Laurence Fishburne

Season 5, Episode 502

Original Airdate: February 7, 1999

Laurence Fishburne was born in August, Georgia on July 20, 1961 but moved with his mother to New York City as a child. He made his acting debut at age 10 on the New York stage. By age 11 he was a regular on the ABC hit One Life to Live, playing the son in the first black family on a soap opera.

At age 14, he lied about his age, and scored a break through role in Francis Ford Coppola's landmark film, Apocalypse Now. Fishburne continued to work with Coppola, in 1983's Rumble Fish, 1984's The Cotton Club, and 1987's Gardens of Stone.

He also appeared in The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg. In quite an opposite vein, he then tackled the role of Cowboy Curtis on the offbeat children's TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse (starting in 1986).

Perhaps a sign of the dearth of good roles for black actors, Fishburne took on roles originally intended for white actors, including a hit-man 1990's King of New York and a legal assistant in Michael Apted's 1991 courtroom drama Class Action.

He married casting agent Hajna Moss in 1985, and they had two children, son and daughter Montana. In 1991, he made the decision to call himself “Laurence” and not “Larry” anymore - jokingly threatening to break the legs of those who didn't comply.

Fishburne finally won critical and popular playing the stern father, Furious Styles, in John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood (1991). He knew Singleton from his Pee-Wee's Playhouse days, when Singleton was still a student and worked as a security guard on the set. Fishburne won a Tony the following year for his performance of August Wilson's Two Trains Running. He followed in 1992 with Deep Cover, and in 1993's Searching for Bobby Fischer.

1993 saw Fishburne nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Ike Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It, and winning an Emmy for his role in the Robert DeNiro-produced show Tribeca.

In 1995, Fishburne became the first African-American to play the title role of Othello on-screen, opposite Kenneth Branagh's Iago. That same year, he made his off-Broadway debut as both playwright and director of Riff Raff, the story of an African-American con man's relationship with a white junkie, which garnered lots of critical praise but not much box office action.

He was named a U.S. Fund for UNICEF National Ambassador in 1996. Then followed a number of forgettable films: Fled (1996), Event Horizon (1997) and Hoodlum (1997). In 1999, Fishburne became a surprising action star, showing off his kung-fu moves alongside Keanu Reeves in the blockbuster sci-fi hit The Matrix. He is already slated to reprise his role as Morpheus in two sequels.