80 Fun Facts About Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington was born on 28 December 1954 in which New York suburb?

Mount Vernon. His mother ran beauty salons there, and when his parents divorced she sent the 14-year-old away to a military boarding school in upstate New York.

What was the vocation of Denzel Washington's father?

Pentecostal minister. The family didn't go to the cinema, so the future film star grew up on little beyond religious epics like King of Kings and The Ten Commandments.

From which university did Denzel Washington earn a BA in Drama and Journalism in 1977?

Fordham University. He enrolled as a pre-med student, switched to journalism, and only joined the theatre programme after taking time away from college.

Denzel Washington played college basketball under which coach, later choked by Latrell Sprewell in the NBA?

P. J. Carlesimo. He was a young assistant coach when Washington was a freshman guard; Sprewell's 1997 attack on him at a Warriors practice brought the player a 68-game suspension.

Denzel Washington wanted to attend Texas Tech because its teams shared which nickname with his boyhood club?

Red Raiders. The teenage wish got the New Yorker following Texas teams, which is how he says he ended up a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan.

Denzel Washington's screen debut was a 1977 made-for-television docudrama about which sprinter?

Wilma Rudolph. On the set of Wilma he met a fellow cast member, Pauletta Pearson, and six years later he married her.

In which 1981 comedy, his first Hollywood film, did Denzel Washington play George Segal's long-lost son?

Carbon Copy. His Roger Porter turns up at a wealthy white executive's office claiming to be his son, and the news soon gets the man thrown out of his job and his home.

Denzel Washington played Dr. Phillip Chandler on which NBC hospital drama from 1982 to 1988?

St. Elsewhere. The drama was never a ratings hit, yet NBC kept it on for six seasons and it won 13 Emmys.

The NBC hospital drama in which Denzel Washington played Dr. Phillip Chandler was set in which city?

Boston. Its finale implied the whole series had been imagined by an autistic boy gazing into a snow globe with the hospital inside.

Denzel Washington's first Oscar nomination came for playing which South African activist in Cry Freedom (1987)?

Steve Biko. South Africa's censors passed the film uncut, but once it reached cinemas there in 1988 the police seized the prints.

Who directed Cry Freedom, the 1987 anti-apartheid drama that earned Denzel Washington his first Oscar nomination?

Richard Attenborough. Unable to film in apartheid South Africa, the Gandhi director shot the story mainly across the border in Zimbabwe.

In Cry Freedom, which actor played newspaper editor Donald Woods opposite Denzel Washington?

Kevin Kline. His banned editor slips out of South Africa disguised as a priest to publish what he knows, just as the real Donald Woods had done.

Denzel Washington won his first Oscar, as Best Supporting Actor, for which film?

Glory. His Private Trip, who escaped slavery, slips out of camp to find shoes for his ruined feet and is flogged for desertion in front of the whole regiment.

Denzel Washington played Private Trip, a Civil War soldier in which real Union Army regiment?

54th Massachusetts. The real regiment refused its pay rather than accept less than white soldiers received, and kept refusing until Congress granted equal pay in 1864.

Which real colonel, played on screen by Matthew Broderick, commands Denzel Washington's Private Trip?

Robert Gould Shaw. Confederates buried him in a mass grave with his Black soldiers as an insult, but his father asked that the body be left there, saying a soldier's most fitting grave is the field where he fell.

Denzel Washington won the Academy Award for Best Actor for which 2001 film?

Training Day. It was a rare villain for an actor known for likable heroes; Roger Ebert wrote that by the end his rogue cop is "like a monster from a horror film, unkillable and implacable".

In the film that won him Best Actor, what is the name of Denzel Washington's corrupt LAPD narcotics detective?

Alonzo Harris. His car's licence plate, ORP 967, is said to stand for Officer Rafael Pérez, born in 1967, the real LAPD anti-gang officer at the centre of the Rampart corruption scandal.

Denzel Washington's 2001 Best Actor win made him the second Black actor to take the category, after whom?

Sidney Poitier. He was in the theatre that night: the Academy had handed him an honorary Oscar earlier in the same ceremony, 38 years after his own win for Lilies of the Field.

Which actor did Denzel Washington call his "hero", saying "He was who I wanted to be"?

James Earl Jones. "I wasn't going to be as big as him. I wanted to sound like him," Washington said after Jones died in 2024, adding that seeing Jones on stage is what started his own college theatre career.

Which South African leader appears as a Soweto schoolteacher at the end of Denzel Washington's Malcolm X?

Nelson Mandela. Filmed soon after his release from 27 years in prison, he addresses a classroom whose pupils declare one by one, "I am Malcolm X."

What is the name of the production company Denzel Washington founded in 1992?

Mundy Lane Entertainment. "The company started basically because my manager thought it was a good idea," he said five years on; its first film was Devil in a Blue Dress in 1995.

Who directed Philadelphia (1993), in which Denzel Washington played lawyer Joe Miller opposite Tom Hanks?

Jonathan Demme. Bill Murray, William Hurt, Nick Nolte and Tim Robbins were all considered for Joe Miller before the part went to Washington.

The Pelican Brief, in which Denzel Washington played reporter Gray Grantham, was adapted from a novel by which author?

John Grisham. He was in the audience when the Clintons hosted a private White House screening of the film a week before it opened.

In a 1995 Gene Hackman thriller, Denzel Washington played executive officer Ron Hunter aboard which nuclear submarine?

USS Alabama. In Crimson Tide, when a damaged radio cuts off a follow-up order mid-message, Hunter refuses to back his captain's nuclear launch and has him removed from command.

Which role did Denzel Washington play in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993)?

Don Pedro. As the Prince of Aragon he does young Claudio's courting for him and wins him Hero, while Keanu Reeves sulks as his scheming half-brother Don John.

In Courage Under Fire, Denzel Washington's colonel investigates whether Meg Ryan's Captain Walden deserves which decoration?

Medal of Honor. In the film Walden would be the first woman to earn it in combat; in fact Civil War surgeon Mary Edwards Walker received it, had it stripped in 1917 and got it back in 1977.

What is the name of the angel Denzel Washington plays in his 1996 Christmas comedy with Whitney Houston?

Dudley. Sent in answer to a struggling pastor's prayer, the angel ends up quietly falling in love with the pastor's wife.

Denzel Washington's 1996 Christmas comedy with Whitney Houston was a remake of which Cary Grant film?

The Bishop's Wife. Grant's angel answers a bishop who is fretting over money for a grand new cathedral; the remake swaps him for an inner-city pastor fighting to keep his church going.

In He Got Game (1998), which NBA player played Jesus Shuttlesworth, the son of Denzel Washington's character?

Ray Allen. Then a young Milwaukee Bucks guard, he plays the nation's top prospect, whose jailed father is let out for a week to steer him to the governor's old college.

In Mo' Better Blues, Denzel Washington played jazz musician Bleek Gilliam, who plays which instrument?

Trumpet. The film opens with young Bleek kept indoors practising while his friends play outside, and his career ends when he is beaten across the mouth with his own instrument.

What is the touch-hopping demon that hunts Denzel Washington's detective John Hobbes in Fallen (1998) called?

Azazel. A killer sings the Rolling Stones' "Time Is on My Side" as he is executed, and the demon then taunts Hobbes by having one stranger after another take up the tune.

In The Bone Collector, Denzel Washington played which bed-bound forensics expert from Jeffery Deaver's novels?

Lincoln Rhyme. Paralysed by a falling beam on the job, he works the case from his bed with, as he puts it, "one finger, two shoulders and a brain".

Which actress played Amelia Donaghy, the beat cop who works crime scenes for Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector?

Angelina Jolie. Her patrol officer is first on the scene of a gruesome murder, and the bedridden detective drafts her to walk each crime scene for him.

Denzel Washington played boxer Rubin Carter, who was convicted of a 1966 triple murder in which New Jersey city?

Paterson. Carter spent 19 years in prison before a federal judge freed him in 1985, ruling that the prosecution had rested on an appeal to racism rather than reason.

Which 1975 Bob Dylan song declared Rubin Carter innocent, long before Washington's film about him?

Hurricane. Dylan wrote it after reading Carter's prison memoir and visiting him in jail, then played a benefit concert for him at Madison Square Garden.

In Remember the Titans, Denzel Washington played coach Herman Boone at T. C. Williams High School in which Virginia city?

Alexandria. The film plays 1971 as the year the school integrated, but the city's schools had desegregated years earlier; what changed was that its three high schools merged into one.

In his 2002 directorial debut, Denzel Washington played Jerome Davenport, a Navy what?

Psychiatrist. Dr. Davenport is given three sessions with a sailor who keeps getting into fights; the young man refuses to speak, so Davenport simply waits him out.

What was the title of Denzel Washington's 2002 directorial debut?

Antwone Fisher. The real Fisher was working as a security guard on the Sony studio lot when his screenplay about his own troubled childhood reached the producers.

The Great Debaters (2007), which Denzel Washington directed and starred in, follows which school's team?

Wiley College. The film has its debaters beat Harvard; the real 1935 team beat the reigning national champions, the University of Southern California.

Which 2010 film was Denzel Washington's fifth and final collaboration with director Tony Scott?

Unstoppable. It was based on a real 2001 runaway in Ohio, where an unmanned freight train rolled on until a railwayman ran alongside, climbed aboard and shut the engine down.

Denzel Washington starred in a 2004 remake of which Frank Sinatra film?

The Manchurian Candidate. Washington took Sinatra's part as the haunted officer Ben Marco, while the remake traded the Korean War and Communist brainwashers for the Gulf War and a sinister corporation.

In Man on Fire (2004), where does Denzel Washington's bodyguard John Creasy protect Dakota Fanning's Pita?

Mexico City. The novel and a 1987 film version were set in Italy, but Tony Scott argued kidnapping had become too rare there and moved the story to a city where it was still rife.

In Inside Man, which actor plays the masked bank robber who matches wits with Denzel Washington's hostage negotiator?

Clive Owen. He spends most of the film behind a mask, yet it opens on his bare face in what looks like a cell, calmly announcing that he has pulled off the perfect bank robbery.

In American Gangster, Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas sells his unusually pure heroin under which brand name?

Blue Magic. In the film Lucas cuts out the middlemen and buys direct from producers in South-East Asia, so his heroin is both purer and cheaper than his rivals'.

American Gangster opens in 1968 with Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas as right-hand man to which Harlem mob boss?

Bumpy Johnson. Lucas is his driver and bodyguard, and when the old boss dies of a heart attack he sets out to build an empire of his own.

Before American Gangster, which 1995 sci-fi thriller first paired Denzel Washington with Russell Crowe?

Virtuosity. Crowe played SID 6.7, a virtual-reality villain stitched together from the personalities of real killers, who escapes into the real world with Washington's ex-cop sent to catch him.

Denzel Washington won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the revival of which August Wilson drama?

Fences. Six years later he played Troy Maxson again in a film version he directed himself, and it won his co-star Viola Davis her first Oscar.

Troy Maxson, the role that won Denzel Washington a Tony and an Oscar nomination, works in 1950s Pittsburgh as a what?

Garbage collector. Once a Negro league slugger, Troy asks his bosses why only white men get to drive the trucks, and ends up the city's first Black driver.

Which role did Denzel Washington play in the 2005 Broadway revival of Julius Caesar?

Brutus. His name had New Yorkers queuing for the play as they hadn't, one critic noted, since Al Pacino played Mark Antony 17 years earlier.

In 2018 Denzel Washington played 'Hickey' Hickman on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh, by which playwright?

Eugene O'Neill. Washington went back a long way with him: one of his first leading roles, as a student actor four decades earlier, was the title part in another O'Neill play.

Who played Iago opposite Denzel Washington's Othello on Broadway in 2025?

Jake Gyllenhaal. For Washington it was a return to a part he had first played as a student actor in the 1970s, nearly half a century earlier.

In 2014 Denzel Washington returned to Broadway as Walter Lee Younger in which classic American play?

A Raisin in the Sun. Its title comes from a Langston Hughes poem that asks what happens to a dream deferred: "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"

Who directed Flight (2012), in which Denzel Washington played alcoholic airline pilot Whip Whitaker?

Robert Zemeckis. It was his first live-action film since Cast Away twelve years earlier, made for $31 million only because he and Washington gave up their usual multimillion-dollar fees.

Safe House (2012), in which Denzel Washington played rogue operative Tobin Frost, is set in which city?

Cape Town. During the shoot Washington had himself waterboarded for real, explaining afterwards: "I wanted to see what it would be like."

The Equalizer films, starring Denzel Washington, are based on a 1980s TV series in which Robert McCall was played by whom?

Edward Woodward. The English actor's McCall was a retired spy turned freelance protector; in 2010 Russell Crowe tried to revive the part for himself before it went to Washington.

Which actor played gambler Josh Faraday alongside Denzel Washington in The Magnificent Seven (2016)?

Chris Pratt. Neither star had made a Western before, and Washington didn't watch the 1960 original to prepare, joking that when people ask which of the seven he is, he says, "I'm the black guy."

In The Book of Eli, Denzel Washington's wanderer carries west the only surviving edition of which book?

The Bible. The warlord who wants it finally gets hold of it, only to find it is in Braille: Eli is blind, and has the whole text by heart anyway.

Which Nightcrawler writer-director made Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), which brought Denzel Washington an Oscar nomination?

Dan Gilroy. After the film's Toronto festival premiere it was re-cut before release: shortened, with a key reveal moved from the last act to earlier in the story.

Who directed Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)?

Joel Coen. It was the first film either Coen brother had directed without the other: Ethan had stepped away from cinema for a while to work in theatre.

Who played Lady Macbeth opposite Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth?

Frances McDormand. She also produced the film, whose casting makes the Macbeths an older couple than usual, so that their grab for the crown no longer reads as youthful ambition.

In Gladiator II (2024), Denzel Washington played which scheming ex-slave who owns Paul Mescal's gladiator?

Macrinus. The name belongs to a real Praetorian prefect who became emperor in 217 after Caracalla was murdered, a killing ancient historians lay at his door.

Highest 2 Lowest (2025), Denzel Washington's reunion with Spike Lee, remakes High and Low by which Japanese director?

Akira Kurosawa. His film was itself taken from an American crime novel, Ed McBain's King's Ransom, so Lee's New York version brings the story back home.

Who officiated when Denzel Washington and his wife Pauletta renewed their wedding vows in South Africa in 1995?

Desmond Tutu. The archbishop led the ceremony twelve years after the couple's 1983 wedding; they had met on the set of Washington's very first screen job.

Before acting, Denzel Washington's son John David Washington played which sport professionally?

Football. Undrafted, he signed with the St. Louis Rams in 2006, and when he turned to acting his first adult role was an NFL player in HBO's Ballers.

Denzel Washington's son John David had his breakthrough role as Ron Stallworth in which 2018 film?

BlacKkKlansman. It reunited him with Spike Lee: as a small boy he had a part as a schoolchild in Lee's Malcolm X, the film that starred his father.

Denzel Washington's son Malcolm made his directorial debut with which August Wilson adaptation?

The Piano Lesson. It was a family affair: his father produced, his brother John David played Boy Willie, his sister Katia was an executive producer and his sister Olivia had a role.

Denzel Washington says he "blew it" by turning down a detective role in which 1995 thriller?

Se7en. He passed on Detective Mills, the part Brad Pitt took, because the script struck him as too demonic, then saw the finished film and knew he had made a mistake.

The US Army named Denzel Washington its Honorary Sergeant Major in 2021 for work with which charity for military families?

Fisher House. Its free lodges let families stay close while a relative is in a military hospital, and after visiting wounded soldiers in Texas in 2004 he made a substantial donation to it.

Which director made all three Equalizer films and The Magnificent Seven with Denzel Washington?

Antoine Fuqua. Their 2018 follow-up, The Equalizer 2, was the first sequel Washington had ever made, some four decades into his screen career.

Which award did Denzel Washington receive at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025?

Honorary Palme d'Or. It was sprung on him as a surprise before the premiere of Highest 2 Lowest, on a quick trip to France squeezed between Broadway performances.

Who presented Denzel Washington's Best Actor Oscar?

Julia Roberts. She announced it with a delighted "I love my life"; Russell Crowe had swept the Golden Globe, SAG and Bafta awards that season, yet the Oscar went to her friend and former co-star.

In Devil in a Blue Dress, Denzel Washington played Easy Rawlins, the 1948 LA detective created by whom?

Walter Mosley. During the 1992 campaign Bill Clinton named him a favourite author, which brought the former computer programmer's Easy Rawlins mysteries mainstream fame.

Who directed Mississippi Masala (1991), in which Denzel Washington romanced Sarita Choudhury's Ugandan-Indian immigrant?

Mira Nair. While researching the film in 1989 she interviewed the scholar Mahmood Mamdani; they married, and their son Zohran was elected mayor of New York City in 2025.

In John Q. (2002), Denzel Washington's character takes an emergency room hostage so his son can get which transplant?

Heart. His insurance won't cover the $250,000 operation, and the hospital wants $75,000 down just to put the boy on the transplant list.

In The Siege (1998), the Army seals off which New York borough under martial law?

Brooklyn. The Army rounds up the borough's young men of Arab descent and holds them in a stadium; Arab-American and Muslim groups protested in 1998 that the film tied their communities to terrorism.

Who played the hijacker opposite Denzel Washington in The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)?

John Travolta. The remake raised the 1974 original's ransom from $1 million to $10 million and turned its ex-mercenary ringleader into an ex-con.

Who played the escaped-convict villain Earl Talbot Blake opposite Denzel Washington in Ricochet (1991)?

John Lithgow. Writer Fred Dekker has said he first wrote the script as a Dirty Harry film, which Clint Eastwood turned down as too grim before it was reworked for Washington.

Which actress played Alex, the estranged wife of Denzel Washington's police chief, in Out of Time (2003)?

Eva Mendes. Her detective is handed the very case in which every clue points at her own husband, so he spends the film scrambling to stay one step ahead of her.

What kept Denzel Washington from his 2022 Medal of Freedom ceremony?

Covid-19. Joe Biden told the ceremony he would hand the medal over at a later date, and finally did in January 2025, alongside Bono and Michael J. Fox.

Which 2021 film was the fourth feature Denzel Washington directed?

A Journal for Jordan. It is based on Dana Canedy's memoir about the journal of advice her fiancé, First Sergeant Charles King, wrote for their baby son before he was killed in Iraq in 2006.