Who is Morgan Freeman ?

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Born June 1, 1937, in Memphis, Tenn., Morgan Porterfield Freeman, Jr. was the baby in a family of five siblings. His father was a barber and his mother, Mayme Edna, was a schoolteacher.

Morgan’s parents relocated to Chicago. While his parents struggled to find work, Freeman stayed with his maternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi until he was six years old.

As a child, Freeman spent tons of time scraping together money to go to the movies; he has said some of his earliest matinee idols were actors like Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier, the first African-American to win an Oscar for Best Actor.

When Freeman was in junior high school, he pulled a chair from underneath a girl he had a crush on. As punishment, he was ordered to take part in his school’s drama competition.

To his surprise (and probably his teachers), the 12-year-old was a natural on stage, taking top honors in the program.

After graduating from school, Freeman attended Los Angeles City College and then joined the U.S. Air Force in 1955, hoping it would lead to a career in the skies. But after four years of working as a mechanic, he decided not to re-enlist.

“I had this very clear epiphany,” he told AARP Magazine. “You are not in love with this; you are in love with the idea of this.” He left the Air Force and moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream of acting.

Freeman’s first big break came in 1967, when he joined the cast in the first all-African American stage production of Hello, Dolly!, a musical in which he starred alongside such greats as Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway and Ernestine Jackson.

That was a good year for him; Freeman also married Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, his first wife, that same year.

Freeman’s first credited film appearance was in 1971’s Who Says I Can’t Ride a Rainbow, but his first real exposure to national audiences was his time as part of The Electric Company (1971-77), a children’s TV show made by the same people who created Sesame Street.

780 episodes, Freeman and the rest of the cast sang and performed comedy skits to encourage younger students to read.

While The Electric Company was steady work, Freeman was hoping to break into films, and his career caught a break when he landed a part as a prison inmate in the 1980 Robert Redford film Brubaker. But the film work he hoped would follow did not materialize.

Freeman retreated to television, appearing on the soap operas Ryan’s Hope and Another World, and in TV movies such as Death of a Prophet.

Morgan Freeman, (born June 1, 1937, Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.), American actor whose emotional depth, subtle humour, and versatility made him one of the most-respected performers of his generation.

While on the set of Brubaker, Morgan Freeman had some interesting interactions with the inmates. “When we were doing Brubaker, we were in a prison for the criminally insane.

Over a career that included numerous memorable performances on stage, screen, and television, Freeman was one of the few African American actors who consistently received roles that were not specifically written for black actors.

They said, don’t talk to the inmates. Well, what do you do if a guy accused of butchering his family comes up and speaks to you? You don’t refuse to talk to him.”

As a young man, Freeman had aspirations of being a fighter pilot; however, a stint in the air force (1955–59) proved disappointing, and he turned his attention to acting.

As the 1980s rolled on, Freeman started getting recognized for roles in which he played mentors and people in positions of authority (something that would become a theme for him as the years went on). But the role he says was his favorite was that of Fast Black, a vicious pimp in 1987’s Street Smart.

He made his Broadway debut in an all-black production of Hello Dolly! in 1967.

“That one was about as far away from me as I can get,” he once said. That role earned him his first Oscar nomination (for Best Supporting Actor) and a glowing review from film critic Pauline Kael, who went so far as to ask the world

In the 1970s he continued to work on the stage and also appeared on the educational children’s television show The Electric Company as the character Easy Reader. Freeman’s performance in the film Brubaker (1980) and on the soap opera Another World (1982–84), along with several enthusiastic reviews for his theatrical work in the early 1980s, led to more challenging film roles.

His portrayal of a dangerous hustler in Street Smart (1987) earned Freeman his first Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor.

“The first real role I had in a movie I played a pimp [in Street Smart] – this was in the late ‘80s – and the costume designer at the time said