On this day in 1937, Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. After four years as an Air Force mechanic, Freeman began his acting career on the stage before trying film in the 1970s. His breakout role was as New York pimp “Fast Black” in 1987’s Street Smart opposite Christopher Reeve, for which he earned an Oscar nomination. He followed this up with an extraordinary performance in 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy, garnering him a second nomination from the Academy. By the 1990s, his reputation as one of modern cinema’s foremost actors had been established. He supplements his acting career with frequent voice work, providing the narration for many of his own films as well as other major motion pictures such as 2005’s March of the Penguins.
Factoid: Morgan Freeman is the only African-American actor to appear in three Best Picture Oscar winners: Driving Miss Daisy, Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby.
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