Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman, born June 1, 1937, in Memphis, Tennessee, is an American actor, producer, and narrator whose career has spanned more than six decades on stage, television, and film. The son of Mamie Edna Freeman, a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber who died of cirrhosis in 1961, he has three older siblings. As an infant he was sent to live with his paternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi, and spent his childhood moving between Greenwood, Mississippi, Gary, Indiana, and Chicago. He made his first appearance on a stage at age nine, playing the lead in a school play, and at twelve won a statewide drama competition. Freeman graduated from high school in 1955, declined a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, and enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he served as an Automatic Tracking Radar repairman and reached the rank of airman first class. After his discharge in 1959 he relocated to Los Angeles, studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, and also pursued theater arts at Los Angeles City College.

Freeman's professional performing life began in earnest in the early 1960s. He worked as a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair, was a member of the Opera Ring musical theater group in San Francisco, and acted in a touring production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun. He made his Off-Broadway debut in 1967 in The Niggerlovers, opposite Viveca Lindfors, and debuted on Broadway in 1968 in an all-black production of Hello, Dolly! featuring Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway. The following year he appeared on stage in The Dozens, and in 1971 he performed in a theater production of Purlie. That same year he also made his first credited film appearance in Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow!

Beginning in 1971, Freeman starred in the PBS children's television series The Electric Company, a role that brought him financial stability and wide recognition. He left the show in 1975. In 1978 he returned to the stage in two productions: The Mighty Gents, in which he played a wino named Zeke, and White Pelicans. His performance in The Mighty Gents earned him a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play as well as a Clarence Derwent Award, and brought him a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. The following year he appeared in the Shakespearean productions Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, with his title performance in Coriolanus earning him an Obie Award in 1980.

Freeman's Broadway work continued across subsequent decades. He starred in the musical A Country Girl and in The Gospel at Colonus, and also appeared in 8 and in Purlie, among other productions. His stage career extended from 1964 through 2011.

On screen, Freeman's profile rose sharply in 1987 when he played a violent street hustler in Street Smart alongside Christopher Reeve and Kathy Baker, a performance that earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He subsequently appeared in Glory, Driving Miss Daisy, and Lean on Me, all in 1989, with Driving Miss Daisy bringing him a second Oscar nomination. Further nominations followed for The Shawshank Redemption in 1994 and Invictus in 2009. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a former boxer in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby in 2004. Additional film credits include Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Se7en, Amistad, Deep Impact, Gone Baby Gone, The Bucket List, and the role of Lucius Fox in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. He also appeared in Wanted, Red, Oblivion, the Now You See Me films, and Lucy.

Alongside his acting work, Freeman has narrated numerous documentary projects, among them The Long Way Home, March of the Penguins, the television series Through the Wormhole, The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, Our Universe, and Life on Our Planet. He made his directorial debut with the drama Bopha! in 1993 and co-founded the production company Revelations Entertainment with Lori McCreary in 1996, under which the CBS political drama Madam Secretary was produced from 2014 to 2019.

Freeman has received a Golden Globe Award and a Grammy Award nomination in addition to his Academy Award. He was honored with the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2011, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2012, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2018.