Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. is an American actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his several film roles, such as the titular character of the 1992 biographical drama film Malcolm X, Joe Miller in the 1993 legal drama film Philadelphia (with Tom Hanks), Alonzo Harris in the 2001 crime thriller film Training Day, and Frank Lucas in the 2007 biographical crime film American Gangster.
For Disney, he played Coach Herman Boone in the 2000 sports drama film Remember the Titans, Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter in the 1995 Hollywood Pictures film Crimson Tide, Dudley in the 1996 Touchstone Pictures Christmas film The Preacher's Wife (alongside Whitney Houston), Jake Shuttlesworth in He Got Game, and ATF Douglas "Doug" Carlin in Déjà Vu. He is set portray a character in the upcoming third installment of Black Panther.[1]
He was also mentioned in the That's So Raven episode "Leave it to Diva", as well as the Bizaardvark episode "The End of the Beginning".
Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York. His mother, Lennis "Lynne", was a beauty parlor owner and operator born in Georgia and partly raised in Harlem, New York. His father, Denzel Hayes Washington, Sr., a native of Buckingham County, Virginia, was an ordained Pentecostal minister who was also an employee of the New York City Water Department and worked at a local S. Klein department store. Washington attended Pennington-Grimes Elementary School in Mount Vernon until 1968. When he was 14, his parents divorced and his mother sent him to the private preparatory school Oakland Military Academy in New Windsor, New York. Washington later said, "That decision changed my life, because I wouldn't have survived in the direction I was going. The guys I was hanging out with at the time, my running buddies, have now done maybe 40 years combined in the penitentiary. They were nice guys, but the streets got them." After Oakland, he attended Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida, from 1970 to 1971.
Roles[]
(Remember the Titans)
(The Preacher's Wife)
(He Got Game)
(Déjà Vu)
(Crimson Tide)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- One of his children is named after the titular character (which he portrayed) of the 1992 biographical drama film Malcolm X.
- While his last name was not used, for the first season of American Dragon: Jake Long, "Denzel" was Trixie Carter's celebrity crush. She would constantly call out for him to "wait for [her]" so they could get married when she grows up. He is also the celebrity crush of Trudy Proud.
- Washington was originally considered for the role of Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, along with several other actors, before Liam Neeson was ultimately selected.[2]
