Morgan Freeman is an Academy Award-winning actor best known for his brilliant performances in movies like Million Dollar Baby, Street Smart, and Driving Miss Daisy. He loved acting from childhood and won a statewide drama competition when he was just 12. Even though acting was always his first love, he was unsure of pursuing it as a career and instead chose to serve as a radar technician in the United States Air Force. But he soon realized that acting was his true passion and took acting and dancing lessons. He made his acting debut as a stage actor in the touring company version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun.
He got his big break when he was cast in the all-African American Broadway production Hello, Dolly!, which got his performance noticed. Gradually, he made his transition into movies, first appearing in a number of minor roles before landing substantial roles. His movie career took off in the mid-1980s when the actor was approaching fifty. He was often selected to play wise, fatherly characters because of his age and looks. His amazing performances have earned him several prestigious awards, including the Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Golden Globe Award.
Childhood and Early Life
Morgan Freeman was born on June 1, 1937, in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, to Mayme Edna and Morgan Porterfield Freeman. His mother was a teacher, and his father was a barber. He was sent to live with his grandmother when he was still a toddler. He started living with his parents years later. He loved movies and acting from a young age.
He would often save money to watch movies and idolized actors like Gary Cooper and Sidney Poitier. He also acted in various dramas in school. He attended Broad Street High School in Mississippi and won a statewide drama competition when he was 12. He graduated high school in 1955. He received a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University but turned it down.
Career
- Morgan Freeman joined the U.S. Air Force, hoping to be a fighter pilot. However, Morgan was relegated to working as a mechanic and radar technician. He quit his military service in 1959 upon realizing that this was not what he wanted to do. He moved to Los Angeles and took acting and dancing classes during the early 1960s at the Pasadena Playhouse.
- During the mid-1960s, he joined the Opera Ring musical theater group and became part of the touring company version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun. He made his Off-Broadway debut in 1967, which led to his Broadway debut in 1968 in an all-Black version of Hello, Dolly!, which also starred Pearl Bailey.
- Starting from 1971, he began appearing regularly on the children’s television program The Electric Company, an educational program aimed at teaching children how to read. The show ran for six seasons until 1977.
- His film career began to take off only in the 1980s. Initially, he was cast in minor roles in films like Brubaker (1980), Eyewitness (1981), Harry & Son (1984), and Marie (1985). He got his first big break in 1987 when he was cast as the violent pimp Fast Black in Street Smart. The role earned him positive reviews and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
- In 1989, he starred in the comedy-drama film Driving Miss Daisy, which was adapted from a play of the same name. Freeman portrayed Hoke Colburn, and his performance was much appreciated.
- The prolific actor appeared in several movies throughout the 1990s, the most notable among these being The Shawshank Redemption (1994), based on Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.
- He played God in the 2003 super-hit film Bruce Almighty, which also starred Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, and Jennifer Aniston. He reprised this role in the sequel Evan Almighty in 2007.
- In 2004, he acted in the sports drama film Million Dollar Baby, in which he played Eddie “Scrap Iron” Dupries, a former boxer. His performance in Million Dollar Baby is often regarded as his finest.
- In 2009, he portrayed former South African President Nelson Mandela in the Clint Eastwood-directed sports drama film Invictus. Freeman stated that it was his fondest dream to play Nelson Mandela on screen.
- Freeman went on to star in projects such as Now You See Me (2013) and Now You See Me 2 (2016). In the 2014 blockbuster film The LEGO Movie, he voiced the character of Vitruvius.
- In the late 2010s, he was seen in films like Just Getting Started (2017), Brian Banks (2018), and The Poison Rose (2019). He has also been part of a TV documentary titled The Story of God with Morgan Freeman.
- Morgan Freeman reprised his role as Alan Trumbull in movies like Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and London Has Fallen (2016). He reprised the role in the 2019 action thriller film Angel Has Fallen, which also starred actors like Gerard Butler, Danny Huston, and Michael Landes.
- In 2019, he was cast in the action-comedy film The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. The same year, he was cast alongside Robert De Niro and Tommy Lee Jones in a comedy film titled The Comeback Trail.
Major Works
Morgan Freeman role as an elderly former boxer in the film Million Dollar Baby received huge acclaim and earned him several prestigious awards. He portrayed former South African President Nelson Mandela in the film Invictus, which was based on the events that unfolded in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Morgan Freeman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film.
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Awards and Achievements
- Morgan Freeman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor for his film Driving Miss Daisy in 1990.
- He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 2004 movie Million Dollar Baby.
- Morgan Freeman was presented with the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
- The Cecil B. DeMille Award, an honorary Golden Globe Award, was bestowed upon him in 2012 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.
- Morgan Freeman has received honorary degrees from Delta State University and Boston University.
- Morgan Freeman is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the Screen Actors Guild Academy in 2014.
- Freedom of the City was bestowed upon him by the City of London.
