Laurence Fishburne

Highest Rated: 100% Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone (2011)

Lowest Rated: 11% Band of the Hand (1986)

Birthday: Jul 30, 1961

Birthplace: Augusta, Georgia, USA

Was cast in Apocalypse Now when he was 14 by telling director Francis Ford Coppola he was 18. Turned down the role of Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It five times. When he heard Angela Bassett would be playing Tina, he reconsidered. First African-American to play Shakespeare's Othello on film, in the 1995 movie. Wrote his 2000 directorial debut film Once in the Life, which he based on his play, Riff Raff. In 2008, began a two-and-a-half season stint as criminal pathologist Dr. Raymond Langston on the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Portrayed Thurgood Marshall on Broadway in 2008's one-man play Thurgood; later reprised his role for a 2010 Kennedy Center production that HBO filmed and then debuted in 2011.

Photos

View All Photos (20)

Highest Rated Movies

Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone
100%
Searching for Bobby Fischer
100%
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
100%
Apocalypse Now
97%

Filmography

MOVIES

		CREDIT
No Score Yet	Running With The Devil	The Man	—	2019
No Score Yet	Imprisoned	Daniel Calvin	—	2019
47%	Where'd You Go, Bernadette	Paul Jellinek	—	2019
90%	John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum	Bowery King	—	2019
70%	The Mule	DEA Special Agent	—	2018
88%	Ant-Man and the Wasp	Bill Foster	—	2018
78%	Last Flag Flying	Mueller	$0.5M	2017
89%	John Wick: Chapter 2	Bowery King	$92M	2017
30%	Passengers	Gus Mancuso	$100.1M	2016
28%	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	Perry White	$293.8M	2016
56%	Standoff	Executive Producer Sade Producer	—	2016
No Score Yet	August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand	Actor	—	2015
60%	The Signal	Damon	$0.5M	2014
18%	Ride Along	Omar	$110.4M	2014
44%	Khumba	Seko	$91K	2013
16%	The Colony	Briggs	—	2013
56%	Man of Steel	Perry White	$291.1M	2013
33%	A Man's Story	Actor	—	2012
No Score Yet	Slavery By Another Name	Narrator	—	2012
100%	Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone	Narrator	—	2011
84%	Contagion	Dr. Ellis Cheever	$75.7M	2011
No Score Yet	Have A Little Faith	Rev. Henry Covington	—	2011
No Score Yet	Thurgood	Actor	—	2011
65%	Predators	Noland	$52.1M	2010
No Score Yet	Black Water Transit	Jack Vermillion	—	2010
No Score Yet	The Last Full Measure	Actor	—	2010
40%	Armored	Baines	$16M	2009
35%	21	Cole Williams	$81.2M	2008
No Score Yet	Tortured	Archie Green	—	2008
No Score Yet	Days of Wrath	Actor	—	2008
No Score Yet	The Death and Life of Bobby Z	Tad Bruzsa	—	2007
37%	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer	Voice of the Silver Surfer	$131.8M	2007
34%	TMNT	Narrator	$54.2M	2007
46%	Bobby	Edward Robinson	$11.1M	2006
70%	Mission: Impossible III	Theodore Brassel	$133.5M	2006
No Score Yet	Five Fingers	Ahmat	—	2006
85%	Akeelah and the Bee	Producer Dr. Larabee	$18.9M	2006
59%	Assault on Precinct 13	Marion Bishop	$20M	2005
No Score Yet	The Burly Man Chronicles	Actor	—	2004
35%	The Matrix Revolutions	Morpheus	$139.1M	2003
88%	Mystic River	Whitey Powers	$88.9M	2003
No Score Yet	Dorothy Dandridge: An American Beauty	Actor	—	2003
73%	The Matrix Reloaded	Morpheus	$281.6M	2003
23%	Biker Boyz	Smoke	$21.8M	2003
No Score Yet	The Soul of a Man	Narrator	—	2003
93%	Apocalypse Now Redux	Clean	$2M	2001
55%	Osmosis Jones	Thrax	$12.4M	2001
28%	Once in the Life	Producer 20/20 Mike Screenwriter Director	—	2001
No Score Yet	Welcome to Hollywood	Actor	—	2000
67%	Michael Jordan to the Max	Narrator	—	2000
88%	The Matrix	Morpheus	—	1999
No Score Yet	Always Outnumbered	Executive Producer Socrates Fortlow	—	1998
No Score Yet	Welcome to Hollywood	Himself	—	1998
43%	Hoodlum	Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson Executive Producer	—	1997
27%	Event Horizon	Miller	—	1997
No Score Yet	Miss Evers' Boys	Caleb Humphries Executive Producer	—	1997
No Score Yet	Century of Black Cinema	Actor	—	1997
16%	Fled	Piper	—	1996
67%	Othello	Othello	—	1995
88%	The Tuskegee Airmen	Hannibal Lee	—	1995
24%	Just Cause	Tanny Brown	—	1995
27%	Bad Company	Nelson Crowe	—	1995
47%	Higher Learning	Prof. Phipps	—	1994
100%	Searching for Bobby Fischer	Vinnie	—	1993
96%	What's Love Got To Do With It?	Ike Turner	—	1993
86%	Deep Cover	Russell Stevens Jr. / John Hull	—	1992
96%	Boyz n the Hood	Furious Styles	—	1991
100%	Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse	Actor	—	1991
75%	Class Action	Holbrook	—	1991
No Score Yet	Decoration Day	Michael Waring	—	1990
71%	King of New York	Jimmy Jump	—	1990
42%	Cadence	Stokes	—	1989
64%	Red Heat	Lt. Stobbs	—	1988
59%	School Daze	Dap Dunlap	—	1988
40%	Cherry 2000	Glu Glu Lawyer	—	1988
No Score Yet	The Father Clements Story	Actor	—	1987
47%	Gardens of Stone	Cpl. Flanagan	—	1987
74%	A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors	Max	—	1987
11%	Band of the Hand	Cream	—	1986
13%	Quicksilver	Voodoo	—	1986
85%	The Color Purple	Swain	—	1985
75%	The Cotton Club	Bumpy Rhodes	—	1984
70%	Rumble Fish	Midget	—	1983
No Score Yet	For Us, the Living: The Story of Medgar Evers	Jimbo Collins	—	1983
33%	Death Wish II	Cutter	—	1982
No Score Yet	A Rumor of War	Actor	—	1980
No Score Yet	Willie & Phil	Wilson	—	1980
No Score Yet	Fast Break	Street Kid	—	1979
97%	Apocalypse Now	Clean	—	1979
No Score Yet	Cornbread, Earl and Me	Wilford	—	1975

TV

		CREDIT
No Score Yet	grown-ish 2018	Executive Producer	2019 2018
91%	black-ish 2014	Producer Executive Producer Pops	2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
No Score Yet	Black Hollywood: They've Gotta Have Us 2018	Appearing	2018
No Score Yet	The Talk 2010	Guest	2018
No Score Yet	The Daily Show With Trevor Noah 2015	Guest	2018 2017
No Score Yet	Conan 2010	Guest	2018 2016
No Score Yet	Harry 2016-2018	Guest	2017
100%	Madiba 2017	Nelson Mandela NELSON MANDELA	2017
No Score Yet	The Late Late Show With James Corden 2015	Guest	2017
No Score Yet	Year Million 2017	Narrator Executive Producer	2017
96%	Roots 2016	Alex Haley	2016
No Score Yet	The Late Show With Stephen Colbert 2015	Guest	2016
No Score Yet	Jay Leno's Garage 2015	Guest	2015
63%	The Muppets 2015-2016	Himself	2015
92%	Hannibal 2013-2015	Director Dr. Jack Crawford Jack Crawford	2015 2014 2013
No Score Yet	Jimmy Kimmel Live 2003	Guest	2015 2010
No Score Yet	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation 2000-2015	Ray Langston Raymond Langston	2015 2011 2010 2009 2008
No Score Yet	The View 1997	Guest	2014 2011
No Score Yet	Iron Chef America 2004-2018	Judge	2013
No Score Yet	Crime Scene Investigation [DELETED] 2003-2010	Raymond Langston	2009
No Score Yet	CSI: Miami 2002-2012	Ray Langston	2009
No Score Yet	CSI: NY 2004-2013	Ray Langston	2009
No Score Yet	Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 2009-2014	Guest	2009
No Score Yet	The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 1992-2014	Guest	2003 2001
100%	Tribeca 1993		1993
No Score Yet	The Equalizer 1985-1989	Casey	1989
No Score Yet	Miami Vice 1984-1990	Kellar	1986
No Score Yet	American Playhouse 1982-1996	Jimbo Collins	1983
No Score Yet	MAS*H 1972-1983	Cpl. Dorsey	1982
No Score Yet	Trapper John, M.D. 1979-1986	Hobie	1981
No Score Yet	Mixed-ish 2019	Executive Producer

QUOTES FROM Laurence Fishburne CHARACTERS

Perry White

Clicks his heels three times, and he's back in Kansas.

Perry White

Nobody cares about Clark Kent taking on the Batman!

Perry White

Kent! Where does he go? Where does he go?..Clicks his heels three times and goes back to Kansas I suppose..

Perry White	Nobody cares about Clark Kent taking on the Batman
Perry White	Nobody cares about Clark Kent taking on the Batman.

Sade	You want to play with me?

Sade	You're a soldier boy. Is this a broken home?

Sade	I see you know your guns, friend. Now you need to know your place.

Omar	Stop throwing stuff
Miggs	I can't I already pulled it

Omar	If Omar shoots him then Omar shoot him

Russell Stevens Jr./John Hull

I'd been turned out like a two-dollar whore, with no kiss and no towel.

Russell Stevens Jr./John Hull

What would you do?

Neo	Am I dead?
Morpheus	Far from it.

Tank	How?
Morpheus	He is the one!

Morpheus

Unfortunately, no one can be told what The Matrix is. You'll have to see it for yourself.

Niobe	I keep thinking, what if you're wrong? What if all this, the prophecy, everything is bullshit?
Morpheus	Then, we'll all be dead.

Cutter

Awww, man. We look all the same to whitey, anyway. He'll never pick you out, Jiver.

Ahmat

If more Westerners played chess, they would understand.There are no bluffs--only calculations.

Darryl	I ain't afraid of you.
Socrates Fortlow	Yeah you is. You ain't no fool.

Morpheus

Neo, if you're out there, I could use some help.

Neo	What do you want, Smith?
Agent Smith	Oh, you haven't you figured that out? still using all the muscles except the one that matters. I want exactly what you want, I want everything.
Morpheus	would that include a bullet from this gun?
Agent Smith	Go ahead, Shoot. The best thing about being me, is there so many mes!

Perry White	I just came back from Aruba... Check out my tan.
Perry White	I just came back from Aruba. Check out my tan.

Perry White

Can you imagine how the people on this planet would react if they knew there was someone like this out there?

Morpheus

What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.

Furious Styles

Any fool with a dick can make a baby, but only a real man can raise his children.

Neo	I thought it wasn't real.
Morpheus	Your mind makes it real.

Morpheus

Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Morpheus

What are you waiting for? You're faster than this. Don't think you are, know you are. Come on. Stop trying to hit me and hit me.

Morpheus

If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

Neo	Am I dead?
Morpheus	Far from it.

Morpheus

What if tomorrow the war could be over? Isn't that worth fighting for? Isn't that worth dying for?

Morpheus	Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you seemed so sure it was real? But if were unable to wake up from that dream, how would you tell the difference between the dream world & the real world?
Neo	This can't be.
Morpheus	Be what? Be real?

Morpheus

This is a war, and we are soldiers, what if tomorrow the war could be over, isn't that worth fighting for? Isn't that worth dying for?

Morpheus

The matrix is a system Neo, that system is our enemy.

Neo	I know Kung Fu!
Morpheus	Show me!

Morpheus	The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's design to disrupt your input/output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your location.
Neo	What does that mean?
Cypher	It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy because Kansas is going bye bye.

Morpheus

You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief, Free your mind.

Neo	I know what you're trying to do.
Morpheus	I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.

Morpheus

Come on! Stop trying to hit me and hit me!

Morpheus

Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Morpheus

Morpheus: If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

Morpheus

Do you think that's air you're breathing now?

Morpheus

Nobody can be told what the matrix is, you have to see it for yourself.

Morpheus

Were you listening to me Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?

Morpheus	If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain
Morpheus	If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

Morpheus

There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

Morpheus

If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

Morpheus	[after knocking Neo down] How did I beat you?
Neo	[gasping] You're too fast.
Morpheus	Do you believe that my being faster or stronger has anything to do with my muscles in this place? You think that's air you're breathing now?

Morpheus

He is the one.

Captain Miller	You miss me, you blow out the hull.
Weir	What makes you think I'll miss?

Captain Miller

This place is a tomb!

Captain Miller	Vacate! I want off this ship!
Weir	You can't leave. She won't let you.
Captain Miller	You just get your gear and get back on the Lewis and Clark, Doctor, or you'll find yourself walkin' home.
Weir	I am home.

Captain Miller	Oh. My. God. What happened to your eyes?
Weir	Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.
Captain Miller	What are you talking about?
Weir	I created the Event Horizon to reach the stars, but she's gone much, much farther than that. She tore a hole in our universe, a gateway to another dimension. A dimension of pure chaos. Pure... evil. When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was alive! Look at her, Miller. Isn't she beautiful?
Captain Miller	Your "beautiful" ship killed its crew, Doctor.
Weir	Well... now she has another crew. Now she has us.

Theodore Brassel

Mr. Musgrave, please don't interrupt me when I'm asking rhetorical questions.

Morpheus	Welcome...To the real world.
Morpheus	Welcome... To the real world.

Playmate of the Year	Who are you?
Clean	I'm next, ma'am.

Neo	If you're killed in the matrix, you die here?
Neo	If you're killed in the Matrix, you die here?
Morpheus	The body cannot live without the mind
Morpheus	The body cannot live without the mind.

Morpheus

Free your mind.

Morpheus	The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Morpheus	That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
Morpheus	Neo, sooner or later you're going to realize just as I did that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

Dr. Ellis Cheever	Well, Dr. Gupta, there continue to be evaluations of several drugs, Ribavirin is among them. But, right now our best defence has been social distancing. No hands shaking, staying home when you're sick, washing your hands frequently.
Helpful Doctor	Alan today on Twitter, you wrote on that the truth about this virus is being kept from the world, by the CDC, by the World Health Organisation, to allow friends of the current administration to benefit from it both financially and physically.

Morpheus

No. What happend happend, and couldn't have happend any other way.

Weir	Now it is time to go back.
Weir	And now... it is time to go back.
Captain Miller	I know, to hell
Captain Miller	[sounding bored] I know. To hell
Weir	You know noting. Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse. Let me show you!
Weir	You know nothing. Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse. Let me show you!

Dr. Ellis Cheever	No one has to weaponize the bird flu. The birds are doing that
Dr. Ellis Cheever	Someone doesn't has to weaponize the bird flu. The birds are doing that.
Dr. Ellis Cheever	Someone doesn't have to weaponize the bird flu. The birds are doing that.

Dr. Ellis Cheever

So we have a virus with no treatment protocol, and no vaccine at this time.

Morpheus

I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.

Morpheus

Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Morpheus

The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

Morpheus

As long as the Matrix exists, the human race will never be free.

Max	This lump over here... This is Kincaid. Now I want you to take a good look. See, he gets himself thrown in the quite room so often that you probably won't see a whole lot of him. Ain't that right, "Cool Breeze"?
Max	This lump over here. This is Kincaid. Now I want you to take a good look. See, he gets himself thrown in the quite room so often that you probably won't see a whole lot of him. Ain't that right, 'Cool Breeze'?
Kincaid	Right. I do it so I don't have to look at your ugly face all the time.
Max	Yeah, I love you too.

Max	Say, listen Doc, I got a new theory about all these suicides...Right?
Max	Say, listen Doc, I got a new theory about all these suicides. Right?
Dr. Neil Goldman	Don't hold back on us, Max. We need all the help we can get.
Max	It's fu*ked up chromosomes, man. Think about it. All their parents dropped acid during the sixties.
Dr. Neil Goldman	Well, it beats Simm's theory. She thinks it's nothing but sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.
Max	Sh*t. That's what keeps people alive.

Max	Girl, what are you doing?
Jennifer	Watching TV.
Max	Why don't you read a book? You watch too much damn TV.
Jennifer	Research.
Max	Oh, right. You're gonna be a TV star.
Jennifer	Wait and see.
Max	Well, if Simms catches you up here after lights out she is gonna chew my ass...
Jennifer	I gotta stay up, Max!
Max	Jennifer.
Jennifer	Just tonight, please? I can't handle the nightmare. Not after Phillip. Not tonight.
Max	Okay. But I never saw you.
Jennifer	Thanks Max.

Weir	Do you see ?!
Weir	Do You See?!
Weir	DO YOU SEE?!?!
Captain Miller	Yes. I see. "Presses detonator switch"
Captain Miller	Yes. I see. [Presses detonator switch]