Creator / Laurence Fishburne

"What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

—Morpheus, The Matrix

Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961 in Augusta, Georgia) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, and film director, and a quiet man. Maybe too quiet. Sometimes to the point of being almost inaudible.

For most of his early career, he was credited as Larry Fishburne. One of his early roles was Cowboy Curtis on Pee-wee's Playhouse, as well as having a role in Apocalypse Now, the latter of which he got by lying about his age during auditioning, claiming that he was 17, rather than his real age of 14. By the end of Apocalypse Now's infamously Troubled Production, he was an actual 17 year old with a nasty heroin addiction (this is what happens when you work with Dennis Hopper in The '70s).

He is perhaps best known for his role as Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy, and for his portrayal of singer musician Ike Turner in the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). Pity that women gave him the evil eye for years because of the last one.

His noteworthy voice landed him the role of narrator in TMNT (2007), as well as the voice of the Silver Surfer in the second Fantastic Four (2005) movie.

Has been cast as criminologist Dr. Raymond Langston on CSI and has landed the role of Perry White in the 2013 Superman movie Man of Steel. As of April 2014, is a regular on both Hannibal, playing Jack Crawford, and a main cast member on black•ish, where he plays Pops.

Was married to Gina Torres, but they separated in 2017. His daughter from his first marriage, Montana, was formerly a porn star; he did not approve. His son from the same marriage, Langston, is an actor and ballet dancer and looks a lot like his father. Some movies take advantage of this by casting him as a younger version of a character played by his father, most notably in Ant-Man and the Wasp. He and Gina welcomed their first child, a daughter named Delilah, in 2007.

Roles:

• Cornbread Earl and Me (1975) as Wilford Robinson.
• Apocalypse Now (1979) as Tyrone "Clean" Miller.
• Death Wish II (1982) as Cutter.
• M*A*S*H (1982) as Corporal Dorsey.
• The Cotton Club (1984) as Bumpy Rhodes.
• The Color Purple (1985) as Swain.
• Hill Street Blues (1986) as Maurice Haynes.
• Miami Vice (1986) as Prison Guard Keller.
• Quicksilver (1986) as Voodoo.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) as Max.
• Red Heat (1988) as Lt. Stobbs.
• The Equalizer (1989) as Casey Taylor.
• King of New York (1990) as Jimmy Jump.
• Boyz n the Hood (1991) as Furious Styles.
• Deep Cover (1992) as Russell Stevens Jr.
• Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) as Vinnie.
• What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) (1993) as Ike Turner.
• Bad Company 1995 (1995) as Nelson Crowe.
• Othello (1995) as Othello, the Moor of Venice.
• The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) as Captain Hannibal "Iowa" Lee, Jr.
• Fled (1996) as Charles Piper.
• Event Horizon (1997) as Captain Miller.
• The Matrix as Morpheus:
  • The Matrix (1999)
  • Enter the Matrix (2003)
  • The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
  • The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
  • The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005)
• Osmosis Jones (2001) as Thrax.
• Mystic River (2003) as Whitey Powers.
• Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) as Bishop.
• Akeelah and the Bee (2006) as Dr. Joshua Larabee.
• Mission: Impossible III (2006) as Theodore Brassel.
• Bobby (2006) as Edward.
• TMNT (2007) as The Narrator.
• 21 (2008) as Cole Williams.
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008-2011) as Dr. Raymond Langston.
  • CSI: Miami (2009) as Dr. Langston.
  • CSI: NY (2009) as Dr. Langston.
• Armored (2009) as Baines.
• Predators (2010) as Noland.
• Contagion (2011) as Dr. Ellis Cheever.
• Thurgood (2011) as Thurgood Marshall.
• The Colony (2013) as Briggs.
• DC Extended Universe as Perry White:
  • Man of Steel (2013).
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
• Hannibal (2013-2015) as Jack Crawford.
• Ride Along (2014) as Omar.
• BlackIsh (2014-) as Pops Johnson.
• The Signal (2014) as Damon.
• Passengers (2016) as Gus Mancuso.
• John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) as the Bowery King.
  • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
  • John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
• Last Flag Flying (2017) as Richard "Mullah" Mueller.
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) as Bill Foster.
• The Ice Road (2021) as Jim Goldenrod.
• MacGruber (2021) as General Fasoose.
• The School for Good and Evil (2022) as the School Master.
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023) as the Beyonder (Also co-developer and executive producer).

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