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Influential Black Actors/Actresses
of 1997
Morgan Freeman 
- Date Of Birth: June 1, 1937
Place of Birth: Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Married To:
Factoid: "You don't want to spend your life
worrying that you're going to lose it. If you get
to get it, then that's all there is. Fame isn't
what you want. Stardom isn't what you want.
That's the result. What you want is to work,
isn't it?" Film Highlights:
- "Driving Miss
Daisy" (1989)
Actor
"Glory" (1989)
Actor
"The Shawshank Redemption"
(1994)
Actor
"Seven" (1995)
Actor
"Kiss the Girls" (1997)
Actress
Nominations:
- Academy Awards:
- Best Supporting
Actor, "Street Smart"
(1987)
Best Actor, "Driving Miss
Daisy" (1989)
Best Actor, "The Shawshank
Redemption" (1994)
Morgan Freeman (1937- ) made many
contributions to the American culture. Most of his work
as an actor came intensely serious dramas that relate to
various aspects of the African American Experience. A few
of those movies are "Lean on Me",
"Glory", and "Driving Miss Daisy". He
also played a part in the all black performance of
"Hello "Dolly" on Broadway. Many of his
films won awards such as the Best Actors Award. In
addition to his more serious films, Morgan Freeman played
some more adventurous roles in movies like, "Robin
Hood: Prince of Thieves", and "Unforgiven"
a western with Clint Eastwood. "Seven" is a
more recent film Freeman played in with Brad Pitt where
he gave a more mysterious presence. These films made it
big and gave him a more versatile on screen appearance.
Morgan Freeman is very well respected as an actor and as
a person. Therefore he's an influence to other actors.
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne is a dramatic actor
whose star is on the rise. He was first drawn to acting
at age ten, when he made his New York stage debut. When
he was 12, Fishburne scored a major role in Cornbread,
Earl and Me (1975). Since then, he has gone on to play
lead or supporting roles under some of the most
distinguished contemporary directors, including Francis
Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and Spike Lee. In the
late '70s and '80s, he acted in several of Coppola's
films, most notably Apocalypse Now (1979). In the '90s he
has become a most prolific actor, delivering strong
supporting performances in such films as Boyz N the Hood
(1991), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), and Higher
Learning (1995). He received much acclaim and an Oscar
nomination for his realistic portrayal of the abusive,
megalomaniacal Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do with
It? (1993), a biopic about the struggles of singer Tina
Turner,(Angela Basset). Although primarily a dramatic
actor, Fishburne is not without a sense of fun, which was
seen in his recurring role as Cowboy Curtis on Pee-Wee's
Playhouse, an enormously popular children's television
show that ran during the late 1980s. In addition to his
work in cinema, Fishburne has also established a
distinguished stage career, winning a Tony in 1992 for
his role in August Wilson's Two Trains Running.
Angela Bassett
- Born As: Angela Bassett
Date Of Birth: August 16, 1958
Place of Birth: New York, New York
Married to:
Quote: "You know, I could be a black
Italian"
Factoid: American leading actress, from the
stage.
Film Highlights:
- "Contact" (1997)
Actress
"Strange Days" (1995)
Actress
"What's Love Got To Do With
It?" (1993)
Actress
"Malcolm X" (1993)
Actress
"Boyz N The Hood" (1991)
Actress
Nominations:
- Academy Awards:
- Best Actress
"What's Love Got To Do With
It?" (1993)
Angela Bassett is a prominent, versatile actress who has
found success on stage, television, and in film. In 1985,
she made her screen debut on the television series
Spenser: For Hire (1985); she then went on to do the
miniseries Doubletake (1985). She made her feature film
debut in the action thriller F/X in 1986. At this point,
Basset, seems to have made a career out of playing wives
but what wives she has played! In films, she has played
the wife of Malcolm X, the Jackson Family mother (in a
1992 TV miniseries, The Jacksons: An American Dream, and
Tina Turner. She also played a wife in Boyz N the Hood
(1991) and City of Hope (1991). For her role as Tina
Turner in 1993's What's Love Got to Do with It -- her
first leading role -- Basset was praised by critics and
nominated for Best Actress.
Cicely Tyson
- Born As:
Date Of Birth: December 19, 1933
Place of Birth: New York, New York (USA)
Married To: Miles Davis
Film Highlights:
- "The Heart Is a
Lonely Hunter " (1968)
Actress
"Sounder" (1972)
Actress
"Bustin' Loose" (1981)
Actress
"Fried Green Tomatoes" (1997)
Actress
"Hoodlum" (1997)
Actress
Nominations:
- Academy Awards:
- Best Actress,
"Sounder" (1972)
The daughter of Caribbean immigrants,
Cicely Tyson grew up in Harlem. After working for a while
as a typist she took up modeling in her late teens,
becoming very successful. Tyson made her acting debut in
a Harlem YMCA production of Dark of the Moon, then began
working in a string of off-Broadway productions; for her
work in the play The Blacks in 1961 she won The Vernon
Rice Award. She became well-known as the result of
playing George C. Scott's secretary in the TV series
"East Side, West Side" in the mid '60s; she
also began getting frequent guest roles on other TV
series. Having first appeared in films in the late '50s,
she began making more frequent film appearances in the
mid '60s; with her performance in Sounder (1972) she
became a star, receiving a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
She was widely praised for her performance in the title
role of the TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane
Pittman (1974), for which she won a "Best Actress in
a Special" Emmy; with that triumph she became a
household name and appeared on numerous magazine covers.
However, during the rest of her career she has had a hard
time finding good roles, and her talents are often wasted
in second-rate productions.
Denzel Washington
- Born As:
Date Of Birth: December 28, 1954
Place of Birth: Mount Vernon, New York (USA)
Married To: Pauletta Pearson
Quote: "People ask me, 'Speaking for the
African-American community...' I don't speak for
them. I don't call up forty million people and
say, 'What do you think I should do'? or 'How do
you feel about this part'? Doesn't work like
that. Can't work like that."
Factoid: Originally wanted to become a doctor or
journalist.
Film Highlights:
- "Cry Freedom"
(1987)
Actor
"Glory" (1989)
Actor
"Malcolm X" (1992)
Actor
"Philadelphia" (1993)
Actor
"Crimson Tide" (1995)
Actor
Awards:
- Academy Awards:
Best Supporting Actor,
"Glory" (1989)
Nominations:
- Academy Awards:
- Best Supporting
Actor, "Cry Freedom"
(1987)
Best Actor, "Malcolm X"
(1992)
Denzel Washington is a distinguished
actor known for his intelligence and versatility. After
earning a BA in Journalism from Fordham University, he
studied acting at the esteemed American Conservatory
Theater School in San Francisco. He gained national
popularity in 1982 as a regular on the television series
"St. Elsewhere" before breaking into feature
films later that year in Carbon Copy, in which he played
the black illegitimate son of a white man. Many of
Washington's films have centered around racism, and his
next film A Soldier's Story (1984) was no exception. He
appeared in another film before landing the role that
made him a star as South African anti-apartheid activist
Steve Biko in Attenborough's Cry Freedom. His portrayal
of Biko was so realistic and powerful that he was
nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Two
years later, he won an Oscar for his portrayal of a brave
and embittered runaway slave in Glory. Since then he has
steadily appeared in a wide variety of films ranging from
comedies (Heart Condition [1990]) to thrillers (Ricochet
[1991]). Not all of these films were successful. In 1990
he played a talented, but self-centered jazz musician in
Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. In 1992, he again worked
with Lee for his most challenging and controversial role
as the lead in Malcolm X. He later received an Oscar
nomination for his portrayal.
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