Laurence Fishburne Biography (2)
Fishburne made his feature film debut at the age of 12 in Cornbread, Earl and Me. Three years later, he landed a co-starring role in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now. He later reunited with Coppola on the films Rumble Fish, Gardens of Stone and The Cotton Club. Fishburne has also collaborated twice with director John Singleton on the films Boyz N the Hood and Higher Learning, receiving an Image Award for Best Actor for the latter. In 1995, Fishburne starred in the title role of Kenneth Branagh's Othello, becoming the first African-American to play Shakespeare's Moorish general on the big screen.
In October 2000, Fishburne made his directorial debut on Once in the Life, which he also starred in and produced. His long list of film credits also includes Hoodlum, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Just Cause, Bad Company, Class Action, King of New York, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Band of the Hand, School Daze and The Color Purple.
On the small screen, Fishburne recently starred in and executive produced the television movie Miss Evers' Boys, for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie, in addition to earning an Emmy nomination and winning an Image Award for Best Actor. He had earlier won an Image Award and garnered Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for his work in the HBO drama The Tuskegee Airmen. He also won an Emmy Award for his guest appearance on the series Tribeca.
Fishburne has also been honored for his work on the stage. In 1992, he swept the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards for his performance in the Broadway production of August Wilson's Two Trains Running.
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