Denzel Washington

About Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American actor and director. He has garnered much critical acclaim for his work in film since the 1990s, including his portrayals of real-life figures, such as Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas and Herman Boone.

Washington has been awarded three Golden Globe awards and two Academy Awards for his work. He is notable as the second black man (after Sidney Poitier) to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, which he received for his role in the 2001 film Training Day.

Denzel Washington was born in Mt. Vernon, New York. His mother, Lennis "Lynne", was a beauty parlor-owner and operator born in Georgia and raised in Harlem. His father, Reverend Denzel Washington, Sr., was an ordained Pentecostal minister and also worked for the Water Department and at a local department store, "S. Klein". When Washington was fourteen his parents' marriage took a turn for the worse and he and his older sister were sent away to boarding school so that they would not be exposed to their parents' eventual divorce.[citation needed]