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No debate: It's Denzel

Kelly Jane Torrance
December 28, 2007

Denzel Washington is the teacher who leads an underdog debate team to victory in "The Great Debaters."Denzel Washington stars in "The Great Debaters," which he also directed.

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Denzel Washington has enjoyed a rather remarkable career.

He got his first big break on "St. Elsewhere," as Dr. Phillip Chandler, a character he played during the show's entire six-year run from 1982 to 1988. Even before the series ended, he had a starring role in a feature film, as anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough's "Cry Freedom." That film earned him the first of his five Oscar nominations. He won his first for his supporting role in 1989's "Glory" and his second for his lead role in 2001's "Training Day." In between, he made a string of hits, including "Philadelphia," "The Pelican Brief" and "Remember the Titans."

Some actors find that work dries up as they get older, but things just keep getting better for Mr. Washington, who turns 53 today.

"Yesterday was one of the best days of my life," he said by telephone two weeks ago.

That was the day this year's Golden Globe nominations were announced and Mr. Washington found himself the star of not just one best-picture nominee, but two — "American Gangster," in which he plays the real-life heroin kingpin Frank Lucas alongside fellow Oscar winner Russell Crowe, and "The Great Debaters," in which he plays the real-life teacher who inspired a debate team to victory. He also got his sixth Golden Globe nomination for his work in "American Gangster."

"I don't know if anything like this has even happened before. It's amazing," he says with some excitement.

That's not the only reason Mr. Washington was in such a good mood. He also directed "The Great Debaters," the story of how a small black school, Wiley College, beat the national debating champions. The same day the Globe nods were announced, Mr. Washington was in Marshall, Texas, for the red-carpet premiere of his film at Wiley.

"They were all saying, 'I just can't believe you all came down.' I wouldn't have it any other way," he says. "It's really the bookend for the film for me. It started there, so to play it down there meant a lot."

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