

Washington goes head-to-head with Gene Hackman in this superb submarine thriller from director Tony Scott. While a bit overlong, the film has several bravura action sequences and affecting performances by Washington, Fanning, and Christopher Walken as an oddball friend. Among his many collaborations with the late Tony Scott, this revenge thriller about a former assassin (Washington) out to avenge the death of a young girl (Dakota Fanning) he was sworn to protect is one of the best. Washington is the kind of actor who can class up anything, even the schlockiest of action films. Washington gives a performance filled with grief and anguish that was unbelievably overlooked by the Academy. Yet this is more than just a well-crafted mystery: despondent after a deadly mistake of his own, Serling plunges headfirst into the case to distract from his problems at home. Army officer investigating a deceased female chopper commander’s (Meg Ryan) worthiness for the Medal of Honor. Washington reunited with director Edward Zwick (“Glory”) for this “Rashomon”-esque Gulf War drama. Though a little too labyrinthine for its own good, the film is a fitting tribute to the gritty crime thrillers that inspired it. Yet a high-stakes broker (Jodie Foster) with a vested interest in the bank’s chairman (Christopher Plummer) makes things a little more complicated. In his fourth (and so far, final) collaboration with Spike Lee, Washington plays a New York City detective who must negotiate with a bank robber (Clive Owen) when his brilliantly-planned heist turns into a hostage situation. Fisher wrote the script based on his own life story while working as a security guard at Sony, and reaped a Writer’s Guild nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Jerome Davenport, the psychiatrist assigned to treat Fisher after a violent outburst against a fellow crewman.

Washington takes over the Frank Sinatra role as Ben Marco, a Gulf War veteran desperately trying to stop his friend from making a grave mistake.Īfter nearly two decades in front of the camera, Washington proved himself a capable director with this autobiographical drama about a troubled navy man (Derek Luke) forced to come to terms with his past. Demme updates the action of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 classic and alters some of the characters, but its central story of a war hero (Liev Schreiber) made to do terrible things with the help of his “loving” mother (Meryl Streep) remains the same. It’s risky remaking one of the most beloved suspense thrillers of all time, yet Jonathan Demme finds a lot of gold left to mine from Richard Condon’s original novel. Despite reaping a Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama Film, “The Great Debaters” was M.I.A. They go on to challenge Harvard in the national championship, and while you can see the ending coming from a mile away, we dare you not to applaud. Tolson, a professor at the historically black Wiley College who in 1935 formed the school’s first debate team. Yet while this inspirational sports drama follows a tried-and-true formula, it does so in a highly satisfactory way. It’s easy to dismiss Washington’s second directorial effort as a sort of “Dead Poets Society” meets “Rudy” retread.
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Our list includes the films mentioned above, plus “Fences,” “Malcolm X,” “Flight,” “American Gangster” and more. But do all of his nominated roles make the cut on our list of his all-time best? Take a look through our gallery of his 21 greatest performances, including some for which he should have gotten Oscar consideration. With 10 total nominations (including one for producing), Washington is already the most-nominated Black actor in Oscars history.

How much longer will he have to wait to add a third trophy to his shelf? Denzel Washington made his feature film debut 40 years ago in 1981’s “Carbon Copy” and in the decades since has played everyone from real-life public figures such as civil rights activist Malcolm X and wrongly imprisoned boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter to crooked cops like Alonzo in “Training Day” and Joe Deacon in “The Little Things” to even William Shakespeare‘s most famed villain, Macbeth, in “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”įor his prolific nature and exemplary work, Washington has received numerous awards: he snagged his first Oscar nomination for 1987’s “Cry Freedom” and won his first Oscar two years later for 1989’s “Glory.” Twelve years after that, Washington made history when “Training Day” made him the first Black actor since Sidney Poitier (“Lilies of the Field” in 1963) to win in the Best Actor category.
