Born:
June 01, 1937
in
Memphis, Tennessee
Best Known For:
That trademark voice.
Early-life:
Born Morgan Porterfield Freeman on June 1, 1937, the son of a cleaner and a barber in Memphis, Tennessee. Freeman has three older siblings and was partly raised by his paternal grandmother. He was bitten by the acting bug at eight when he starred in a school play. At 12 he won a state-wide drama competition. Morgan turned down the chance to study drama at university to join the US Air Force. He left after four years and began concentrating on an acting career, starting out on stage in the early 1960s.
Career:
Freeman's first credited big-screen appearance was in 1971's Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow?, before he landed a regular role on children's show The Electric Company. In the mid-1980s, Freeman started getting more prominent roles in movies. Among his biggest hits have been Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Glory, Amistad, Deep Impact and Bruce Almighty. He is also an in-demand voice-over artist, lending his dulcet tones to sci-fi blockbuster War of the Worlds and the Oscar-winning documentary March of the Penguins. Freeman received an Academy Award of his own for his supporting role in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. A prolific actor, he has more recently appeared in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and always has several films in pre-production.
Quote:
"I'm not intimidated by lead roles. I'm better in them. I don't feel pressure - I feel released at times like that. That's what I'm born to do."
Trivia:
He worked as a mechanic in the US Air Force.