Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York, on December 28, 1954. His father was an ordained Pentecostal minister and his mother operated a beauty parlor in the town, and Washington grew up there. He graduated from Fordham University in 1977, having first studied journalism before becoming involved in student drama and turning toward theater. His tie to the university outlasted his studies; he served on Fordham’s Board of Trustees from 1994 to 2000.

His early work included A Soldier’s Play on stage and the television series St. Elsewhere, in which he played Dr. Phillip Chandler. He went on to work across film genres; the Academy’s collection account names directors including Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme, Tony Scott, Antoine Fuqua and Kenneth Branagh among his collaborators.

Washington won Academy Awards for Glory, released in 1989, and Training Day, released in 2001. The Glory award was for supporting actor; the Training Day award, given at the 2002 ceremony, was in the leading-actor category. Washington became the second Black actor to win Best Actor, thirty-eight years after Sidney Poitier, and Poitier received an honorary Oscar at that same ceremony.

His career has also included directing. Fordham’s 2011 account identifies Antwone Fisher and The Great Debaters as films he directed and appeared in, and records his 2010 Tony Award for the Broadway revival of Fences.

In 2011, he gave Fordham $2 million for an endowed theater chair and $250,000 for a scholarship. Phylicia Rashad became the chair’s first holder. In explaining the gifts, Washington credited the influence of his former professor and mentor Bob Stone.

Washington has also served as a national spokesperson for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, a role he has held for more than three decades. The organization’s profile recounts his childhood participation at the Mount Vernon club and his own description of its importance in his life.