Laurence Fishburne has been honored for his work
on both the stage and screen. Of his honors he earned
an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of
Ike Turner in the film What’s Love Got to
Do With It. Fishburne recently made his directorial
debut, as well as starring in and producing, Once
in the Life, which he wrote based on the one-act
play Riff Raff in which he starred, wrote and directed
in 1994. The play’s initial run in Los Angeles
was the first production produced under Fishburne’s
own banner, L.O.A. Productions.
Fishburne began acting at the age of 10 and was
only 15 years old when he portrayed a young G.I.
in Francis Coppola’s Vietnam War epic Apocalypse
Now. He went on to work with Coppola on Rumble Fish,
Gardens of Stone and The Cotton Club.
Fishburne has collaborated twice with director
John Singleton, on Boyz ‘N the Hood and Higher
Learning, and earned an NAACP Image Award for Best
Actor for Boyz ‘N the Hood. His other credits
include Othello, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Just
Cause, Bad Company, Class Action, Deep Cover, Fled,
Cadence, King of New York, Red Heat, Band of the
Hand, Spike Lee’s School Daze, Steven Spielberg’s
The Color Purple, Hoodlum, Event Horizon, The Matrix,
The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, as
the voice for Thrax in Osmosis Jones and most recently
as the star of Biker Boyz.
Fishburne’s television credits include nominations
for the Emmy, Golden Globe and CableACE Awards and
won an NAACP Image Award for his performance in
the HBO movie The Tuskegee Airmen, the story of
America’s first black combat pilots. He also
won an Emmy Award for his role in the premiere episode
of Robert De Niro’s series Tribeca. Fishburne
also received an Emmy nomination in 1997 for Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or Special for his lead
role in the HBO drama Miss Evers’ Boys, which
he also executive produced. Miss Evers’ Boys
was awarded five Emmys, including the coveted President’s
Award, which honors a program that illuminates a
social or educational issue. Fishburne recently
starred in and executive produced Always Outnumbered,
directed by Michael Apted for HBO. Fishburne’s
other television credits include the telefilms A
Rumor of War, For Us the Living, and Decoration
Day.
In 1992 Fishburne received the Tony Award, a Drama
Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and a
Theatre World Award for his stage work in the Broadway
production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running,
in which he reprised the role of Sterling Johnson
that he originated at the Yale Repertory Theatre.
In 1999 Fishburne played the lead role of Henry
II of France in the story of the struggle with his
estranged wife, Eleanor of Acquitaine.
Fishburne was more recently in Clint Eastwood’s
Mystic River, starring alongside Kevin Bacon, Sean
Penn, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden.
He will soon be seen in Scheherazade.
