Denzel Washington Biography, Age, Height, Wife & Net Worth

Denzel Washington is an American actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his performances on the screen and stage, and he has been described as an actor who reconfigured “the concept of classic movie fame”.

He is a two-time Oscar Award winner and the second African American actor after Sidney Poitier to win this film award for a leading role. Washington is the First and only African-American actor who won Oscar Awards in both lead and supporting categories.

In 2019, he received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 2020, The New York Times named him the greatest actor of the 21st century.

Facts About Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington Biography

Denzel Washington was born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York as Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. He has born into a middle-class Protestant Christian family. Denzel Washington Father, Denzel Hayes Washington Sr. was a Pentecostal minister and a former employee of the New York City Water Department.

His mother, Lennis Washington was a beautician and beauty parlor owner. He completed his primary education at Pennington-Grimes Elementary School in Mount Vernon. When he was 14 years old, his parents separate and get divorced.

After separating from his father his mother sent him to Oakland Military Academy in New Windsor. Later, he attended Maryland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida for his higher secondary education.

Denzel Washington wanted to attend Texas Tech University because he said: “I grew up in the Boys Club in Mount Vernon, and we were a supporter of the Red Raiders, So when I was in high school, I wanted to go to Texas Tech in Lubbock just because they were called the Red Raiders and their uniforms looked like ours.”

After passing out from high school he did his Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Journalism from Fordham University in 1977. But always his real ambition was to be a successful actor.

He won a scholarship to the American Conservatory of Theater and moved to San Francisco, California. A year later, he returned to New York to begin a professional acting career.

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Personal Life

Washington is a devoted Christian and has previously considered becoming a pastor. In 1999 he declared: “Part of me still says that maybe I should become a pastor, maybe I just found a compromise. I have had the opportunity to play great men and, thanks to their words, to preach. I have taken the talent that I have. it was given as a serious thing, and I want to use it to do good things. ”

He gave $2.5 million in 1995 to assist with the construction of the new West Angeles Church of God in Christ facility in Los Angeles. Washington says he reads the Bible every day.

Denzel Washington wife is Pauletta Washington. While filming the TV show, Wilma in 1977, Washington met Pauletta Pearson. On June 25, 1983, Denzel Washington married Paulette Pearson. The couple has four children: John David (born in 1984), Katia (born in 1986), and twins, Malcolm and Olivia (born in 1991).

In 2008, Washington visited Israel with a delegation of African-American artists in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state.

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Beginning of Acting Career

Washington made his acting debut in 1977 with the television film Wilma, while his first Hollywood debut came in 1981 with Carbon Copy. A big turning point in his career came the following year when he played Dr. Philip Chandler in the medical drama St. Elsewhere, which aired from 1982 to 1988.

He was one of the few African American actors to appear throughout the series. Washington subsequently appeared in various television and motion picture films such as A Soldier’s Story (1984) and Power (1986).

In 1987, he played the part of South African political activist Stephen Biko in Richard Attenborough’s “Cry Freedom”, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1990, Washington won the Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing an African-American soldier and former slave in the movie “Glory”.

He played one of his most critically acclaimed roles in the 1992 film Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee, where his portrayal of the leader of black nationalism earned him an Oscar nomination for leading actor.

In 1993, he played the lawyer of a gay man with AIDS in Philadelphia, alongside Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas. In 1999, Washington starred in the biographical sports drama film “The Hurricane”, in which he played a boxer Rubin Carter, who was wrongfully convicted for triple murder and had to spend almost 20 years in prison.

His performance in “The Hurricane” movie earned him “The Golden Globe” and the “Silver Bear” at the Berlin Film Festival and his second Oscar nomination for leading actor.

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2000 – Present

Two years later, Washington starred in the crime drama, “Training Day” (2001), as corrupt and violent cop Alonzo Harris, becoming the second black man to win the “Oscar for leading actor.” (The first was Sidney Poitier for A Voice in the Shadows, 1966).

The following year, he portrayed John Q. Archibald, in “John Q”, a desperate father who, with a gun in his hand, forces a medical team to perform the heart transplant that could save his son.

Still, in 2002, he debuted behind the camera, directed and acted in “Antwone Fisher”, an experience he repeated in “The Great Debaters” (2007). In recent years, he has starred in several films, including “Flight” (2012), which earned him yet another Oscar nomination.

In 2014, Washington played former CIA agent Robert McCall in the vigilante action film “The Equalizer”. He reprised his role as a former CIA agent in the 2018 sequel of “The Equalizer 2”.

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Denzel Washington Net Worth

According to an American business magazine Forbes, Denzel Washington Net Worth is estimated at around $300 million as of 2022. His overall earnings make him The Highest-Paid Oscar Nominee.

Currently, Denzel Washington salary is $20 million for a movie. Back in the 90s, are considered, Washington’s career payroll is far higher. His films have made over $3.7 billion worldwide, and he has received eight Oscar nominations, winning two of them.

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