If you have ever seen a Morgan Freeman movie before, you would understand what talent is. His voice, to begin with, is the best of any actor I know. It is so clear, commanding, calculated and cool! One of the first movies I saw that featured him were Bruce Almighty (2003) and Evan Almighty (2007) where he played the role of God. He is often known to play non – comedic roles but in these movies, he showed a humorous side.
Figure 1: Morgan Freeman
The next movie I saw him feature in was Batman Begins (2005) where he played the role of Lucius Fox, a role he played for the entire Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy along with Christian Bale as Batman, the other two movies being The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2008) which were huge box office successes.
He is one actor who has shown incredible acting range, from being a cop in Se7en (1995) to being a villainous assassin in Wanted (2008), where he started off as a mentor to the protagonist, before showing his true colours towards the tail end of the movie. He has featured in all genres of movies, from sci-fi like in Oblivion (2013) and Lucy (2014) to crime like in Se7en and Wanted.
Figure 2: Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in Se7en (1995)
He has also ventured into sports as was seen in Million Dollar Baby (2004) which won the best picture award at the 2005 Oscars (77th Academy Awards) for which Freeman bagged the best supporting actor award for his role as Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris. He is also not one to shy away from action despite his current age as was seen in the trilogy of Olympus Has Fallen (2013), London Has Fallen (2016) and Angel Has Fallen (2019).
Figure 3: Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby (2004)
His best performance, in my opinion, came in The Shawshank Redemption (1994) where he played Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding, a convict. He was not just an actor in that movie, but also the narrator and he not only pulled it off perfectly, but he made it seem easy. The movie is rated one of the greatest movies of all time and is a whopping 9.3/10 on iMDB and 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, who are very stingy with points. It was nominated for the best picture award at the 67th Academy Awards as well as six other awards, one of which was the best actor award for Morgan Freeman. Surprisingly, it did not win in any category.
Figure 4: Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
When it comes to acting, Morgan Freeman is part of the crème de la crème. I can watch a movie simply because he would appear in it. He was born on June 1st, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee in the USA to a teacher mother and a barber for a father. The young Freeman attended Los Angeles City College before serving several years in the US Air Force as a mechanic between 1955 and 1959. He once considered being a fighter pilot in the Air force, but decided to go into acting instead and many all over the world are grateful for this decision.
His first dramatic arts exposure was on the stage including appearing in an all-African American production of the exuberant musical Hello, Dolly!. His networth is currently estimated at $200 million.