Acting Career:, and Also Appeared As An Extra in The 1965 Film - Freeman Made His Nigger Lovers

Acting career
During the early 1960s, Freeman worked as a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair and was a member of
the Opera Ring musical theater group in San Francisco. He acted in a touring company version
of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, and also appeared as an extra in the 1965 film The
Pawnbroker. Freeman made his Off-Broadway debut in 1967, opposite Viveca Lindfors in The
Nigger Lovers[17] (about the Freedom Riders during the American Civil Rights Movement), before
debuting on Broadway in 1968's all-black version of Hello, Dolly! which also starred Pearl
Bailey and Cab Calloway.[18]
Although his first credited film appearance was in 1971's Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow!,
Freeman first became known in the American media through roles on the soap opera Another
World and the PBS kids' show The Electric Company[12] (notably as Easy Reader, Mel Mounds the
DJ, and Vincent the Vegetable Vampire[clip]).
Joan Ganz Cooney claims that Freeman hated doing The Electric Company, saying "it was a very
unhappy period in his life."[19] Freeman himself admitted in an interview that he never thinks about his
tenure with the show, but he acknowledged that, contrary to Cooney's claims, he was glad to have
been a part of it.[20] Since then, Freeman has considered his Street Smart (1987) character Fast
Black, rather than any of the characters he played in The Electric Company, to be his breakthrough
role.[20][21]
Freeman continued to be involved in theater work and received the Obie Award in 1980 for the title
role in Coriolanus. In 1984, he received his second Obie Award for his role as the preacher in The
Gospel at Colonus. Freeman also won a Drama Desk Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for his
role as a wino in The Mighty Gents. He received his third Obie Award for his role as a chauffeur for
a Jewish widow in Driving Miss Daisy, which was adapted for the screen in 1989.[15]
Beginning in the mid-1980s, Freeman began playing prominent supporting roles in feature films,
earning him a reputation for depicting wise, fatherly characters. [12] As he gained fame, he went on to
bigger roles in films such as the chauffeur Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy, and Sergeant Major Rawlins
in Glory (both in 1989).[12] In 1994, he portrayed Red, the redeemed convict in the acclaimed The
Shawshank Redemption. In the same year he was a member of the jury at the 44th Berlin
International Film Festival.[22]
Freeman in 1998
He also starred in such films as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Seven, and Deep

Impact. In 1997, Freeman, together with Lori McCreary, founded the film production
company Revelations Entertainment, and the two co-head its sister online film distribution
company ClickStar. Freeman also hosts the channel Our Space on ClickStar, with specially crafted
film clips in which he shares his love for the sciences, especially space exploration and aeronautics.
After three previous nominations – a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Street Smart, and Best
Actor nominations for Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption—he won the Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Million Dollar Baby at the 77th Academy
Awards.[12] Freeman is recognized for his distinctive voice, making him a frequent choice for
narration. In 2005 alone, he provided narration for two films, War of the Worlds and the Academy
Award-winning documentary film March of the Penguins.
Freeman appeared as God in the hit film Bruce Almighty and its sequel Evan Almighty. He appeared
in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy – Batman Begins (2005) and its sequels The Dark
Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – as Lucius Fox. He starred in Rob Reiner's 2007
film The Bucket List, opposite Jack Nicholson. He teamed with Christopher Walken and William H.
Macy for the comedy The Maiden Heist, which was released direct to video due to financial
problems with the distribution company. In 2008, Freeman returned to Broadway to co-star
with Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher for a limited engagement of Clifford Odets' play, The
Country Girl, directed by Mike Nichols.
Freeman wanted to do a film based on Nelson Mandela for some time. At first he tried to get
Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom adapted into a finished script, but it was not
finalized.[23] In 2007, he purchased the film rights to a book by John Carlin, Playing the Enemy:
Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation.[24] Clint Eastwood directed the Nelson Mandela
bio-pic titled Invictus, starring Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as rugby team captain Francois
Pienaar.[25]
In 2010, Freeman co-starred alongside Bruce Willis in Red.[26]
In 2011, Freeman was featured with John Lithgow in the Broadway debut of Dustin Lance Black's
play, 8, a staged reenactment of Perry v. Brown, the federal trial that overturned
California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. Freeman played Attorney David Boies.[27] The
production was held at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City to raise money for the American
Foundation for Equal Rights.[28][29]
In 2013, Freeman appeared in the action-thriller Olympus Has Fallen, the science fiction
drama Oblivion, and the comedy Last Vegas. In 2014, he co-starred in the action film Lucy. In 2015,
Freeman played the Chief Justice of the United States in the season two premiere of Madam
Secretary (Freeman is also one of the series' executive producers). He also appeared in London
Has Fallen, the 2016 sequel of Olympus Has Fallen.

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Acting career

He also starred in such films as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Seven, and Deep

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