Laurence Fishburne in Matrix Revolutions, The (2003)
LAURENCE FISHBURNE (Morpheus), honored for his work on the stage and screen, earned an Academy Award nomination for his searing portrayal of Ike Turner in the hit biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It. Fishburne recently made his directorial debut, as well as starring in and producing, Once in the Life, which he wrote based on the one-act play Riff Raff in which he starred, wrote and directed in 1994. The play’s initial run in Los Angeles was the first production produced under Fishburne’s own banner, L.O.A. Productions.
Fishburne, who began acting at the age of 10, was only 15 years old when he won the role of a young G.I. in Francis Coppola’s Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now. He went on to work with Coppola on Rumble Fish, Gardens of Stone and The Cotton Club.
Fishburne has collaborated twice with noted director John Singleton, on Boyz ‘N the Hood and Higher Learning, earning an NAACP Image Award for Best Actor for the former. His other credits include Othello, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Just Cause, Bad Company, Class Action, Deep Cover, Fled, Cadence, King of New York, Red Heat, Band of the Hand, Spike Lee’s School Daze, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, Hoodlum, Event Horizon, The Matrix, as the voice for Thrax in Osmosis Jones and most recently as the star of Biker Boyz.
On the small screen, Fishburne received nominations for the Emmy, Golden Globe and CableACE Awards and won an NAACP Image Award for his performance in the HBO movie The Tuskegee Airmen, the story of America’s first black combat pilots. He also won an Emmy Award for his role in the premiere episode of Robert De Niro’s series Tribeca. In 1997 Fishburne received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or Special for his starring role in the HBO drama Miss Evers’ Boys, which he also executive produced. Miss Evers’ Boys was awarded five Emmys, including the coveted President’s Award, which honors a program that illuminates a social or educational issue. Fishburne recently starred in and executive produced Always Outnumbered, directed by Michael Apted for HBO.
Fishburne’s other television credits include the critically acclaimed telefilms A Rumor of War, For Us the Living and Decoration Day.
In 1992 Fishburne received the Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Theatre World Award for his work in the Broadway production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, in which he reprised the role of Sterling Johnson that he originated at the Yale Repertory Theatre. In 1999 Fishburne played the lead role of Henry II of France in the story of the struggle with his estranged wife, Eleanor of Acquitaine.
Fishburne can currently be seen in Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, starring alongside the acclaimed cast of Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden.
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