Morgan Freeman

This tall, mellowvoiced black actor, one of the contemporary screen's most accomplished supporting players and character leads, has brought dignity as well as talent to a wide array of movie roles. Long before moviegoers knew his face, children were watching him as Easy Reader on the popular PBS TV series "The Electric Company." After considerable stage and TV experience, Freeman stunned movie audiences (and earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination) as the suavely vicious pimp in Street Smart (1987). Prior to that, he'd had small parts in Brubaker (1980), Eyewitness(1981), Teachers (1984), Marie, a True Story and That Was Then, This Is Now (both 1985). Since attaining stardom, he has played a number of uplifting characters in Clean and Sober (1988), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). Freeman was tireless in 1989, playing a Civil War sergeant in Glory a disciplineminded high school principal in Lean on Me a gentle chauffeur in Driving Miss Daisy (Oscar nomination for Best Actor), and even squeezing in a change of pace as a nasty cop in Johnny Handsome He continues to work on stage-he made a notable Petruchio in a 1991 production of "The Taming of the Shrew," opposite Tracey Ullman. He costarred with Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven (1992) before making his directing debut on the little-seen apartheid story Bopha! (1993). Freeman earned another Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of a prison lifer in The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and, most recently, has costarred in Outbreak and Seven (both 1995).