Academy award-nominated actor, producer, director and playwright Laurence John Fishburne's Hollywood career spans over four decades, in the course of which he has essayed many memorable characters on screen. Best remembered for portraying the role of Dr. Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003), Tyrone Miller in Apocalypse Now (1979) and Jason Styles in Boyz n the Hood (1991), Fishburne has won several awards and recognitions including Saturn Award, two Emmy Awards, two NAACP Theatre Awards and an Academy Award nomination. Apart from working in feature films, the actor has also had an extensive career in the TV industry, besides producing many of the TV shows that he has featured in.
EARLY LIFE
Born in Augusta, Georgia, Laurence Fishburne who is also credited as Larry Fishburne in many of his films, is the son of Hattie Bell, a junior high school teacher and Laurence John Fishburne Jr., a juvenile corrections officer. After his parents divorced, Fishburne's mother moved to Brooklyn, New York where she raised him alone; he met his father once in a month. The actor studied at the Lincoln Square Academy, New York where he pursued his graduation.
PERSONAL LIFE
Laurence Fishburne married actress, Hajna O. Moss in 1985 in New York. The couple has two children: a son named Langston who was born in 1987 and a daughter named Montana Fishburne who was born in 1991. After living together for five years, the couple filed for divorce in 1990. Post his divorce, Fishburne remained single for more than a decade before eventually getting engaged to actress Gina Torres in February 2001. A year later, the couple got married in September 2002 at The Cloisters museum in New York City. They have a daughter named Delilah, who was born in June 2007.
CAREER
Laurence Fishburne started his acting career by appearing in an ABC soap opera One Life to Live, where he portrayed the role of Joshua Hall in 1973. The actor subsequently made his feature film debut with Cornbread, Earl and Me, an American drama that was directed and produced by Joseph Manduke. The film, which was loosely based on the 1966 novel Hog Butcher by Ronald Fair, was generally well-received.
Subsequently, the actor got his first major break in 1979 when he starred in the iconic American war film, Apocalypse Now. Widely regarded as one of the best films ever made, Apocalypse Now received several accolades including the Palme d'Or at Cannes and nominations for Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture that year. Following the huge success of Apocalypse Now, the actor appeared in films like Death Wish II (1982), The Cotton Club (1984), Quicksilver (1986) before getting his next major hit with A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in 1987.
In 1990, Fishburne starred in the crime thriller film King of New York co-starring Christopher Walken and Wesley Snipes. The film, which was based on the life of New York's crime lord who plots to take control of the underground drug economy premiered at the New York Film Festival where it received mixed reviews. But it was the film that release in the subsequent year, Boyz n the Hood, which shot Fishburne to fame globally. His role as Jason 'Furious' Styles in the teen drama film was widely appreciated by the critics and the audience alike.
In 1995, Fishburne achieved yet another milestone in his career as he became the first African-American to play the role of Othello in a motion picture. The film based on the classic tragedy of the same name by William Shakespeare was directed by Oliver Parker and also featured Irene Jacob and Kenneth Branagh in pivotal roles. Four years later, the actor starred in The Matrix and portrayed the role of Dr. Morpheus, which eventually went on to become one of the most prominent and popular roles of his career. He reprised the role in The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). The film trilogy, which was noted for its brilliant action sequences, is one of the most successful franchises ever in Hollywood.
Following the huge success of The Matrix trilogy, Fishburne became part of yet another successful franchise as he was cast in the Tom Cruise starrer Mission: Impossible III by director J. J. Abrams. His other film of the year was Bobby, an American drama directed by Emilio Estevez. The film, which was a fictional account of the final few hours leading up to the assassination of the former U.S. Senator, Robert F. Kennedy, received mixed critical reviews.
Fishburne started the year 2007 by voicing the titular character in the Marvel Comics-based superhero film, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which fared well at the box office despite the mixed reviews. His next major role was as Dr. Ellis Cheever in the critically acclaimed medical thriller Contagion (2011), which followed a world in shambles in the wake of a deadly epidemic. In the same year, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the titular character in the legal drama TV movie Thurgood (2011). More recently, Fishburne was seen essaying pivotal characters in three blockbuster movie franchises: as journo Perry White in DC's Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016); The Bowery King in the neo-noir action-thriller John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) and John Wick 3: Parabellum (2019); and as Dr. Bill Foster in MCU's Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). Other notable acting credits in recent times include the sci-fi romance film Passengers (2016), the comedy-drama Last Flag Flying (2017) and Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019).