Isabel Wilkerson

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram – We are blessed to live in a time such as this, when an actor of Denzel Washington’s power and brilliance walks among us. And on this day, his 70th birthday, we honor the one of the finest actors our country has ever produced.
He was born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, NY, to parents who had journeyed north during the Great Migration. His mother, Lennis, a beautician, was born in Georgia and raised in Harlem. His father, Rev. Denzel Washington Sr., was a Pentecostal minister from Virginia. Their son got early immersion in the church and in the storytelling that sprang from the South, seeing his father preach from the pulpit and his mother working in a beauty salon where stories are a form of currency.
Denzel would become famous for his commanding portrayals of complex characters facing nearly insurmountable odds or at a moral crossroads, from his roles in “A Soldier’s Story” to “Malcolm X” to “Hurricane” Carter, to the role that won him his first Academy Award, that of a runaway slave-turned-soldier in “Glory.” Nominated nine times, he won a second Oscar for his portrayal of a corrupt police officer in “Training Day.” He’s currently onscreen in “Gladiator II, elevating every scene he’s in.
Known for his work ethic and discipline in whatever role before him, he got his first big break, after graduating Fordham, in the role of Dr. Philip Chandler in the TV drama “St. Elsewhere.” Many roles later, he would become one of the most acclaimed actors in Hollywood and one of the most recognizable descendants of the Great Migration.
It was my privilege to meet him back in 2006 while working on a piece about him for Essence magazine. He was grounded and focused with a searching intensity. I wrote that he had “no entourage with him, no handlers to run interference. It was him by himself, pushing the air with his shoulders as he jogged past tables in a hotel café and took a seat across the table from me. He smoothed his cropped hair with the palm of his hand and let loose that smile —the one that spans the full width of his face” and that has lit up millions of screens for 50 years now, enriching us all. Happy Birthday to the GOAT, Denzel Washington! | Posted on 29/Dec/2024 02:07:22