Yesterday, January 21, 2018, Morgan Freeman was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award by the Screen Actors Guild. Mr. Freeman is certainly a legend with a long history of giving us magic on the big screen. His acceptance speech also – when he quieted the talker in the crowd – screamed, “Shut up when a real G is talking!” He is certainly the embodiment of Black excellence. Let’s take a quick look at Morgan Freeman’s extraordinary life and career.

Born on June 1, 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee to Morgan Porterfield Freeman, Sr. and Mayme Edna, Morgan was the youngest of 5. To escape the Jim Crow south, his parents relocated to Chicago, IL and left Morgan with his grandmother in Mississippi. Mayme Edna, Morgan’s mother, eventually divorced his father and ended up settling in Greenville, Mississippi.

Morgan Freeman originally wanted to become a fighter pilot after graduating high school. So, he joined the Air Force with hopes of following that dream. Upon realizing that his passion was in acting, Mr. Freeman returned from the Air Force and began his career on Broadway. His very first Broadway appearance “Hello Dolly” in 1967 would mean the start of an illustrious career. Here is a list of some of Morgan’s most celebrated roles.

1)    Hoke Colburn in Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

2)    Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins in Glory (1989)

3)    Azeem in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

4)    Narrator in the TV Short The Savior is Born (1992)

5)    Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

6)    President Beck in Deep Impact (1998)

7)    Charlie in Nurse Betty (2000)

8)    God in Bruce Almighty (2003)

9)    Narrator in the TV Series Slavery and the Making of America (2005)

10) Lucius Fox in Batman Begins (2005)

11) Carter in The Bucket List (2007)

12) Narrator in the TV Movie A Raisin in the Sun (2008)

13) Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight (2008)

14) Nelson Mandela in Invictus (2009)

15) Archie Clayton in Last Vegas (2013)

… And the list goes on and on.

Morgan Freeman has consistently been in 120 plays or movies almost every year since the beginning of his career in 1964 (Mr. Freeman even has 2 movies in pre-production in 2018 and is currently filming one). He also boasts 18 producer and executive producer credits, 4 soundtrack credits, and 2 director credits. Consistency in not only the amount of content but in its quality as well.

Cheers to Morgan Freeman! Let’s protect him and check on him frequently.

Sources:

1)    Morgan Freeman’s Photograph: The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2017, December

2)   Morgan Freeman. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Morgan-Freeman

3)   Morgan Freeman. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000151/