Morgan Freeman is an Academy Award winning American actor, producer and narrator, who has earned several prestigious awards and honors in his life time. He is best known for his smooth distinct voice, which has made him one of the best narrators of all times including The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Bucket List (2007) and War of the Worlds (2005). His authoritative voice and composed manner has made him one of the most respected personalities in America and the world. He started his career in 1970 with a children’s program called The Electric Company. He has starred in a string of successful movies, which were both box office hits and commercial successes, like Million Dollar Baby (2004), The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012), and Now You See Me (2013). He has also starred in several cult movies where he played unforgettable characters, the most popular one being Red in The Shawshank Redemption.
Early Life
Born in 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, Freeman has three siblings and is the son of Mayme Edna, a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber. At the age of nine, he played the lead role in a school play, giving rise to an interest in acting. He then attended Broad Street High School, where he performed on a radio show. When he was 12, he won a statewide drama competition. From 1955 to 1959, Freeman served in the US Air Force as a Mechanic and then attended Los Angeles City College.
His first dramatic arts exposure was on the stage when he appeared in an all-African American production of the exuberant musical Hello, Dolly!
Personal Life
Freeman is married and divorced, twice, first to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from 1967 to 1979 and then to Myrna Colley-Lee from 1984 to 2010. He has four children, Alfonso Freeman, Saifoulaye Freeman, Deena Freeman, and Morgana Freeman. In July 2014, the actor turned his 124-acre ranch into a Beekeeping sanctuary out of his concern for the decline of honeybees.
Theatre Career
Freeman had a notable theatre career with a few of his popular acts being The Niggerlovers (1967) in the role of Creampuff, The Dozens (1969) as Kgaravu, Exhibition (1969) portraying the role of David and the musical Purlie (1970), in which he played the title character.
Movie Career
Morgan Freeman has had a prolific film career having worked as an actor and voice actor. Though his film debut is considered to be the musical Hello, Dolly! in 1969, but he actually debuted as an uncredited character in the Sidney Lumet directed drama The Pawnbroker in 1964. He made his breakthrough with 1987's Street Smart where his role earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Freeman starred as Hoke Coleburn in the comedy-drama Driving Miss Daisy in 1989, which won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical for his performance and comedic timing. In the movie, he played a black chauffeur to a wealthy Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy), a 72-year-old widowed white Jewish woman. The story explored racism and the relationship between the two. It also earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
In the 90s he appeared in numerous remarkable movies including the adventure film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) opposite Kevin Costner. The movie, based on an English Folk tale, saw Freeman play the role of Azeem, Costner’s right hand man. In The Shawshank Redemption (1994), the actor played one of the most iconic characters named, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding with Tim Robbins. He was also the narrator of the movie. It earned him a second nomination at the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also featured in a psychological thriller Seven (1995), in which he portrayed the role of a soon-to-be-retiring detective named William Somerset, along with Brad Pitt. The movie was based on a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker and it dealt with a serial killer using seven deadly sins trope on its victims. He also appeared in a historical drama Amistad in 1997, which was directed by Steven Spielberg. It was based on a true story of the 1839 mutiny aboard the slave ship. The movie starred Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and Matthew McConaughey. Later in 1997, Freeman starred in a crime thriller Kiss the Girls as a forensic psychologist Alex Cross. Next was Along Came a Spider that released in 2001, and then in 2003, he played God in the comedy Bruce Almighty alongside Jim Carrey. In the next year, he played Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris in Million Dollar Baby (2004), a Clint Eastwood film, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Freeman starred as Lucius Fox in the Batman trilogy: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), directed by Christopher Nolan. He played Research Head and Bruce Wayne's business manager at Wayne Enterprises, and also a consoling friend. He also appeared opposite Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List (2007), an American drama-comedy directed by Rob Reiner. The movie revolved around two terminally ill men on a road trip, in which Freeman played a mechanic named Carter Chambers. Later, he went on to play a negative lead in Wanted (2008) with Angelina Jolie. In 2009, he starred in Invictus with Matt Damon, a sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie received positive reviews and earned him a nomination for Best Actor. Freeman received the AFI Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in the year 2011.
He then played an integral role in Olympus Has Fallen (2013) as Allan Trumbull, the speaker of the house. The American action thriller focuses on the White House attack and a disgraced secret service agent, played by Gerard Butler tries to rescue the President, played by Aaron Eckhart. Later in the year, Freeman also worked in a comedy Last Vegas. Next year in 2014, Freeman appeared in Transcendence as Joseph Tagger, a science fiction movie. He played mentor to Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall’s characters. In the same year, he played Professor Samuel Norman in Lucy, a science fiction action film about a woman, played by Scarlett Johansson, who gains psychokinetic abilities on accidently absorbing drugs.
In 2015, he appeared in movies like Momentum as Senator and Ted 2 as a respected civil rights attorney Patrick Meighan, followed by London Has Fallen portraying the role of U.S. Vice President Allan Trumbull and Now You See Me 2 as a magic debunker Thaddeus Bradley in 2016.
As a narrator
Morgan Freeman’s rich mellow voice has made him one of the most sought after voice actors in the country. He has narrated several documentaries and television series, which include Cosmic Voyage (1996), Slavery and the Making of America (2004), March of the Penguins (2005), and Breaking the Taboo (2011). He also hosted and narrated for the series Through the Wormhole from 2010 to 2014. The actor has lent his voice and narrated 2 Academy Award-winning feature-length documentaries, The Long Way Home (1997) and March of the Penguins (2005).
Television Career
He started his eclectic career with Electric Company, an educational children's television series. In the series, he played Mel Mounds Easy Reader apart from various other characters, and worked in it for 6 years. He also guest starred in several television episodes as himself, like in Stephen Fry in America in the episode "Mississippi", and did a cameo in Saturday Night Live in the episode in which Bryan Cranston/Kanye West were featured. In 2015, he played Chief Justice Frawley in the episode - The Show Must Go On. From 1986 to 1987, Freeman played in three TV films - Resting Place in 1986 as Luther Johnson, Fight For Life in 1987 as Dr. Sherard, and Clinton and Nadine in 1988 as Dorsey Pratt. He has also appeared in the miniseries - The Atlanta Child Murders, which saw him portray the role of Ben Shelter. Based on the true events, it examined the serial killings in the late 1970s and early 1980s.