Denzel Washington in 2009
by J McCombie
Title
Denzel Washington in 2009
Artist
J McCombie
Medium
Drawing - Pencil
Description
This piece can be made available in the other formats and colours you find in my Mixed Media Gallery.
Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, film director, and film producer. He has received much critical acclaim for his work in film since the 1990s, including for his portrayals of real-life figures such as Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas, and Herman Boone. Washington is a featured actor in the films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and was a frequent collaborator of the late director Tony Scott (Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), D Vu (2006), The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009), and Unstoppable (2010)).
Washington has received two Golden Globe awards and a Tony Award, and two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989) and Best Actor for Training Day (2001).
Washington spent the summer of 1976 in summer stock theater performing Wings of the Morning. He also filmed a series of commercials in the Fruit of the Loom ensemble, as Grapes. Washington made his professional acting debut in the 1977 made-for-television film Wilma Purple, and his first Hollywood appearance in the 1981 film Carbon Copy. Washington shared a 1982 Distinguished Ensemble Performance Obie Award for playing Private First Class Melvin Peterson in the Off-Broadway Negro Ensemble Company production A Soldier's Play.
A major career break came when he starred as Dr. Phillip Chandler in the television hospital drama St. Elsewhere which ran from 1982 to 1988 on NBC. Washington also appeared in several television, film and stage roles such as the films A Soldier's Story (1984), Hard Lessons (1986) and Power (1986). In 1987 Washington starred as Steven Biko in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom for which he received an Academy Award nominationfor Best Supporting Actor. In 1989 Washington won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a defiant self-possessed ex-slave soldier in the film Glory. Also that year he appeared in the film The Mighty Quinn, and as British soldier Reuben James, in For Queen and Country.
Washington starred as Bleek Gilliam in the Spike Lee film Mo' Better Blues (1991), played Demetrius Williams in Mississippi Masala (1992) and the title character of Spike Lee's 1992's Malcolm X, which earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He played the lawyer of a gay man with AIDS in the 1993 film Philadelphia. During the early and mid-1990s, Washington starred in several successful thrillers, including The Pelican Brief and Crimson Tide, as well as in comedy Much Ado About Nothing and alongside Whitney Houston in the romantic drama The Preacher's Wife. In 1998, Washington starred in Spike Lee's film He Got Game.
In 1999, Washington starred in The Hurricane, a film about boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter. A former reporter began a campaign to pressure Academy Award voters not to award the film Oscars. Washington did receive a Golden Globe Award in 2000 and a Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for the role.
In 2000, Washington appeared in the Disney film Remember the Titans. Washington won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Movie in 2000, making him the first Black actor to win the award in 36 years.
He won an Academy Award for Best Actor in the 2001 cop thriller Training Day as Detective Alonzo Harris. Washington was the second African-American performer to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, the first being Sidney Poitier who happened to receive an Honorary Academy Award the same night that Washington won. Washington holds the record (six so far) for most Oscar nominations and most wins (two so far) by an actor or actress of African descent.
After appearing in 2002's box office success, the health care-themed John Q., Washington directed his first film, a well-reviewed drama called Antwone Fisher, in which he also co-starred.
Between 2003 and 2004, Washington appeared in a series of thrillers that performed generally well at the box office, including Out of Time, Man on Fire, and The Manchurian Candidate. In 2006, he starred in Spike Lee's Inside Man, co-starring Jodie Foster and Clive Owen, and D Vu.
In 2006, Denzel worked alongside multi-talented Irish off-rock band the Script on their new project combining music and Hollywood. The hybrid of genres was critically acclaimed but didn't receive much mainstream attention due to a legal conflicts between the Script's record label and Denzel's studio commitments.
In 2007, he co-starred with Russell Crowe, for the second time after Virtuosity in 1995, in American Gangster. Washington directed and starred in the drama The Great Debaters with Forest Whitaker. Washington next appeared in the 2009 film The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a remake of the 1974 thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, directed by Tony Scott as New York City subway security chief Walter Garber opposite John Travolta.
Washington was seen onstage in the summer of 1990 in the title role of the Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's Richard III and in 2005 in another Shakespeare play as Marcus Brutus in Julius Caesar on Broadway.
In 2010, Washington starred in The Book of Eli, a post-Apocalyptic drama set in the near future. Also in 2010, he starred as a veteran railroad engineer in the action film Unstoppable.
On June 13, 2010, Washington won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role in the play Fences. In 2012, Washington starred in Flight, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and co-starred with Ryan Reynolds in Safe House.
Uploaded
March 30th, 2013
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Comments (2)
Giada Rossi
Beautiful portrait of Denzel! v,f
J McCombie replied:
Thanks so much, Giada! I appreciate you stopping by to leave a kind comment, v & f! ...J.