10 Reasons Why Denzel Washington Is Hollywood’s G.O.A.T.

4. He’s got game in real life, too​

The movie that proves it: He Got Game​

While studying drama and journalism at Fordham University, Washington played guard on the school’s basketball team, where he was coached by the legendary P.J. Carlesimo. The actor would later show off some of those skills in his third collaboration with Spike Lee, 1998’s He Got Game, in which he plays a convict who’s let out of the joint so he can convince his estranged son (real-life NBA star Ray Allen) to take a basketball scholarship in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Watch it: Check out Washington playing some very hands-on defense in this YouTube clip from He Got Game. (He Got Game, on Prime Video)

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5. He’s got a work ethic that matches his range​

The movie that proves it: Philadelphia​

You could almost pull any year at random, but for the sake of argument, let’s take a look at 1993. In that 12-month period, Washington released three (three!) films that couldn’t have been more different: Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, the slick John Grisham thriller The Pelican Brief and Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia, arguably the first mainstream Hollywood film to wrestle with the AIDS crisis head-on. Needless to say, Washington is excellent in all of them.​

Watch it: Philadelphia, on Prime Video

6. He can give an amazing performance even in bed​

The movie that proves it: The Bone Collector​

Sometimes when folks talk about great actors they’ll say, “I would listen to him/her read the phone book.” Well, not far off from that is an actor so consistently mesmerizing that we would pay to watch them in a movie where they are in bed throughout most of the film. And that’s exactly what Washington does in 1999’s The Bone Collector, a taut procedural about a quadriplegic former homicide detective and his partner (Angelina Jolie) tracking a serial killer terrorizing New York City. Washington knows that not every film he’s in has to win an Oscar (or even win over critics), but in The Bone Collector he knows how to juice up some pulp … even from bed.​

Watch it: This tense steam-pipe scene from The Bone Collector on YouTube (The Bone Collector, on Peacock)​​​

7. Even his movies that people haven’t seen are fantastic​

The movie that proves it: 2 Guns

​One of the most satisfying movies from 2013 was one that almost no one saw. It’s one of those films that you can’t stop constantly telling people about because you want to convert the world to your side. I’m talking about director Baltasar Kormakur’s buddy crime-caper 2 Guns. Washington and Mark Wahlberg team up as bantering undercover agents posing as drug dealers to nab a cocaine kingpin (Edward James Olmos). Full of fun twists you don’t see coming and goosed along by an Elmore Leonard vibe, 2 Guns is buried treasure featuring two A-list stars who know they’re in a B-movie.​

Watch it: 2 Guns, on Prime Video

8. As a director, he hit a home run his first time at the plate​

The movie that proves it: Antwone Fisher​

Just about every actor thinks they can direct, but few manage to do it, never mind actually be any good at it. Well, Washington proved to be a natural, knocking it out of the park on his very first try with 2002’s Antwone Fisher. A powerful three-hankie drama, this tearjerker stars a then-unknown Derek Luke as a young Navy man who is forced to see a psychiatrist (Washington) and his troubled past slowly begins to spill out. Rarely are debuts behind the camera this assured. Since then, Washington has directed infrequently, but when he does, it’s an event. 

Watch it: Antwone Fisher, on Prime Video (and put a box of Kleenex in your shopping cart while you’re there)

9. He can even do Shakespeare … lots of it​

The movie that proves it: Much Ado About Nothing

​We all know that Washington is one of Hollywood’s most versatile performers, but few know that he’s also very much at home with the Bard. One of his first big stage performances was a 1979 off-Broadway production of Coriolanus. Since then, he’s performed in Richard III at the Public Theater and as Brutus in a 2005 Broadway version of Julius Caesar. Since plays are hardly available to stream, why not check him out in this scene from Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 movie version of Much Ado About Nothing?​

Watch it: Much Ado About Nothing, on Pluto TV

10. Because apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree​

The movie that proves it: Malcolm X​

If you’ve seen Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman or Christopher Nolan’s Tenet then you know that old saying “Like father, like son” is true when it comes to Washington’s son, John David Washington. Talent runs in the genes. The younger Washington is now a bona fide second-generation movie star, but few know that his first role came in his dad’s blistering biopic Malcolm X, in which the younger Washington plays a student in a Harlem classroom. Granted, it’s a real blink-and-miss-it turn, but who needs an excuse to check out such a great movie featuring two Washingtons for the price of one?

Watch it: Malcolm X, on Max​