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Hollywood Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award™ Honoree
4th Annual Hollywood Film Festival®
August 2-7, 2000
MORGAN FREEMAN
Morgan Freeman, a three-time Academy Award nominee, is one of the most highly regarded performers in the film industry, and an actor whose outstanding work in a wide range of motion pictures has brought him international acclaim. Mr. Freeman received his Academy Award nominations for his performances in the films "Street Smart" (Best Supporting Actor), "Driving Miss Daisy" (Best Actor) and "The Shawshank Redemption" (Best Actor). In addition, he won the Best Actor Golden Globe for "Driving Miss Daisy."
Mr. Freeman's recent work includes three international blockbusters for Paramount: "Hard Rain," directed by Mikael Salomon, Gary Fleder's "Kiss the Girls," and in association with Dreamworks, Mimi Leder's "Deep Impact." Mr. Freeman also co-starred in Steven Spielberg's critically acclaimed "Amistad for DreamWorks."
Mr. Freeman's current and upcoming motion pictures include Stephen Hopkin's "Under Suspicion," co-starring Gene Hackman, Propaganda Films' "Nurse Betty," with Renee Zellweger and Chris Rock, "Daddy Blues," written by Academy Award winner Alfred Uhry ("Driving Miss Daisy") and co-starring Winona Ryder, the Paramount thriller "Along Came a Spider," directed by Lee Tamahori, and "Long Walk to Freedom," based on South African president Nelson Mandela's autobiography of the same name.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Mr. Freeman attended acting school in Los Angeles and served in the Air Force for five years. His acting career began on stage in the 1960s, including the 1968 all African-American Broadway version of "Hello, Dolly!" starring Pearl Bailey. He continued to display his talents in the theater in diverse productions, ranging from musicals to Shakespeare. Mr. Freeman is the recipient of a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in "The Mighty Gents," as well as the winner of several Obie Awards, among other honors, for his outstanding work on stage.
From 1971 to 1976 he played the character Easy Reader on the PBS children's program "The Electric Company." Film appearances followed, including praise for his work in the 1980 prison drama "Brubaker." In the late 1980s he received his first Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as the dangerously volatile pimp in "Street Smart" (1987), and followed that with powerful and highly acclaimed performances in "Clean and Sober," "Driving Miss Daisy," with Jessica Tandy, Glory, with Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Cary Elwes, and "Lean on Me."
In the early 1990s, Mr. Freeman continued his distinguished work in such films as "The Bonfire of the Vanities," directed by Brian de Palma, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," starring Kevin Costner, "Unforgiven," directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, "The Shawshank Redemption," for which he received an Academy Award nomination, "Outbreak," starring Dustin Hoffman, and "Seven," with Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow. Mr. Freeman also directed the 1993 film "Bopha!," starring Danny Glover and Alfre Woodard.
Mr. Freeman and producer Lori McCreary are the creators of Revelations Entertainment, a multi-faceted production company based in Santa Monica, California, whose mission is "to develop and produce projects in all existing and emerging media that enlighten, express heart and glorify the human experience."
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