There are just a few actors who can say that have been nominated five times for the Oscars and three times as a Best Actor in a Leading Role won two Oscars one as a Best Actor in a Supporting Role and another one as a Best Actor in a Leading Role. One of those actors is Denzel Washington; one of the most recognized and pre-eminent actors of his generation. He has garnered much critical acclaim for his work in film since the 1990s, including his portrayals of real-life figures, such as Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Melvin B. Tolson, Frank Lucas, and Herman Boone.

Actor, director. Born Denzel Jermaine Washington, Jr. on December 28, 1954 , in Mount Vernon , New York, at the north end of the Bronx in New York City.

His father, Dillwyn, Virginia-born Reverend Denzel Washington, was a Pentecostal minister with the Church of God in Christ. Although his father,was an ordained Pentecostal minister, he worked for the Water Department and at a local department store, "S. Klein".

His mother, Lynne, a beauty parlor owner, was born in Georgia and raised in Harlem. Lynne, was a former gospel singer. Washington was banned from watching movies by his parents, who divorced when he was fourteen. There were also an older sister, Lorice, and younger brother David.

He was a serious child, but brought up in very sociable surroundings, spending much time listening to his mother and father, in their own different styles, entertaining their clients at work. It's often been said that the boy picked up his desire to act from the flamboyant communication that went on around him at this time. He certainly picked up a desire to work - the family ethic was very strong - and young Denzel found himself labouring in barber shops and beauty parlours from the age of 11. He was also a member of the Boys' Club of America, for whom he is a leading spokesman to this day.

Washington was interested in attending Texas Tech University: And as he said "I grew up in the Boys Club in Mount Vernon, and we were the Red Raiders. So when I was in high school, I wanted to go to Texas Tech in Lubbock just because they were called the Red Raiders and their uniforms looked like ours."

He subsequently went through a rebellious stage, at the end of which several of his friends were sentenced to prison. Remembering his three best friends of the time, he once explained that one was murdered, one died from AIDS-related illness, while the third was in the middle of a 25-year stretch. And Denzel was living like a king in Hollywood.

His mother's reaction to his behavioral problems was to send him to preparatory school. So, when Denzel was 14, he and Lorice were sent away to boarding school.

Denzel had considered a career as a doctor, but decided on journalism and, as ever setting his mind to the task in hand, by 1977 he had graduated with a BA in journalism from Fordham University.

At Fordham, he played collegiate basketball as a Freshman guard under coach P. J. Carlesimo. After a period of bouncing from major to major and briefly dropping out of school for a semester, Washington worked as a counselor at an overnight summer camp in New England. After participating in a staff talent show for the campers, a colleague suggested he try acting, and a star was born, discovering his life's calling as an actor.

Returning to Fordham that fall with a renewed purpose and focus, he enrolled at the Lincoln Center campus to study acting, he'd stumbled into acting and discovered both a latent talent and, probably, an escape from his intense personality. He recalls now how his friends would often complain about how tense and uptight he was, how he would brood constantly. Only when he had kids of his own, he says, did he really learn how to have fun. So acting must have been a release and a relief - he certainly threw himself into it. One performance, as the green-eyed, wife-throttling Moor, is still talked about at Fordham to this day.

Denzel won a scholarship to the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Here he studied under the renowned Bill Ball but, after a single year, he grew restless for work, for a real challenge (something that's characterised his entire career). He returned to New York and was snapped up by the famed Joseph Papp, head of the New York Shakespeare Festival. Here he gained a strong grounding in the classics, appearing in the likes of Coriolanus, and also gained experience off-Broadway. In one production of Laurence Holder's When The Chickens Come Home To Roost, at the Henry Street Theatre, he took on a role he would later reprise on the Silver Screen - that of Malcolm X. Then, he would be Oscar-nominated; for now, he had to be content with an Audelco award.

To support himself, he'd been a garbage man, he'd worked in factories and in the post office, he'd even worked the midnight shift at a record-processing plant. He'd suffered bad times and hunger, keeping his unemployment book to this day to remember how it was.

While his stage career was progressing, Denzel had also procured several TV roles. He'd made his debut in 1975 Wilma, about the sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who won three golds at the 1960 Olympics - Denzel playing one of her boyfriends. On-set, he met co-performer Pauletta Pearson, an actress, singer and pianist (she'd later appear in Beloved). The couple would marry in 1982 and have four children - John David, Katia and twins Malcolm and Olivia - renewing their vows in South Africa in 1995, in a ceremony officiated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Onscreen, Denzel also made an appearance in the controversial Flesh And Blood, where a mother, Suzanne Pleshette, continually seduced her son, Tom Berenger.

Washington made his feature film debut in the comedy A Carbon Copy (1981). In this film, he played the teenage and hitherto unknown son of white executive George Segal. George must try to incorporate this surprise newcomer into his life, with, hilarious consequences.

Later, Denzel returned to New York and the stage to play in A Soldier's Story. The play concerned a black soldier found dead outside a military base in Louisiana. The investigation, by a black lawyer, uncovers an extremely complicated and wholly unexpected situation. Denzel's character, Private First Class Melvin Peterson, was conspicuously involved somehow. Denzel, was superb, picking up an Obie for his efforts.

In 1982 Denzel came to the attention of the NBC. So, his big break came when he starred in the popular television hospital drama, St. Elsewhere. He was one of a few actors to appear on the series for its entire six-year run. He played a young resident Doctor Phillip Chandler. This series, concerning the daily goings-on at St Eligius Hospital, was truly innovative, veering between bizarre humour and fraught drama; it could be considered as a predecessor of ER, Chicago Hope and even Northern Exposure. Starring alongside Denzel were Ed Begley Jr and ex-football star Mark Harmon (himself also an excellent Ted Bundy), with Helen Hunt appearing between 1984 and 1986.

In 1983, Washington married actress Pauletta Pearson (now Pauletta Washington), who he met on the set of his first screen role, Wilma. The couple has four children: John David (b. 1983), Katia (b. 1987), Olivia (b. 1991) and Malcolm (b. 1991) (named after Malcolm X). In 1995, the couple renewed their wedding vows in South Africa with Archbishop Desmond Tutu officiating.

In the meantime, he would use his summer breaks to slowly break into movies and, cannily, tried to pick the classiest projects he could. First came Norman Jewison's film adaptation of A Soldier's Story, with Denzel reprising his onstage role. Then came Sidney Lumet's Power, where Richard Gere starred as a seemingly omnipotent political spin-doctor who gets dragged into heavy-duty corruption. And then, in 1987, Washington starred as South African anti-apartheid campaigner Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom, a role for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Here Denzel playing the part of South African activist Steve Biko who, having inspired and influenced journalist Donald Woods with his integrity and charisma, is then murdered by the authorities. Woods (played by Kevin Kline) now has to sneak out of the country if he wants to write the story and, though white, faces the same perils as Biko.

Denzel doesn't often dwell on race issues in Hollywood. "I'm very proud to be black," he once said "but black is not all I am. That's my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it's not all of who I am, nor is it the basis from which I answer every question". This he proved over his next eight roles - only acouple dealt overtly with racial politics, but all the roles were wildly different from the rest.

Next in 1988, he revealed an outstanding English accent in For Queen And Country, where he was an ex-soldier seeking respectable work in London, only to end up as a drug dealer's bodyguard.

In 1989 came The Mighty Quinn, where Denzel played a Jamaican cop whose dodgy mate Robert Townsend (who'd earlier appeared in A Soldier's Story) gets involved with murder and Mammon.

In 1989 too, he starred in Glory. Here, co-starring Matthew Broderick played the white leader of the first company of black volunteers in US military history, taking flak from both sides in the American Civil War. With very little experience, and trying desperately to maintain some order amongst men he does not understand at all, he struggles to discipline Denzel's rebellious Private Trip, a soldier who openly asks why these men should fight for a Union that views them the same way the Confederates do. In 1989, Washington won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Private Trip in this film.

Director Edward Zwick has said of Denzel: "Whatever that mysterious electrochemical process is that makes the camera love someone, he has more of it than any one person should". In Glory, it really showed.

After Glory came Heart Condition, where Denzel played a slimy defence lawyer who's shot dead and has his heart transplanted into the body of arch-enemy cop Bob Hoskins, returning to haunt the little feller. In Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues he acted out the tempestuous career of self-obsessed trumpet-player Bleek Gilliam. In the Summer of 1990 he starred in Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala where he played Demetrius Williams, a young American carpet cleaner who begins a frowned-upon affair with the daughter of an Indian family who've just escaped Idi Amin's Uganda. In Ricochet, he was a straight-laced assistant DA who's framed and threatened by a sublimely beastly John Lithgow.

Washington played one of his most critically acclaimed roles in 1992's Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee. His performance as the Black Nationalist leader earned him an Oscar nomination. Both the influential film critic Roger Ebert and the highly-acclaimed film director Martin Scorsese called the movie one of the ten best films made during the 1990s.

Malcolm X transformed Washington's career, turning him, practically overnight, into one of Hollywood's most respected actors. He turned down several similar roles, such as an offer to play Martin Luther King, Jr., because he wanted to avoid being typecast.

After returning to his Shakespearian roots by playing Don Pedro in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing, there was a string of big, big movies. In 1993 came The Pelican Brief, where student Julia Roberts stumbles upon the sinister truth behind the murderof two Supreme Court judges and goes on the run, followed by Denzel's hungry journalist. That same year, came the heart-rending Philadelphia. Here Tom Hanks played a lawyer sacked for contracting AIDS, with Denzel as a homophobic lawyer who has to stand for him in court.

Then came Crimson Tide, with Denzel back in uniform as the First Officer on a nuclear sub who resorts to mutiny to stop gung-ho captain Gene Hackman from zapping the enemies and starting World War 3.

Then in 1995 came Virtuosity, with Denzel the only one capable of catching a virtual criminal (Russell Crowe), created from the personalities of 150 serial killers, who somehow escapes into the real world.

That same year came the sorely under-rated Devil In A Blue Dress where he played a private detective in post-WW2 LA, hired to track down some blue blood's fiancee who's scarpered off into the black area of town. In 1996 was Courage Under Fire, once again with Edward Zwick. Here it was back to the military with the D-Man as an officer, haunted by mistakes in his own past, who goes to investigate the Gulf War heroism, or otherwise, of the dead Meg Ryan.

In 1996 he starred The Preacher's Wife, Denzel played an angel who drops from Heaven to help out a minister whose marriage to Whitney Houston is on the rocks and whose church is being nicked by developer Gregory Hines. Then there was the 1998 Fallen. Here Denzel played a cop who catches killer Elias Koteas, sees him executed and is then freaked out to discover he's back.

That same year in Spike Lee's He Got Game, played the yellow-toothed, raggedy-headed, wife-killing father of a basketball prodigy who sneakily tries to get the boy to enrol at the Governor's own college in exchange for early parole.

Now Denzel's movies were uniformly high-budget (from Courage Under Fire on he was a $10 million a film man - and more). In The Siege, once again with Zwick, he was an anti-terrorist expert who battles with nutty general Bruce Willis when New York is attacked and the city is brought under martial law.

In 1999 there was The Bone Collector which made Denzel play as a bed-ridden quadriplegic detective who uses Angelina Jolie and a cool camera set-up to track down a serial murderer.

That same year, Washington starred in The Hurricane, a movie about boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, the subject of the famous Bob Dylan song, whose conviction for triple murder was overturned after he had spent almost 20 years in prison. Various newspaper articles have suggested that the controversy over the film’s accuracy may have cost Washington an Oscar for which he was nominated. Washington did receive a Golden Globe Award in 2000 and a 'Silberner Bär' (Silver Berlin Bear) at the Berlin International Film Festival for the role.

Denzel trained for a year to get into shape for the boxing sequences, at one point undergoing two hours boxing practice a day for six months with trainer Terry Claybon. He lost 40 pounds / 18 kg. This was by no means the first time he'd prepared for a part, he's actually renowned for his hardcore research. For The Pelican Brief, he spent months with a Washington reporter. For Glory he practised with Civil War re-enactors. For Philadelphia he interviewed many lawyers, including the notorious Johnny Cochran. And for Courage Under Fire he attended the National Training Centre at Fort Irwin where he endured battle games, listened to crashing tapes of tank battles from Desert Storm and also qualified to use a 120mm gun and drive an M1A1 tank.

He also presented the Arthur Ashe ESPY Award to Loretta Claiborne for her courage. He appeared as himself in the end of The Loretta Claiborne Story movie.

In 2000, Washington appeared in the crowd-pleasing Disney film, Remember the Titans, which grossed over $100 million at the United States box office. based on a true story about a black hero, this time Herman Boone, a football coach who took over a college side in Virginia in the early Seventies, immediately after racial integration was brought in.

He was nominated and won an Oscar for his next film, the 2001 cop thriller, Training Day, which was considered a change of pace for Washington, as he played a villainous character after many roles as a heroic lead. Here Ethan Hawke played a rookie in Narcotics who spends his first day on the job with Denzel's cynical Alonzo Harris, a cop who strays far from the straight and narrow in his quest to bust dealers.

After this would come the box-office success John Q, directed by Nick Cassavetes (whose dad, John had appeared in Flesh And Blood, one of Denzel's earliest movies). Here Denzel played a poverty-stricken father who can't afford his son's heart transplant op and so holds up the local ER and demands they do their thing there and then.

And then came Denzel's directorial debut, with 2002 Antwone Fisher, where Denzel played a Navy psychologist who brings an angry young man back from the edge of madness. It was a big step forward for Denzel who'd previously only directed the video for Bebe Winans' In Harm's Way.

Between 2003 and 2004, Washington appeared in a series of thrillers that performed generally well at the box office. First, 2003 would bring the complex noir thriller Out Of Time, where Washington played a Florida sheriff in the process of splitting from his detective wife, Eva Mendes. Hooking up with an old flame, he finds she has cancer (and a well-insured, wife-beating husband) and proceeds to steal impounded drug money to fund her cure. Before the treatment can begin, though, both flame and hubbie die in a house-fire and, with Mendes investigating, all the evidence points to Denzel.

Next came Man On Fire, directed by Tony Scott, where Denzel was hired to protect an industrialist's family in Mexico City, only to see daughter Dakota Fanning kidnapped. Tortured by his guilty military past and his present alcoholism, he goes after the bad guys with all guns (and rocket launchers and bombs) blazing.

The same year, 2004, brought another winner in The Manchurian Candidate, a remake of the Frank Sinatra paranoia-fest. Here Liev Schreiber, driven on by ruthless senator mum Meryl Streep, is pushing for high office, his credentials boosted by an act of heroism during the Gulf War. Washington would play one of the old army colleagues he supposedly saved, a man troubled by flashes of nightmare that contradict the official party line. He must dig deep into traumatic memories to find the truth then, under threat from shady and all-powerful corporate interests, reveal it to the people.

Denzel's planned next move, did not come to fruition. Signed up to reteam with his Training Day director, Antoine Fuqua, for American Gangster (AKA Tru Blu), he was all set to play notorious Seventies drug lord Frank Lucas, with Benicio Del Toro also onboard. The screenplay, by Steve "Schindler's List" Zaillian, was excellent. But then disputes, rumoured to be over Universal's desire to cast Matt Damon, caused the project to collapse. Clauses in his contract meant that Denzel was still paid, apparently $20 million.

In 2005, after a 15-year hiatus (he was last seen in the summer of 1990 in the title role of the Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's Richard III) , Washington appeared onstage again in another Shakespeare play as Marcus Brutus in Julius Caesar on Broadway; it was in the New York's Belasco Theatre. The production's limited run was a consistent sell-out, averaging over 100% attendance capacity nightly despite receiving universally terrible reviews.

Later in 2006, Washington moved on to a reunion with Spike Lee for his next film Inside Man. Here criminal mastermind Clive Owen leads a raid on a bank that goes horribly wrong, Denzel playing a cop who must persuade Owen not to execute hostages while also preventing his escape. Complicating matters would be Jodie Foster as a mysterious official who insists on entering the bank to protect the secret contents of a safety deposit box.

Following this that same year, there'd be a further reunion, with Tony Scott who, with Man On Fire, had given Denzel his best ever box office opening weekend (he'd also directed him in Crimson Tide). This would be Deja Vu where Washington would play yet another government agent, this time one who can travel through time and does so in order to save the life of a woman who'll otherwise be murdered. It would be a fascinating and romantic sci-fi thriller, though its production was delayed when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

It must be mentioned also that in May 2006 his oldest son, John David, was drafted by the NFL's St. Louis Rams, after playing college ball at Morehouse.

He recently played as Frank Lucas, a real-life heroin kingpin from Harlem, in 2007 Ridley Scott's American Gangster, opposite Russell Crowe. Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan.

Next, directed and starred in The Great Debaters. A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.

He will next be seen in 2009 as subway security chief Zach "Z" Garber in the remake of the 70's thriller, "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3", opposite John Travolta and directed by Tony Scott, and is attached to star as CIA super agent Brandon Scofield in the film adaptation of Robert Ludlum's Cold War spy thriller The Matarese Circle.

Washington and his family visited soldiers at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. He later made a sizable donation to the Fisher Houses, small hotels that provide rooms for soldiers' families while the soldiers are hospitalized. In October 2006, he published a bestseller entitled Hand to Guide Me, featuring actors, politicians, athletes, and other public figures recalling their childhood mentors. The book was published in commemoration of the Boys and Girls Club of America's centennial anniversary, because Washington had participated in the club as a child.

On May 20, 2007, Washington received an honorary doctorate of humanities degree from Morehouse College.

Nowadays, Denzel spends as much time as he can with his family in an LA mansion once owned by William Holden; when he is not filming or working at his production company. This, called Mundy Lane Entertainment after the place Denzel grew up, debuted with Devil In A Blue Dress and has made well-received documentaries on Hank Aaron and Shaft-director Gordon Parks, both Emmy-nominated.