Laurence Fishburne

Laurence Fishburne (birthname: Laurence John Fishburne III) has been on movie screens since he was fourteen and debuted in Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975), has cast a large shadow over several iconic films, including The Matrix (1999) and its sequels, and has worked with many major filmmakers, starting with director/writer/producer Francis Ford Coppola, for whom he acted in a string of varying roles in Apocalypse Now (1979), Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984) and Gardens of Stone (1987). Fishburne landed roles with other major filmmakers in the early phases of his—and their—careers, including Steven Spielberg with his screen version of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1985) and Spike Lee, with his satirical comedy, School Daze (1988).

Fishburne continued to be credited as “Larry Fishburne” in his early roles with major filmmakers such as director/writer/producer Walter Hill’s buddy cop comedy, Red Heat (1988), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Belushi, Peter Boyle, Ed O’Ross, and Gina Gershon. Fishburne, in his first major film role, joined another indie filmmaking legend, Abel Ferrara, for one of Ferrara’s best movies, King of New York (1990), starring Christopher Walken, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes, and Giancarlo Esposito.

Laurence Fishburne was cast by his Apocalypse Now cast mate Martin Sheen (as director and co-star) in the military prison drama, Cadence (1990), with Charlie Sheen, Michael Beach, and Ramon Estevez, and then Fishburne co-starred in director/writer John Singleton’s seminal, Oscar-nominated South Central Los Angeles drama, Boyz n the Hood (1991), co-starring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Morris Chestnut, grossing a smashing $57.5 million global return for Columbia Pictures. Fishburne earned an Independent Spirit acting nomination for his performance as an undercover cop in the Bill Duke-directed noir Deep Cover (1992), with Jeff Goldblum, Charles Martin Smith, Glynn Turman, and Roger Guenveur Smith, grossing a good $16.6 million for New Line Cinema.

Fishburne delivered a dynamic and attention-getting performance (and his first Oscar nomination) as Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), starring Angela Bassett, Khandi Alexander, Jenifer Lewis, and Chi McBride, delivering profits ($61 million gross) for Disney/Touchstone Pictures. Fishburne landed a major supporting role in director/writer Steve Zaillian’s fine debut drama, Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), co-starring Max Pomeranc, Ben Kingsley, Joe Mantegna, Joan, David Paymer, William H. Macy, Austin Pendleton, Tony Shalhoub, and Laura Linney, and released by Paramount Pictures.

Laurence Fishburne won the NAACP Image award for best-supporting actor for his performance, reuniting with director/writer/producer John Singleton for Higher Learning (1995), with Jennifer Connelly, Ice Cube, Omar Epps, Michael Rapaport, Kristy Swanson, Tyra Banks (in her debut), Regina King, Cole Hauser, and Morris Chestnut, and grossing over $38 million for Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing. Fishburne was one of the first Black film actors to take on Shakespeare’s title role in Othello (1995), directed by Oliver Parker and co-starring Irene Jacob (as Desdemona) and Kenneth Branagh (as Iago), and then Fishburne starred in his first sci-fi movie with the Paul W.S. Anderson-directed Event Horizon (1997), co-starring Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, and released by Paramount Pictures (which heavily edited Anderson’s version before release).

Fishburne crafted one of his most enduring roles as Morpheus in directors/writers The Wachowskis’ sci-fi triumph, The Matrix (1999), starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, delivering a blowout box office return for Warner Bros. of $468 million, and launching sequels also co-starring Fishburne: The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), earning a combined $1.16 billion return. Fishburne turned in a very different direction for his next movie project, adapting his play titled Riff Raff as Once in the Life (2000), in which he starred, directed, and wrote marking his big-screen filmmaking debut co-starring Titus Welliver, Eamonn Walker, and Annabella Sciorra.

Laurence Fishburne played a challenged Boston cop in director/producer Clint Eastwood’s and screenwriter Brian Helgeland’s stunning screen version of Dennis Lehane’s crime novel, Mystic River (2003), joining a brilliant cast led by Oscar winner Sean Penn (best actor), Tim Robbins (best supporting actor), Kevin Bacon, Marica Gay Harden, and Laura Linney, grossing a potent $157 million globally on a $30 million budget. Fishburne took both the lead role and lead producer of the acclaimed spelling-bee drama, Akeelah and the Bee (2006), written and directed by Doug Atchison and co-starring Angela Bassett, Keke Palmer, and Curtis Armstrong, leading to a good return of $19 million against $8 million expenses.

Fishburne made his only appearance in one of the most successful contemporary franchises in a supporting role in Mission: Impossible III (2006), starring and produced by Tom Cruise (who dropped both directors David Fincher and Joe Carnahan in favor of J.J. Abrams in his feature directorial debut), with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell, and Maggie Q, and bringing in $400 million in box-office booty for Paramount Pictures.

Fishburne continued his work in the thriller vein as both star and producer with the CIA drama, Five Fingers (2006), with Ryan Phillippe, Gina Torres, Said Taghmaoui, and Colm Meaney under Laurence Malkin’s direction, and then appeared in a supporting role as the Ambassador Hotel chef in the Bobby Kennedy historical biopic written and directed by Emilio Estevez, Bobby (2006), with a massive cast including (alphabetically) Harry Belafonte, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, and Elijah Wood, and which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Laurence Fishburne provided the narrator voice for the animated version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2007), featuring the voices of Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mako, Kevin Smith, Patrick Stewart, and Zhang Ziyi under writer Kevin Munroe’s direction, returning a healthy $96 million gross globally for Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company, and then Fishburne voiced for another animated movie as Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer in Marvel’s and 20^th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), with fellow voice actors Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Kerry Washington, and Andre Braugher, grossing a relatively disappointing $302 million against $130 million costs.

Fishburne continued his work as an ensemble actor in the Robert Luketic-directed hit ($160 million gross) heist movie produced and co-starring Kevin Spacey for Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing, 21 (2008), based on Ben Mezrich’s 2003 book, Bringing Down the House, with Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth, and then Fishburne joined another ensemble in producer Robert Rodriguez’s third Predator installment (minus two crossover Alien/Predator movies), Predators (2010), with Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, and Mahershala Ali, delivering over $127 million (against $40 million costs) for 20^th Century Fox.

Fishburne then appeared in a much more realistic ensemble sci-fi thriller, filmmaker Steven Soderbergh’s and writer Scott Z. Burns’ Contagion (2011), co-starring Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, and Sanaa Lathan, premiering at the Venice Film Festival and earning $136.5 million (adding further returns during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Laurence Fishburne’s next major role during a busy period was as Perry White in a pair of Superman (Henry Cavill being the caped guy) in a pair of DC movies directed by Zack Snyder, Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), both co-starring Amy Adams and earning a combined $1.54 billion gross for Warner Bros. Fishburne joined the small ensemble of Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Releasing’s unusual sci-fi space romance,

Passengers (2017), co-starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt under Morten Tyl dum’s direction, and earning poor reviews and fair returns ($303 million gross against $150 million costs), and then Fishburne collaborated with indie filmmaker Richard Linklater on his poorly received ensemble drama-comedy, Last Flag Flying (2017), with Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Yul Vazquez, and Cicely Tyson, and released by Amazon Studios/Lionsgate after a New York Film Festival premiere; and then Fishburne reunited with Linklater on the eccentric, mildly received comedy-drama for Annapurna Pictures/United Artists Releasing, Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2019), co-starring Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig, and Judy Greer.

Fishburne made a big impression in his recurring role as The Bowery King in the second, third, and fourth mega-popular entries in the John Wick film series starring Keanu Reeves and directed by Chad Stahelski: John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum (2019), and John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023), grossing a combined $942 million globally for Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate.

Fishburne was cast in another franchise as Dr. Bill Foster/formerly Giant-Man in the Marvel Studios/Disney Studios movies Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Hannah John-Kamen, Judy Greer, Bobby Cannavale, Randall Park, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Michael Douglas under Peyton Reed’s direction; as well as the Jake Schreier-directed Thunderbolts (2025), with Sebastian Stan, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Olga Kurylenko, Harrison Ford, and Geraldine Viswanathan. Fishburne reunited with director/producer/star Clint Eastwood in the drama released by Warner Bros., The Mule (2018), written by Nick Schenk and co-starring Bradley Cooper, Pena, Dianne Wiest, and Andy Garcia, earning fine reviews and better box office ($175 million returns on $50 million costs).

Laurence Fishburne then partnered with co-star Casey Affleck in the outer space thriller, Slingshot (2024), with Emily Beecham and David Morrissey under Mikael Håfström’s direction, and released wide by distributor Bleecker Street. Fishburne joined the starry voice cast of Paramount Animation’s and Hasbro Entertainment’s animated Transformers One (2024), with Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, and Jon Hamm, under Josh Cooley’s direction.

Fishburne reunited as a supporting actor (on-screen as well as off-screen narrator) with one of his first directors–Francis Ford Coppola—for the filmmaker’s long-in-the-making utopian-themed epic, Megalopolis (2024), starring the sprawling cast of Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, and Dustin Hoffman, produced by American Zoetrope for a price tag of approximately $120 million and released by Lionsgate Films. Fishburne co-starred in the spy thriller, The Amateur (2025), starring Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, and Julianne Nicholson, and released by 20^th Century Fox.

Laurence Fishburne was a producer and a co-lead voice in director/writer Rob Edwards’ animated movie set in a big city, Sneaks (2025), co-starring the voices of Keith David, Anthony Mackie, Martin Lawrence, Rico Rodriguez, Chloe Bailey, and Macy Gray. Fishburne returned to sci-fi mode as a co-star and an executive producer on debuting director/writer Jess Varley’s outer space thriller, The Astronaut (date to be announced), co-starring Kate Mara in the title role, Gabriel Luna, Macy Gray, and Reza Diako.