Denzel Washington
A magnificent star—seductive, brilliant and fearless
He’s not just a big, beautiful man. Denzel Washington can mine the multifaceted essence of his characters elegantly and powerfully, whether he’s playing someone less than decent (as in his 2001 Academy Award–winning role as a tyrannical dirty cop in Training Day) or more than corruptible (as in his 2012 Oscar-nominated portrait of an alcoholic pilot who saves his plane from crashing in Flight).
He’s extraordinarily good at bringing to life real-life heroes, such as South African activist Steven Biko (in Cry Freedom, Oscar-nominated in 1988), civil-rights martyr Malcolm X (in Spike Lee’s virtuoso 1992 biopic, Oscar-nominated in 1992), the wrongly imprisoned boxer Ruben “Hurricane” Carter (in The Hurricane, Oscar-nominated in 1999), and professor and debating coach Melvin B. Tolson (in The Great Debaters in 2007, one of three films Washington has both directed and starred in).
Indeed, his résumé is one of the most impressive around. Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York, in 1954. He caught the acting bug while studying journalism at Fordham University, and after graduating, moved to San Francisco to pursue it. His first big break was the role of Dr. Philip Chandler on the NBC-TV series St. Elsewhere in 1982, which he played for six years. Following that, his Oscar-winning (supporting) role in Glory (1989), in which he played a bitterly proud Civil War soldier, turned him into a sex symbol overnight.
And despite the barriers of race, he has generated a remarkable array of star performances. In the mixed-race Mississippi Masala (1991), directed by Mira Nair, he gives a warm romance some dignity and earthiness. In Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), he gives Walter Moseley’s famous African-American sleuth in Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins, a piercing intelligence. In another Spike Lee Joint, He Got Game (1998), he plays a father who selfishly squelches the talents of his son. Washington can take an emotional tangle and present it whole, warts and contradictions intact. And we understand. We are seduced. That is his genius.
He’s even triumphed on the stage, on Broadway, winning a Tony in a 2010 revival of August Wilson’s Fences. Washington’s film version, which he directed and stars in, is completed and due for release sometime soon.
But first we get to see him in The Magnificent Seven, a remake of the classic Western, opening in theaters September 23 (watch the trailer above). Now in his 60s, Washington is still a commanding presence, and the Sexiest Man Alive (according to People in 1996) looks damn good in his desperado mustache and black hat. Even better, we’re sure that the parade of great parts is sure to continue.
