was inevitable
hat Denzel Washington would one day become an actor. Not that he comes from
a show-business family Rather, Washington developed his dramatic tendencies
in the spiritual surroundings of his father’s church, and in the more
secular environment of his mother’s beauty salon. Through the dedicated
practice of their diverse vocations, Washington’s parents instilled
in their son a strong work ethic, a love of God and family, and, most
importantly, the ability to tell a darn good story.
Young Denzel, who incidentally also inherited a movie idol’s dashing good looks, took these tenets to heart, building upon them both, a personal and a professional life, of which any parent would be proud.
Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York, in the shadow of the Big Apple. (His father, Denzel, Sr., had been named after the physician who delivered him, one Dr. Denzel.) From the age of 11, Denzel, Jr., the second of three children, began working (and eavesdropping) after school, in a series of barber and beauty shops. When he was 114, Washington’s parents separated, and Denzel and his older sister were shipped off to boarding school to keep them away them from the sphere of familial strife (which eventually led to divorce), and to keep them out of trouble.
After graduating from high school, Washington enrolled at New York’s Fordham University, where he formally studied the art of story-telling on a journalism track. He soon stumbled into several starring roles in student drama productions, including one staging of Othello that Fordham faculty members and alumni still talk about. Washington completed his B.A. in 1977, and then headed off to San Francisco to pursue his newfound passion at the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), where he had won a scholarship.
Described by a former professor as “a natural,” the quick-study Washington soon grew bored with academia and left A.C.T. after only one year to launch his professional career. Early gigs included the NBC telefilm Wilma (1977), in which he portrayed the boyfriend of Olympic runner Wilma Rudolph; a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Coriolanus (1979); and his feature-film debut as George Segal’s illegitimate teenage son in Carbon Copy (1981).
Washington’s big break came in 1982, when he landed the role of resident Dr. Phillip Chandler on the NBC hospital drama St. Elsewhere. His performances caught the attention of many a Hollywood casting director, and, as a result, Washington had no trouble filling six years’ worth of TV hiatuses with movie work.
When St. Elsewhere exited the air, Washington segued effortlessly into movie-stardom. His portrayal of a Civil War soldier in director Ed Zwick’s historical drama Glory (1989) cemented his reputation as a first-tier actor, and earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor to boot. When asked to characterise Washington’s talent, co-workers tend to discuss his “inner process” (Zwick), his habit of “testing the parameters of the scene” (Tom Hanks), and his qualifications as a “cerebral, analytical actor” (Kelly Lynch). “Denzel Washington has intellectual weight, spiritual gravity, and a powerful sexual and romantic presence,” summed up Kenneth Branagh in an interview.
His colleagues admire him for his meticulous preparation for his roles, a process which Washington has himself likened to an investigative journalist’s exacting method of uncovering his subject. For example, Washington drew upon life-long memories of his father’s powerful presence behind the pulpit, and also read extensively, in order to perfect his Oscar-nominated performance in the title role of Malcolm X (1992).
Talking about his personal life, Washington had said that he would never leave his wife, singer-actress Pauletta Pearson (they met when the two appeared in Wilma). In the same interview he had also broached the prickly subject of infidelity and stated, “Being a star and all of that, temptation is all around, it’s all around, you know, and I haven’t been perfect. I’ll be quite candid about it.” Not surprisingly, since uttering those surely regretted words, Washington has spoken little about his private life.
But by most accounts, at this point, he passes for Mr. Family Values: Denzel, Pauletta, and their four children live in a Los Angeles mansion once owned by William Holden, and spend much quality time together — at home, at the Pentecostal West Angeles church, and on family vacations far away from the movie-making madness. On one such trip to South Africa, Denzel and Pauletta renewed their wedding vows in a ceremony officiated by Archbishop Tutu. Washington is also involved in social service, and has generously given his time (most notably as spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, an organisation that had a profound impact on his own upbringing), and money to several charities, including his local church, The Gathering Place (a home for HIV-infected people), and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
On the professional front, Washington has leveraged his A-list status to toggle between blockbusters such as The Pelican Brief (1993) and Crimson Tide (1995), and critical favourites such as Philadelphia (1993) and Devil In A Blue Dress (1995). The latter film represents the first offering of his Mundy Lane Entertainment, the production company Washington named after the street on which he grew up.
He pocketed a $10-million paycheck for the flop Courage Under Fire (1996), but scored a modest hit with the charmer The Preacher’s Wife (1996), in which he co-starred opposite Whitney Houston.
In 1998, Washington portrayed a methodical detective tracking a devil of a serial-killer in the taut thriller Fallen; the convict father of a basketball phenomenon in Spike Lee’s He Got Game; and the head of a terrorism task-force in Edward Zwick’s controversial The Siege. 1999 brought a turn in the thriller-mystery The Bone Collector, in which he played an embittered ex-cop left a quadriplegic, by an on-the-job accident, who finds meaning in his life after his former employers solicit his assistance in tracking down a serial-killer.
He has also written a book titled By Any Means Necessary: The Trials And Tribulations of the Makin.
FILMOGRAPHY
The Hurricane (1999)
The Bone Collector (1999)
The Siege (1998)
He Got Game (1998)
Fallen (1998)
The Preacher’s Wife (1996)
Courage Under Fire (1996)
Virtuosity (1995)
Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)
Crimson Tide (1995)
A Century Of Cinema (1994)
Philadelphia (1993)
The Pelican Brief (1993)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Mississippi Masala (1992)
Malcolm X (1992)
Ricochet (1991)
Heart Condition (1990)
Mo’ Better Blues (1990)
The Mighty Quinn (1989)
Glory (1989)
For Queen And Country (1989)
Reunion (1988)
Cry Freedom (1987)
The George McKenna Story (1986)
Power (1986)
A Soldier’s Story (1984)
Carbon Copy (1981)
