Background

Laurence John Fishburne III was born on July 30, 1961, and briefly spent his childhood in his birthplace Georgia. The actor was raised in a trouble-ridden home. His mom, Hatte Bell who taught mathematics and science in a junior high school and dad, Laurence John Fishburne, a correction officer of adolescents, separated while he was very young. Consequently, he moved with his single mom to New York City, which Laurence considers his hometown. His father saw him once a month.

Education

Laurence Fishburne studied at Julia Richman High School. Fishburne is also a graduate of Lincoln Square Academy in New York, which closed in the 1980s.

Career

Fishburne started acting at age eleven (according to his January 13, 2012 interview on The View which commemorated One Life to Live) getting his first job in 1973 as a short-lived member of the Mod Squad followed by portraying Joshua Hall on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live. He was initially cast in the hit television series Good Times, but the role was eventually given to Ralph Carter. Fishburne's most memorable childhood role was in Cornbread, Earl and Me in which he played a young boy who witnessed the police shooting of a popular high school basketball star. He then lied about his age to win the part of Clean, a gunner on a swift boat in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now (1979). The experience of filming in the Philippines with a veteran moviemaking cast and crew had a profound impact on Fishburne, who became committed to succeeding in Hollywood.

Throughout the 1980s, Fishburne made periodic appearances in television and stage shows. He had a recurring role as Cowboy Curtis on Paul Reubens’ CBS children's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse and guest roles in M*A*S*H and Spenser: For Hire. He worked again with Coppola in Rumble Fish (1983) and Cotton Club (1984) and with directors Steven Spielberg in The Color Purple (1985) and Spike Lee in School Daze (1988). He appeared as a thug named Cutter in Death Wish 2 (1982). He also appeared alongside Kevin Bacon in Quicksilver. His stage work during the 1980s included Short Eyes (1984), and Loose Ends (1987), both produced at Second Stage Theatre in New York City. Also in 1987, he played a part in the third Nightmare On Elm Street film as a hospital orderly. Fishburne played as Lt. Charlie Stobbs (under Larry Fishburne) in Red Heat (1988) beside Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi. Fishburne also starred as "Dap" in Spike Lee's School Daze (1988). Fishburne's character was the depiction of an African American, culturally inclined college student at an HBCU (Historically Black College/University).

In the 1990s Fishburne hit his stride, turning in noteworthy performances in King of New York (1990), Boyz ’n the Hood (1991), Deep Cover (1992), and Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993). His portrayal of musician Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993) earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor. In 1995 he became the first African American to play Shakespeare’s Othello in a major film. Fishburne is perhaps best known for his role as Morpheus, the hacker-mentor of Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, in the 1999 blockbuster science fiction film, The Matrix, he gained a significant amount of weight for the following sequels to give the character more screen presence.

Fishburne provided the voice of Thrax in Osmosis Jones in 2001. Fishburne reprised his role as Morpheus in the Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions in 2003. He briefly featured as a stretcher-bearer in one version of the video for The Spooks' song "Things I've Seen" (2000) and appeared with Tom Cruise as Theodore Brassell, IMF superior of Cruise's character in Mission: Impossible III.

Fishburne has worked with actress Angela Bassett on four projects. In 2006, they appeared onstage in a Pasadena Playhouse production of August Wilson's Fences. In 2006 Fishburne played a professor who coaches a girl from south Los Angeles to compete in a national spelling bee in Akeelah and the Bee. Later that year he also appeared as a hotel chef in Bobby, a film about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

Fishburne provided the voice of the narrator in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) movie, which was released on March 23, 2007. The same year, he provided the voice of the Silver Surfer in 2007 film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

In April 2008, Fishburne returned to the stage in the Broadway production of Thurgood, a new play by George Stevens, Jr. Thurgood opened at the Booth Theatre on April 30, 2008. He won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for his performance.

On August 18, 2008, it was reported that Laurence Fishburne would join the cast of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation after William Petersen (aka Gil Grissom) left the series. John Malkovich was also considered for the role prior to the announcement. Fishburne joined the show on the ninth episode of the 9th season as a college. The character was introduced as a consultant on a case ("19 Down"), who winds up joining the CSI team ("One to Go"). In May 2009, Fishburne performed on-stage in the National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

In 2009 Fishburne starred in the action thriller Armored, and two years later he portrayed a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention executive in the epidemiological thriller Contagion. In the Superman movie Man of Steel (2013), he played Clark Kent’s newspaper-editor boss. He reprised the role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Fishburne’s other films from 2016 included Passengers, a sci-fi romance about hibernating space travelers heading to another planet. The following year he was cast as a crime lord in the action thriller John Wick: Chapter 2; he reprised the role in the 2019 sequel. He played a Vietnam War veteran helping his old war buddy bury his son, a marine killed in the Iraq War, in Last Flag Flying (2017). Fishburne returned to superhero movies in 2018 with Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Achievements

• On February 24, 2007, Fishburne was honored with the Harvard Foundation's Artist of the Year award at the annual show Cultural Rhythms. He received this honor for his prowess as an actor and entertainer and for his humanitarian pursuits. Fishburne is a UNICEF ambassador.
  
  The mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mayor Kenneth Reeves awarded Fishburne the key to the city and declared February 24 "Laurence Fishburne" day in the city of Cambridge.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Ride Along

    (High school security guard Ben (Kevin Hart) tries to prov...)

    2014
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp

    (As he struggles to balance his home life and Super Hero d...)

    2018
  • The Matrix

    (Keanu Reeves stars in an explosive sci-fi adventure about...)

    1999
  • Othello

    (Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh star...)

    1995
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

    (From director Zack Snyder comes "Batman v Superman: Dawn ...)

    2016
  • The Matrix Reloaded

    (Neo, Trinity & Morpheus lead revolt against Machine Army ...)

    2003
  • 21

    (Academy Award Winner Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects) an...)

    2008
  • John Wick Chapter 2

    (John Wick is forced out of retirement, and this time, he ...)

    2017
  • Mission: Impossible III

    (Ethan Hunt comes face to face with a dangerous and sadist...)

    2006
  • Contagion

    ("Contagion" follows the rapid progress of a lethal airbor...)

    2011
  • Last Flag Flying

    (A Vietnam veteran visits two of his fellow Marines to ask...)

  • Passengers

    (Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt star in an adventure ab...)

    2016
  • Tortured

    (An undercover FBI agent faces a moral dilemma when he's a...)

    2008
  • Quicksilver

    (After losing his life savings playing the market, an opti...)

    1986
  • The Mule

    (Earl (Clint Eastwood), a broke man in his 80s, is offered...)

    2018
  • Akeelah and the Bee

    (A young girl from South Los Angeles tries to make it to t...)

    2006
  • The Tuskegee Airmen

    (The story of the 'fighting 99th' - the first squadron of ...)

    1995
  • Man of Steel

    (A young boy learns he has extraordinary powers and is not...)

    2013
  • Assault on Precinct 13

    (Run-down Precinct 13 is about to close its doors forever....)

    2005
  • Deep Cover

    (Laurence Fishburne stars as Russell Stevens Jr., Maverick...)

    1992
  • The Matrix Revolutions

    (This third instalment focuses on action. Neo is trapped i...)

    2003
  • The Colony

    (Years ago, winter came and left. Survivors have tried to ...)

    2013
  • Event Horizon

    (The year is 2047. Years earlier, the pioneering research ...)

    1997
  • Hoodlum

    (1930's New York. The black community of Harlem faces the ...)

    1997
  • Rudderless

    (William H. Macy makes his directorial debut in this heart...)

    2014

Views

Fishburne is an active Ambassador for the United Nations Children's' Emergency Fund (UNICEF), an agency of the United Nations which helps children all over the world with educational, health and humanitarian assistance.

Quotations: "It's funny, a lot of people think I take myself seriously because I come off so serious sometimes. But it's not that I take myself seriously, I take what I do seriously. I came up around people who took acting seriously, who cared about acting, cared about the theater and, in the '70s, made movies that said something that mattered. I came up with those people, and I was a kid. Their ethos and credo became mine."

"I play characters. I don't think I really have a persona per se. I don't play the same guy every time. I show up, you don't know what I'm gonna do. I like it that way. I've intentionally tried to do it that way. I think that's what's interesting."

"I've played a lot of bad guys, 'cause that was the only work I could get. People saw my face and went 'oooh'."

Membership

• Guggenheim Motorcycle Club

Personality

Laurence Fishburne is the philanthropist and humanitarian who is deeply concerned about the state of the world, for which he has great compassion and idealism.

Physical Characteristics: Laurence Fishburne's height is 6' 0½" (1,84 m). He has a gap between his front teeth and deep authoritative voice.

Quotes from others about the person

• "He's just so great. It's always great to work with someone across from you who’s one of the best." - Keanu Reeves

Interests

• Writers

  Paulo Coelho

Connections

Fishburne married actress Hajna O. Moss in 1985, in New York. They have two children together: a son, Langston, born in 1987 and a daughter, Montana, born in 1991. Hajna and Laurence divorced in the 1990s.

Fishburne met actress Gina Torres while filming The Matrix Reloaded. He and Torres were engaged in February 2001 and married on September 22, 2002, at The Cloisters museum in New York City. On January 8, 2007, Fishburne's spokesman Alan Nierob announced the couple was expecting their first child together. Laurence Fishburne and wife Gina Torres are expecting their first child, his publicist said. A daughter, Delilah, was born to the couple in June 2007. On September 20, 2017, it was confirmed that Torres and Fishburne were separated and had been keeping the separation private for the last year. Fishburne filed for divorce on November 2, 2017.

Fishburne lives in Hollywood and also maintains a residence in New York City, in the Castle Village Co-Op in the Hudson Heights section of Washington Heights.

Father:

Laurence John Fishburne II

Mother:

Hattie Bell (née Crawford) Fishburne

Hattie Fishburne raised her son almost single-handedly in New York City. Mother and child settled in Park Slope, Brooklyn, moving there from Georgia after Hattie divorced her son’s dad, Laurence Fishburne Jr., when the kid was young.

ex-spouse:

Hajna O. Moss

Daughter:

Delilah Fishburne

Daughter:

Montana Fishburne

Montana Fishburne was born on September 7, 1991. She is an adult film actress who performs under the name Chippy D. In 2010, it was reported that Fishburne had cut ties with his daughter after she started starring in hardcore pornographic films.

Son:

Langston Fishburne

Fishburne is the son of actor Laurence Fishburne and his first wife Hajna O. Moss. He appeared in the 2018 film Ant-Man and the Wasp as a younger version of Bill Foster, with the older version played by his father.

ex-spouse:

Gina Torres

Gina Torres is an American television and movie actress. She has appeared in many television series, including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, the short-lived Cleopatra 2525, Alias, Firefly, Angel, 24, Suits, The Shield, and Westworld.

colleague:

Keanu Reeves

Friend:

Angela Bassett

colleague:

Halle Berry

colleague:

Ben Affleck

colleague:

Clint Eastwood

References

• Official Laurence Fishburne