
Morgan Porterfield Freeman, Jr. is an American actor, film director, and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby. He has also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Mayme Edna (née Revere) and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, Sr., a barber who died in 1961 from liver cirrhosis. Freeman was sent as an infant to his paternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi. He has three older siblings. Freeman's family moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; and finally Chicago, Illinois. Freeman made his acting debut at age 9, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, currently Threadgill Elementary School, in Mississippi. At age 12, he won a statewide drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1955, he graduated from Broad Street High School, but turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, opting instead to work as a mechanic in the United States Air Force. Freeman moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s and worked as a transcript clerk at Los Angeles Community College. During this period, he also lived in New York City, working as a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair, and in San Francisco, where he was a member of the Opera Ring music group. Freeman acted in a touring company version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and also appeared as an extra in the 1965 film The Pawnbroker. He made his off-Broadway debut in 1967, opposite Viveca Lindfors in The Nigger Lovers (about the civil rights era "Freedom Riders"), before debuting on Broadway in 1968's all-black version of Hello, Dolly!, which also starred Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway. Freeman was married to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from October 22, 1967, until 1979. He married Myrna Colley-Lee on June 16, 1984. The couple separated in December 2007. Freeman's attorney and business partner, Bill Luckett, announced in August 2008 that Freeman and his wife are in the process of divorce. He has two sons from previous relationships. He adopted his first wife's daughter and the couple also had a fourth child. Freeman lives in Charleston, Mississippi, and New York City. He has a private pilot's license, which he earned at age 65, and co-owns and operates Madidi, a fine dining restaurant, and Ground Zero, a blues club, both located in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He officially opened his second Ground Zero in Memphis, Tennessee on April 24, 2008. Freeman has publicly criticized the celebration of Black History Month and does not participate in any related events, saying, "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history." He says the only way to end racism is to stop talking about it, and he notes that there is no "white history month". Freeman once said on an interview with 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace: "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.
Movie | The Nutcracker and the Four Realms | Drosselmeyer | 2018-10-26 |
Series | Smithsonian Channel's Sound Revolution | Unknown | 2018 |
Movie | Alpha | Narrator (voice) | 2018-08-17 |
Movie | Just Getting Started | Duke | 2017-12-01 |
Movie | Laddie | Himself | 2017-10-20 |
Movie | The Words That Built America | Himself | 2017-07-04 |
Movie | Going in Style | Willie Davis | 2017-04-06 |
Series | Rabbit Ears Productions | Unknown | 2017 |
Series | Mississippi Rising | Unknown | 2017 |
Movie | London Has Fallen | Vice President Alan Trumbull | 2016-03-02 |
Movie | Now You See Me 2 | Thaddeus Bradley | 2016-06-02 |
Series | The Story of God with Morgan Freeman | Himself - Presenter | 2016-04-03 |
Movie | Ben-Hur | Sheik Ilderim | 2016-08-17 |
Movie | Momentum | Senator | 2015-08-01 |
Movie | Ted 2 | Patrick Meighan | 2015-06-25 |
Movie | Last Knights | Bartok | 2015-04-03 |
Movie | Transcendence | Joseph Tagger | 2014-04-16 |
Movie | We the People | Narrator | 2014-01-06 |
Movie | The Lego Movie | Vitruvius (voice) | 2014-02-06 |
Movie | Island of Lemurs: Madagascar | Narrator | 2014-04-03 |
Movie | Wish Wizard | Maxwell Omni | 2014-04-29 |
Movie | Lennon or McCartney | Himself (archive footage) | 2014-12-12 |
Movie | 5 Flights Up | Alex Carver | 2014-09-05 |
Movie | Dolphin Tale 2 | Dr. Cameron McCarthy | 2014-09-12 |
Movie | Lucy | Professor Samuel Norman | 2014-07-25 |
Movie | Olympus Has Fallen | Speaker Trumbull | 2013-03-20 |
Movie | The Editor and The Dragon: Horace Carter Fights the Klan | Narrator | 2013-01-01 |
Movie | Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot | Himself | 2013-01-15 |
Movie | Oblivion | Malcolm Beech | 2013-04-10 |
Movie | Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story | Himself | 2013-04-27 |
Movie | Now You See Me | Thaddeus Bradley | 2013-05-29 |
Movie | Last Vegas | Archie | 2013-10-31 |
Movie | JFK: A President Betrayed | Narrator | 2013-11-23 |
Movie | B.B. King: The Life of Riley | 2012-10-15 | |
Movie | The Dark Knight Rises | Lucius Fox | 2012-07-16 |
Movie | The Magic of Belle Isle | Monte Wildhorn | 2012-07-06 |
Movie | Le frontiere dell'Astronomia - EP-7 Vite aliene nel cosmo | Narratore | 2012-03-21 |
Movie | Betty White's 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America's Golden Girl | Himself | 2012-01-16 |
Movie | Breaking the Taboo | Narrator | 2011-06-03 |
Movie | Born to Be Wild | Narrator | 2011-04-08 |
Movie | Dolphin Tale | Dr. McCarthy | 2011-09-23 |
Series | Curiosity | Himself - Narrator | 2011-08-07 |
Movie | Conan the Barbarian | Narrator (voice) | 2011-08-17 |
Movie | The President's Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office | Narrator | 2010-11-24 |
Movie | RED | Joe Matheson | 2010-10-13 |
Series | Through the Wormhole | Himself - Host | 2010-06-09 |
Movie | The Eastwood Factor | Narrator | 2010-02-16 |
Movie | For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots | (voice) | 2010-01-01 |
Movie | The Maiden Heist | Charles | 2009-05-09 |
Movie | Thick as Thieves | Keith Ripley | 2009-01-09 |
Movie | Prom Night in Mississippi | Himself | 2009-01-15 |
Series | Live from Studio Five | Unknown | 2009-09-14 |
Series | 30 for 30 | Unknown | 2009-10-06 |
Movie | Invictus | Nelson Mandela | 2009-12-10 |
Movie | The People Speak | Himself | 2009-12-13 |
Movie | The Dark Knight | Lucius Fox | 2008-07-18 |
Movie | The Love Guru | (Voice) | 2008-06-20 |
Movie | Wanted | Sloan | 2008-06-19 |
Movie | A Raisin in the Sun | Narrator (uncredited) | 2008-02-25 |
Movie | AFI: 100 Years... 100 Movies... 10th Anniversary Edition | 2007-06-20 | |
Movie | Evan Almighty | God | 2007-06-09 |
Movie | The Bucket List | Carter Chambers | 2007-12-25 |
Movie | Feast of Love | Harry Stevenson | 2007-09-28 |
Movie | Gone Baby Gone | Jack Doyle | 2007-10-19 |
Movie | 10 Items or Less | 'Him' | 2006-09-11 |
Movie | The Contract | Frank Carden | 2006-04-05 |
Movie | Lucky Number Slevin | The Boss | 2006-02-24 |
Movie | An Unfinished Life | Mitch Bradley | 2005-09-09 |
Movie | Edison | Moses Ashford | 2005-07-29 |
Movie | War of the Worlds | Narrator (Voice) | 2005-06-28 |
Movie | Batman Begins | Lucius Fox | 2005-06-10 |
Series | Slavery and the Making of America | Narrator | 2005-02-09 |
Movie | Unleashed | Sam | 2005-02-02 |
Movie | March of the Penguins | Narrator | 2005-01-26 |
Movie | Blues Divas | Himself | 2005-01-22 |
Movie | Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon | Neil Armstrong | 2005-01-01 |
Movie | The Big Bounce | Walter Crewes | 2004-01-30 |
Movie | Genius. A Night for Ray Charles | Himself | 2004-10-07 |
Movie | The Hunting of the President | Narrator | 2004-06-20 |
Movie | Million Dollar Baby | Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris | 2004-12-15 |
Series | The Ellen DeGeneres Show | Unknown | 2003-09-08 |
Movie | Guilty by Association | Lt. Redding | 2003-07-22 |
Movie | Declaration of Independence | Himself | 2003-06-10 |
Movie | Bruce Almighty | God | 2003-05-23 |
Movie | Dreamcatcher | Col. Abraham Curtis | 2003-03-21 |
Movie | Levity | Miles Evans | 2003-03-16 |
Movie | High Crimes | Charlie Grimes | 2002-04-05 |
Movie | The Sum of All Fears | DCI William Cabot | 2002-05-31 |
Series | The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius | Unknown | 2002-07-20 |
Movie | Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature | Himself | 2001-09-08 |
Movie | Along Came a Spider | Alex Cross | 2001-04-06 |
Movie | Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows | Narrator (voice) | 2000-09-27 |
Movie | Under Suspicion | Captain Victor Benezet | 2000-09-24 |
Movie | Nurse Betty | Charlie | 2000-09-08 |
Movie | Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist | Himself | 2000-01-01 |
Movie | Stephen King: Shining in the Dark | Himself | 1999-09-09 |
Series | Family Guy | Unknown | 1999-01-31 |
Movie | Hard Rain | Jim | 1998-01-16 |
Movie | Deep Impact | President Tom Beck | 1998-05-08 |
Movie | Kiss the Girls | Alex Cross | 1997-10-03 |
Movie | The Long Way Home | Narrator | 1997-09-19 |
Series | The View | Unknown | 1997-08-11 |
Series | King of the Hill | Unknown | 1997-01-12 |
Movie | Amistad | Theodore Joadson | 1997-12-03 |
Movie | Moll Flanders | Hibble | 1996-06-14 |
Movie | National Geographic: Inside the White House | Narrator | 1996-01-01 |
Movie | Chain Reaction | Paul Shannon | 1996-08-02 |
Movie | Cosmic Voyage | Narrator (voice) | 1996-08-09 |
Movie | Se7en | Detective Lt. William Somerset | 1995-09-22 |
Movie | Outbreak | Billy Ford | 1995-03-10 |
Movie | The Shawshank Redemption | Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding | 1994-09-23 |
Series | Inside the Actors Studio | Unknown | 1994-06-01 |
Series | Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Unknown | 1993-09-13 |
Movie | Unforgiven | Ned Logan | 1992-08-07 |
Series | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | Unknown | 1992-05-25 |
Movie | The Power of One | Geel Piet | 1992-03-27 |
Movie | Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves | Azeem | 1991-06-14 |
Series | Pebble Mill | Unknown | 1991-10-14 |
Movie | The True Story of Glory Continues | Narrator | 1991-06-19 |
Movie | The Bonfire of the Vanities | Judge Leonard White | 1990-12-21 |
Series | The Civil War | Frederick Douglass | 1990-09-23 |
Movie | The Earth Day Special | 1990-04-22 | |
Movie | Glory | Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins | 1989-12-15 |
Movie | Driving Miss Daisy | Hoke Colburn | 1989-12-13 |
Movie | Johnny Handsome | Lt. A.Z. Drones | 1989-09-12 |
Movie | Lean On Me | Principal Joe Clark | 1989-03-03 |
Movie | Blood Money | Dorsey Pratt | 1988-05-04 |
Movie | Clean and Sober | Craig | 1988-08-10 |
Movie | Fight for Life | Dr. Sherard | 1987-03-23 |
Movie | Street Smart | Fast Black | 1987-03-20 |
Movie | Resting Place | Luther Johnson | 1986-01-01 |
Movie | The Execution of Raymond Graham | Warden Pratt | 1985-11-17 |
Movie | That Was Then... This Is Now | Charlie Woods | 1985-11-08 |
Series | The Twilight Zone | Unknown | 1985-09-27 |
Movie | Marie | Charles Traughber | 1985-09-27 |
Series | The Atlanta Child Murders | Ben Shelter | 1985-02-10 |
Movie | Teachers | Lewis | 1984-10-05 |
Movie | Harry & Son | Siemanowski | 1984-03-02 |
Series | Live with Regis and Kathie Lee | Unknown | 1983-04-04 |
Movie | The Marva Collins Story | Clarence Collins | 1981-12-01 |
Movie | Eyewitness | Lieutenant Black | 1981-02-13 |
Movie | Death of a Prophet | Malcolm X | 1981-01-01 |
Series | Texas | Detective Michaels | 1980-08-04 |
Movie | Brubaker | Walter | 1980-06-20 |
Movie | Attica | Hap Richards | 1980-03-01 |
Series | The Kennedy Center Honors | Unknown | 1978-12-28 |
Movie | Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry | Uncle Hammer | 1978-11-12 |
Series | Ryan's Hope | Cicero Murphy | 1975-07-07 |
Movie | Blade | Chris | 1973-12-01 |
Series | The Electric Company | Easy Reader | 1971-10-25 |
Series | Another World | 1964-05-04 | |
Series | The Academy Awards | Morgan Freeman | 1953-03-18 |
Series | Today | Unknown | 1952-01-14 |
Series | Hallmark Hall of Fame | Unknown | 1951-12-24 |