Denzel Washington was born into the world December 28, 1954 to Lennis and Denzel Washington Sr. in Mount Vernon, New York. After his parents’ divorce when he was 14, his mother moved him from a public school to a private preparatory school, Oakland Military Academy. He claims it was the best possible move his mother could have made for him, as the crowd he was hanging out with were taken by the streets. 

For a while he wanted to attend Texas Tech but actually obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Journalism from Fordham University in 1977, where he played basketball. A colleague at the overnight summer camp her worked at in Connecticut suggested he try his hand at acting. (Good call, colleague!) He enrolled at the Lincoln Center to focus on and study acting, appearing in “The Emperor Jones” and “Othello.” He attended grad school one year before leaving for New York to be a professional actor. 

This is Denzel and Denzel’s been Denzel-ing for a long time, so let me just list some of the things he’s been in. He made his very first screen debut in the made-for-TV film “Wilma” in 1977, and his first Hollywood appearance was in “Carbon Copy” in 1981. 

He’s been in some super well known movies that we all know and have enjoyed at some point in out lives, including “Glory,” “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Malcom X,” “The Preacher’s Wife” (aka my jam in the 90s), “He Got Game,” “Remember the Titans” (A CLASSIC), “Inside Man,” Man on Fire,” “American Gangster,” “Deja Vu,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Fences,” and, one of my favorites, “John Q” (DENZEL, ALWAYS CRYING KIMBERLY ELISE, AND THAT KID FLEXING AT THE END AND SAYING “THANKS DAD” BYE. GET ME SOME TISSUES, OKAY? I. AM. CRYING.) And that’s just to name a few.

He’s won two Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Tony Award, six Black Reel Awards, two MTV Movie Awards, seventeen NAACP awards, eighteen Film Critic Awards, and some awards I’ve never heard of, but that’s neither here nor there, there’s ten of those miscellaneous awards. 

Denzel has received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Fordham Univesity, as well as an honorary doctorate of humanities from Morehouse College and an honorary doctor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. 

He’s presented Purple Heart medals to Army soldiers; he donated $2.5 million to help build a new church facility in LA; he’s been a national spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 1993 and been a board ember since 1995; he’s had a NYC elementary school name their school after him. 

Denzel is a legend for a reason, people. Put some respect on his name.