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Mindfulness Denzel Washington Karissa Davis  

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Mindfulness Denzel Washington Karissa Davis  

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born December 28, 1954, Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.), American actor celebrated for his engaging and powerful performances. Throughout his career he was regularly praised by critics, and his consistent success at the box office helped to dispel the perception that African American actors could not draw mainstream white audiences.
After graduating from Fordham University(B.A., 1977), Washington began to pursue acting as a career and joined the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. After several successful stage performances in California and New York, he made his screen debut in the comedy Carbon Copy(1981). He first began to receive national attention for his work on the television drama St. Elsewhere (1982–88). For the film Cry Freedom (1987), he portrayed South African activist Stephen Biko, and he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. Two years later he won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance as a freed slave fighting in the Union army in the American Civil War film Glory (1989).

Washington’s skill as an actor and his popular appeal as a leading man were firmly established in the 1990s. He gave memorable performances in the romanticcomedy Mississippi Masala (1991), the Shakespearean comedy Much Ado About Nothing (1993), the courtroom drama Philadelphia (1993), the hard-boiled mystery Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), and the military thriller Crimson Tide (1995). The latter was the first of several popular movies he made with director Tony Scott. During this time he also frequently worked with director Spike Lee, starring in Mo’ Better Blues (1990), He Got Game (1998), and most significantly Malcolm X (1992). Portraying the civil rights activist Malcolm X, Washington gave a complex and powerful performance and earned an Academy Award nomination for best actor. He received a second best-actor nomination for his portrayal of boxer Rubin Carter in the film The Hurricane(1999).

scene from Much Ado About Nothing
Dogberry (third from right) and Don Pedro (second from right), as portrayed by Michael Keaton and Denzel Washington, in the film Much Ado About Nothing (1993).
Goldwyn (Courtesy Kobal)

Denzel Washington and Ray Allen in He Got Game
Denzel Washington (left) and Ray Allen in He Got Game (1998), directed by Spike Lee.
Touchstone Pictures

Malcolm X
Denzel Washington in Malcolm X (1992), directed by Spike Lee.
David Lee/Warner Brothers, Inc.

In Training Day (2001), Washington played a corrupt and violent police detective, the performance for which he became only the second African American actor (the first was Sidney Poitier) to win an Oscar for best actor. After starring in director Jonathan Demme’s 2004 update of the 1962 thriller The Manchurian Candidate, Washington reteamed with Lee for the crime drama Inside Man (2006). He later appeared as a drug kingpin opposite Russell Crowe’s determined narcotics officer in American Gangster (2007) and as a dispatcher caught in the middle of a subway train hijacking in Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009).

Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington in Training Day(2001); directed by Antoine Fuqua.
© 2001 Warner Brothers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Denzel Washington and Christopher Plummer in Inside Man
Denzel Washington (left) and Christopher Plummer in Inside Man (2006).
© 2006 Universal Pictures

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In 2010 Washington starred in the postapocalyptic action drama The Book of Eli and collaborated again with Scott on the action thriller Unstoppable. He subsequently portrayed a rogue CIA agent in South Africa in the spy thriller Safe House (2012) before giving an Oscar-nominated performance in Flight (2012) as a heroic airplane pilot hiding a substance-abuse problem. The action comedy 2 Guns, in which Washington was cast as a covert drug-enforcement operative, followed in 2013. After playing Robert McCall, a mysterious vigilante, in the action thriller The Equalizer (2014), Washington appeared in The Magnificent Seven (2016), a remake of the 1960 classic western. In 2017 he starred in Roman J. Israel, Esq., portraying an idealistic Los Angeles lawyer who begins to question his principles. For his performance, Washington received his eighth Oscar nomination for acting. He then reprised his role as Robert McCall in The Equalizer 2 (2018). In the crime drama The Little Things (2021) he played a detective hunting a serial killer.

Additionally, Washington directed and appeared in the biographical films Antwone Fisher (2002), about a U.S. serviceman with a troubled past, and The Great Debaters (2007), about an inspirational debate coach at an African American college in the 1930s.

In addition to his film work, Washington occasionally acted onstage. In 2005 he starred as Brutus in Julius Caesar. Five years later he appeared in the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s Fences, a family drama set in the 1950s that explores issues of identity and racism. For his performance, Washington won a Tony Award in 2010. He later directed and starred in a film adaptation (2016) of the play, and his performance earned him an Oscar nomination. In 2018 he returned to Broadway as Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh.

scene from Fences
Denzel Washington (right) and Stephen McKinley Henderson in Fences (2016).
David Lee/© Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

In 2016 Washington received the Cecil B. DeMille Award (a Golden Globe Award for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”).

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen, Corrections Manager.

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Caryn Elaine Johnson (professionally known as Whoopi Goldberg) was born November 13, 1955, in Manhattan, New York, and raised in the public housing project to a Baptist Clergyman Father, and mother who was a nurse then a teacher. As a child, she was labeled as “dumb” and “retarded” because of her disability, causing her to struggle greatly and drop out of school at 17. Dyslexia, defined as a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words. She moved to California in1974 to pursue her acting career. though she wasn't diagnosed with Dyslexia till she was an adult. Goldberg didn't let her reading disability keep her from mastering countless roles in her career. Goldberg went on to be one of very few entertainers to win an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award and appear in countless tv shows and movies. Aware of her thought process Goldberg conquered her affliction and became a successful entertainer.

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Michael Fred Phelps was born on June 30, 1985, in Baltimore, Maryland. The youngest of three children, His father, Fred, an all-around athlete, was a state trooper and his mother, Debbie, was a middle-school principal.  Phelps began to swim at a local swim school with his sisters, Phelps feared putting his head in the water at the age of 7 where he first mastered a backstroke. In 2016 Michael married Nicole Johnson the couple has 3 children. Michael Began to show mindfulness after seeing two swimmers in 1996 in Atlanta. He then launched his swimming career at Loyola high school. Michel began to swim at the north aquatic center where he met his coach Bob Bowman who seen his talents and fierce sense of competition. Coach Bowman began an intense training regime ,by 1999 Phelps made the U.S nation b team. Phelps stuck with his coach as he followed him to the university of Michigan where he studied sports management  and marketing . Over the years Phelps gained many successes and was well known. In 2018 Phelps delivered a personal speech at the fourth annual conference of the Kennedy Forrum behavioral health advocacy group. Which was very mindful of him to discuss his personal depression battle. Through all of his victories he self medicated and drank alcohol. He talked about the 2012 olympic being his hardest fall which the experience prompted him to seek help .

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16 Habits of Mind: Taking Responsibility Risks-Jada Holman

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16 Habits of Mind: Taking Responsibility Risks-Jada Holman

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Bethany Hamilton was a professional surfer who was born in Hawaii along with other siblings and parents. She met her husband in 2012 which they have children together. Bethany started surfing at a young age, 8. At the age of 13, she and her best friend went surfing. While she was surfing on her tummy, a shark bites her left arm. The shark attack did not stop her because she was still determined to keep surfing after the shark attack. Which is risky and terrifying. Not even a full month after the incident, Bethany took a risk and started surfing again and learned how to surf with just one arm. She learned to do this on her own. After the incident, Bethany was broadcast in documentaries, modeled for magazines, guest starred in varities of television shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show. She put out several books about her experience. She won a ESPY Award for Best Comeback Athlete and won a Teen Choice Award. Despite her losing an arm, Bethany took higher risk, she didn't let shark attack be a failure.

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Aretha Louise Franklin, better known as The Queen of Soul, was born on March 25th, 1942, in Memphis, TN. In addition to having an amazing voice, she was also a passionate supporter of civil and women’s rights throughout her life. Her parents separated and her mother passed away when she was ten. Life on the road with her father wasn’t the easiest. She was exposed to adult behaviors, resulting in having her first son at twelve years old. Aretha went on to have three more sons.  Since she had her boys at such a young age and having a growth mindset, Aretha felt she may have not been able to take care of herself plus her boys.  Aretha made the conscious decision to give her grandmother the responsibility of her sons. Aretha suffered from alcoholism and low self-esteem. Using food for comfort, she became overweight but in 2010 she had a health scare and changed her lifestyle.  Even with these obstacles throughout her life, Aretha kept her mindset towards a better future for herself and her children.  This growth mindset carried over to her support of civil and women’s rights, even fighting for healthcare, the environment and disability rights; knowing better is always possible.