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

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”).

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

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