Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. He has garnered much critical acclaim for his portrayals of several real-life figures, such as Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, and Herman Boone. Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York. His father, Dillwyn, Virginia-born Reverend Denzel Washington, was an ordained Pentecostal minister and also worked for the Water Department and at a local department store, "S. Klein". His mother, Lennis, was a beauty parlor owner born in Georgia and raised in Harlem. When Washington was fourteen, his parents' marriage took a turn for the worse, and he, his older sister and younger brother were sent away to boarding school so that they would not be exposed to their parents' eventual divorce. He attended grammar school at Pennington Grimes Elementary School in Mount Vernon. Washington went on to college, attaining a B.A. in Drama and Journalism from Fordham University in...This information was automatically generated from Freebase article Denzel Washington. You should replace/update it...