Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman is an American actor, director and narrator. He rose to fame in the 1970s for his role in the children’s television series The Electric Company. His breakout role was in Street Smart, playing a hustler, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He achieved further stardom in the comedy drama Driving Miss Daisy, which garnered him a second Oscar nomination. He won the Academy Award for Best supporting Actor for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s 2004 sports drama Million Dollar Baby.

About Morgan Freeman in brief

Summary Morgan FreemanMorgan Freeman is an American actor, director and narrator. He rose to fame in the 1970s for his role in the children’s television series The Electric Company. His breakout role was in Street Smart, playing a hustler, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He achieved further stardom in the comedy drama Driving Miss Daisy, which garnered him a second Oscar nomination. After receiving another Best Actor Oscar nomination for The Shawshank Redemption, Freeman won the Academy Award for Best supporting Actor for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s 2004 sports drama Million Dollar Baby. In addition to acting, Freeman has directed the drama Bopha!. He also founded film production company Revelations Entertainment with business partner Lori McCreary. Freeman is the son of Mayme Edna, a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber, who died of cirrhosis in 1961. He has three older siblings. According to DNA analysis, some of his ancestors were from the Songhai and Tuareg people of Niger. Some of Freeman’s great-great-grandparents were slaves who migrated from North Carolina to Mississippi. Freeman later discovered that his Caucasian maternal great- great-grandfather had lived with, and was buried beside, Freeman’s African-American great-Great-grandmother in the segregated South. He moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; and finally Chicago, Illinois. When Freeman was 16 years old, he contracted pneumonia. He made his acting debut at age nine, playing the lead role in a school play.

Freeman made his Off-Broadway debut in 1967, opposite Viveca Lindfors, a show about the Freedom Riders during the American Civil Rights Movement. He also starred on Broadway in Hello Dolly! which also starred Pearl Bailey and The Dozens. In 1969, he also performed on stage in Pearl Bailey’s The Dozens, which he later credited with giving him financial stability and recognition among American audiences. His work on the show was tiring, so he quit the show in 1975. He later acknowledged that he does not think about the show, but he was grateful to have been a part of it. His first appearance on television was in 1971, when he starred in PBS’s children’s show TheElectric Company, which was credited with helping him gain financial stability. His other successes were the war film Glory, the biographical drama Lean on Me, and the drama The Shaw Shank Redemption. He acted in a touring company version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and also appeared as an extra in Sidney Lumet’s 1965 drama film The Pawnbroker starring Rod Steiger. He turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University, opting instead to enlist in the United States Air Force and served as an Automatic Tracking Radar Repairman, rising to the rank of Airman 1st Class. He studied theatre arts in Los Angeles, and took acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse, dancing lessons in San Francisco, and worked as a transcript clerk at Los Angeles City College.