Who is Morgan Freeman ?

. Dress for success and make someone else pay for it!
“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, ‘So, how do you see yourself?’ And at the time, all the pimps in the movies were wearing platform shoes, crushed velvet, robes, this and that. I said, ‘None of that.’ And she said, ‘Armani?’ I said yes, so she actually wiped out her costume budget buying me an Armani (suit).”

For much of the rest of the decade, Freeman took on roles that earned him some acclaim—but not the big, powerful jobs that would garner A-list attention.

There was a part in the 1984 Paul Newman film Harry and Son, and he was narrator for the TV mini series, The Atlanta Child Murders among other roles.

We’re starting to see a pattern here…
Freeman followed up Street Smart with head-turning roles in Clean and Sober (as a tough but supportive drug rehabilitation counselor), Lean on Me (as a tough but supportive high school principal) and Glory (as a tough but supportive officer in the U.S. Civil War’s first all-black volunteer company). But it was his role as Hoke, the kindly chauffeur hired to drive Miss Daisy in 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy, that propelled him into the Hollywood A-list and earned him his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (and first Oscar nomination for Best Actor).

In 1987, Freeman's fortunes changed when he was cast in the film Street Smart, which placed the actor on the screen as the volatile pimp Fast Black.

We’re starting to see a pattern here…
Freeman followed up Street Smart with head-turning roles in Clean and Sober (as a tough but supportive drug rehabilitation counselor), Lean on Me (as a tough but supportive high school principal) and Glory (as a tough but supportive officer in the U.S. Civil War’s first all-black volunteer company). But it was his role as Hoke, the kindly chauffeur hired to drive Miss Daisy in 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy, that propelled him into the Hollywood A-list and earned him his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (and first Oscar nomination for Best Actor).

v The role proved to be huge success for Freeman, earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Get busy living or get busy dying”
The 1990s were very good years for Freeman. After a fun role as one of Robin’s Merry Men in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Freeman delivered powerful performances in such films as Se7en, Unforgiven, Amistad and Deep Impact. But the movie Freeman has cited as his favorite, 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption, almost didn’t include him: in the story on which the film is based, his character, Red, was a middle-aged Irishman, and major-league actors like Clint Eastwod, Harrison Ford and Robert Redford were considered for the part. But director Frank Darabont has maintained he always had Morgan Freeman in mind for the role because of his authoritative presence, calm demeanor and deep voice.

Film critic Pauline Kael even went so far as to ask out loud, "Is Morgan Freeman the greatest American actor?" Two years later, Freeman earned more acclaim—a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a second Oscar nomination—as the kind-hearted but stubborn chauffeur in 1989's Driving Miss Daisy.

Commitment to his craft
In The Shawshank Redemption, the scene in which Andy (Tim Robbins) and Red chat in the prison yard while Red is pitching a baseball took nine hours to shoot. Freeman pitched that baseball for the entire nine hours without a word of complaint. He showed up for work the next day with his arm in a sling.

a drama about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which was one of the first recognized African-American units in the Civil War.

Are you there, God? Oh… hi, Morgan!
Speaking of authoritative presences, it probably surprised no one when Freeman was cast to play God in the 2003 comedy Bruce Almighty, in which Jim Carrey’s everyman character is literally given the power of God. Jack Nicholson was originally approached for the role, but he passed on it.

By the 1990s, Freeman was riding high in his career, starring in such big budget films as 1994's The Shawshank Redemption, Seven (1995) and Deep Impact (1998).

What do you think he charges for voicemail messages?
Freeman’s calm, authoritative voice makes him a big “get” for documentary filmmakers looking for the right narrator for their projects. In 2005, Freeman narrated March of the Penguins, the Oscar-winning nature documentary that went on to earn more at the box office than all of the Best Picture nominees that year. Freeman recorded all the narration for the 80-minute documentary in one day.

With his booming voice and commanding presence, Freeman was a natural to play God in the 2003 comedy Bruce Almighty and its 2007 sequel Evan Almighty.

In 2005, Freeman won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby.

Best. Year. Ever.
2005 was a huge year for Freeman. Aside from his work on March of the Penguins, his team-up with Clint Eastwood on 2004’s Million Dollar Baby (in which he plays an ex-prize fighter helping to hone the skills of a young female boxer) earned him his first Oscar at the 2005 Academy Awards. He also narrated Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005) and appeared in Batman Begins (2005) as Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne’s technical support and ally in his war against crime – a role Freeman would reprise twice more in the film trilogy.

He later reprised his roles as Lucius Fox from Batman Begins (2005) for the blockbuster sequels The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Ancestry
In 2008, the TV series African American Lives 2 revealed that his Caucasian great-great-grandfather had lived with, and was buried beside, his African-American great-great-grandmother (the two could not legally marry at the time, in the segregated South).

That must keep him pretty “buzzy.”
Freeman is a beekeeper with more than two dozen hives. After hearing about the decline of honeybees and its impact on the environment, in 2014 Freeman turned his 124-acre ranch in Mississippi into a beekeeping sanctuary.

He also appeared in Rob Reiner's The Bucket List (2007) and the action thriller Red (2010), costarring Bruce Willis.

How he chooses his film roles
“I like being eclectic,” he has said about his film choices. “The more varied the better; the wider the range. I’ve been sucked into a kind of mold of a good guy and that’s actually almost beyond my ability to control. But other than that, a good story and an interesting character is all I am looking for.”

At the 2012 Golden Globes, Freeman received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment."

Nice guy onscreen, nice guy off screen
When he’s not busy being the good guy in his movies, Freeman is being a nice guy in the real world. Through Rock River Foundation, an organization he started, Freeman has donated millions to educational programs. He has also raised money for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and in 2004 he helped organize relief funds for hurricane victims in Grenada.

"I like being eclectic," he has said about his film choices. "The more varied the better; the wider the range.