MORGAN FREEMAN won the Academy Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance as Eddie “Scrap” Dupris in Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning Million Dollar Baby.
One of America’s most accomplished actors, Mr. Freeman has given memorable performances on screen, stage, and television.
Born in Memphis, he was raised in and around Mississippi. After graduating from high school, he moved to California and studied dance and theater arts at Los Angeles City College. He made his Broadway debut in 1967 with Pearl Bailey in Hello, Dolly!
For television, Mr. Freeman created the popular character Easy Reader on the classic Children’s Television Workshop series The Electric Company, on which he was a regular cast member. His subsequent television credits include the miniseries The Atlanta Child Murders (directed by John Erman) and the telefilm The Execution of Raymond Graham (directed by Daniel Petrie).
His stage performance in The Mighty Gents earned him a Drama Desk Award, the Clarence Derwent Award, and a Tony Award nomination. He received further acclaim, and his first Obie Award, for his lead performance in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Coriolanus. Mr. Freeman received a second Obie Award, as well as a Dramalogue Award, for his role as The Messenger in the acclaimed Brooklyn Academy of Music production of Lee Breuer’s The Gospel at Colonus. His most recent stage appearance was as Petruchio in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of The Taming of the Shrew, opposite Tracey Ullman.
The role of Hoke Coleburn in Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Driving Miss Daisy earned him his third Obie Award. Mr. Freeman would later receive an Academy Award nomination for playing the same role in Bruce Beresford’s Academy Award-winning film version, in which he starred opposite Jessica Tandy. His performance in the film version also earned him a Golden Globe Award, and the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival.
His many film credits also include Stuart Rosenberg’s Brubaker; Peter Yates’ Eyewitness; Paul Newman’s Harry and Son; Christopher Cain’s That Was Then, This Is Now; Jerry Schatzberg’s Street Smart (for which Mr. Freeman received his first Academy Award nomination); Glenn Gordon Caron’s Clean and Sober; Edward Zwick’s Glory; Kevin Reynolds’ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning Unforgiven; Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption (for which Mr. Freeman received his third Academy Award nomination); Wolfgang Petersen’s Outbreak; David Fincher’s Se7en; Pen Densham’s Moll Flanders; Gary Fleder’s Kiss the Girls and its prequel Along Came a Spider (directed by Lee Tamahori, and executive-produced by Mr. Freeman); Steven Spielberg’s Amistad; Mikael Salomon’s Hard Rain; Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact (as the President of the United States); Neil LaBute’s Nurse Betty; Carl Franklin’s High Crimes; Phil Alden Robinson’s The Sum of All Fears; Lawrence Kasdan’s Dreamcatcher; Ed Solomon’s Levity; and Tom Shadyac’s Bruce Almighty.
Among the upcoming films that Mr. Freeman stars in are Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins; Lasse Hallström’s An Unfinished Life; David J. Burke’s Edison; Bruce Beresford’s The Contract; and Paul McGuigan’s Lucky Number Slevin.
He made his feature film directorial debut with Bopha!, which starred Danny Glover and Alfre Woodard, and which has recently been issued on DVD. Soon after directing that feature, he formed Revelations Entertainment, which has thus far produced the NBC telefilm Mutiny (directed by Kevin Hooks); and the feature film Under Suspicion, directed by Stephen Hopkins, which starred Mr. Freeman opposite Gene Hackman. Revelations recently inaugurated a partnership with Intel to help bring digital entertainment initiatives to the entertainment industry.
In 2003, Mr. Freeman was honored by the National Board of Review with the Career Achievement Award, and also received his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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