Talk:Denzel Washington

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Political Beliefs

This person is a conservative pro-military Republican and proud American. That should be noted under "personal life". --71.88.37.225 (talk) 16:17, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

He is an independent. An independent is not a Republican. He is also liberal in some of his views and moderately conservative on others. Cliffswallow-vaulting (talk) 21:22, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

HALO

No citation as to why or if Denzel would be playing Master Chief in the HALO movie. Nothing is mentioned in this article or the HALO Movie article, therefore I have deleted the entry from his 'selected filmography'. TheDingbat 00:43, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Why was this page wiped?

University

At one point in the article it says he attended Fordham then later says he graduated from Miami. Is this an error? --BHC 18:27, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

University of Oregon

The fact that Denzel went to the University of Oregon and then dropped out needs to be cited. Ive searched the internet very hard and couldn't find anything. At this point I don't believe it —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.223.234.63 (talk) 21:29, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

As I recall, it claimed he went to the University of Oklahoma. May a search for that would turn up more results. →Wordbuilder (talk) 19:43, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

so he made so many movies that it is hard to keep up with all them —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.226.138.212 (talk) 22:05, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Religion?

IT's a little milk-maiden question, which religion this great actor believe in. Just for information, because in playing roles he suggestet them: "They think I'm santa claus ....".[ American Gangster ] So it might be a script laconism or a real sentence. Is he a katholic in milk-maidens reality or only in the streets of new York. [( lasky )]--88.76.57.53 (talk) 17:39, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I have no idea, but if someone can find a realiable source, it would be a good idea to add it. I wouldn't base it on a Santa Claus comment made in a movie. →Wordbuilder (talk) 19:42, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

is an _Us Magazine_ interview Denzel says he reads the Bible daily. In other interviews, he has stated he is a Christian. Denzel and his wife read _The Song of Solomon_ in _Inspired by...The Bible Experience Complete Audio Bible on CD_ - Zondervan / 2007 / Compact disc ISBN-13 9780310926306 ISBN 0310926300. In the liner notes of that production, the producers state that they only wanted "committed Christians" to work on that project. (His voice acting in that project probably should be listed in the main article.) jonathon (talk) 22:12, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

Denzel Washington, and Brooks Army Medical Center

Don't know whether you heard about this but Denzel Washington and his family visited the troops at Brook Army Medical Center , in San Antonio , Texas (BAMC) the other day. This is where soldiers who have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the United States, especially burn victims. There are some buildings there called Fisher Houses. The Fisher House is a Hotel where soldiers' families can stay, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying in the Hospital. BAMC has quite a few of these houses on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled most of the time. While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build. He took his check book out and wrote a check for the full amount right there on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it.

The question is why: Denzel Washington's Patriotism doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the Local newspaper in San Antonio. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.53.33.147 (talk) 12:36, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Texas Tech mention

This seems like an insignificant and irrelevant quotation and reference. Is this it really necessary? Perhaps this should be in the personal life section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.30.185.155 (talk) 02:33, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Keep it and leave it where it is. It's applicable to his early life since it gives a glimpse of a bit of his thinking as a child. And, it is cited. If the article was too long, I might feel differently. But, that's not the case. If you're looking to cut things out, start with some of the many unsourced claims. →Wordbuilder (talk) 03:13, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

I also fail to see why this is mentioned and the fact that it is cited doesn't justify it being there. I mean, I could cite that he ate bacon and eggs for breakfast one day but it still wouldn't have any significance. I feel like this mention falsely leads the reader to infer that Denzel actually tried to go to Texas Tech.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.124.12.239 (talk) 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Eating bacon and eggs for breakfast is not normally notable and would not belong. I also think it would be difficult—though likely not impossible—to find a citation for it, since few media sources would find it interesting enough to report. As far as the mention falsely leading the reader to infer that he tried to go to Texas Tech, as far as I know, there is no information that states whether he tried or not. However, the article clearly states, "Nevertheless, Washington earned a B.A. in Drama and Journalism from Fordham University in 1977." Again, if you want to cut material from this short article, focus on the things that have no citations whatsoever. Those things could be outright lies. →Wordbuilder (talk) 19:21, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Deformed right pinky finger

http://www.playahata.com/hataforum/viewtopic.php?t=446

Lots of other photos illustrating this are available online, and it can be seen in his movies too. I just noticed it while watching Manchurian Candidate and searched Google, and found all this stuff on it. Some sites are claiming a childhood basketball accident. No credible sources for it yet though, for some reason. Maybe someone else can find one. Equazcion •✗/C • 21:16, 18 Nov 2008 (UTC)

No Matarese Circle Yet

In Denzel's filmography it lists the above film but in this recent interview he says that a different film called "Safe House" is the only one on his plate. This is not a new name for that film, it's a totally different project http://www.collider.com/2010/11/11/denzel-washington-interview-unstoppable-safe-house/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.118.72.219 (talk) 06:16, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Picture

The picture up on this page is now 10 years old - can anybody find something more recent? Amantgeorge (talk) 14:53, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Safe House

Someone should put the 2012 "Safe House" and the 2012 "The Matarese Circle" in Denzel's filmography. Lacon432 (talk) 18:38, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Minor roles

1977 is the first year he's listed in films, but Denzel had an uncredited performance as a mugger killed by Charles Bronson in Death Wish back in 1974. PokeHomsar (talk) 00:20, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

It's worth adding. Here's a clip of the scene; Denzel is on the right, the second guy shot by Bronson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-pu31S4EEY — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.85.23 (talk) 00:45, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure but it seems that Denzel Washington is doing the airplane pilot voice in all episodes of HOUSE OF LIES. It makes sense regarding the questionable morality of his character in the movie FLIGHT and the lack of ethic of the characters in the TV show. I don't know how to check that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.161.102.220 (talk) 17:31, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Acting....Directing in movie about Alex Cross by James Patterson

I am new to this, I don't normally write anything but I felt encouraged to give my opinion at this time. I am a reader of James Patterson who I consider to be one of the best writers of adventure/action series in the business today. He has a series on a detective by name of ALEX CROSS; who by chance is a black detective and I was wondering why Mr. washington does not collaborate with Mr. Patterson and do a movie on his Alex Cross series. That's all...thank you Byron. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.131.16.180 (talk) 18:06, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

This page is biased and selective

Hey I don't mean to cause any trouble or anything, but I wanted to let my opinion be known that this page about Denzel Washington is kind of biased and selective. As is the case with many other Wikipedia pages, unfortunately, the information about him may in fact be correct, but it serves to portray him in an unfavorable way, by highlighting things that put him in a bad light and suppressing or ignoring things that put him in a positive light. All in all, the viewer is left with a biased and false impression of Mr. Washington, which I believe is in violation with Wikipedia policy, isn't it?

Compared to other similar pages, like those of Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Russel Crowe or Brad Pitt for example, the one with Denzel is very short and reveals little about his life, achievements, him as a person or his overall reputation and standing in the film industry. And it doesn't even mention the huge influence he has had in shaping the whole film industry and especially helping expand the roles given to African-American actors. He is one of the most respected, recognized, popular and successful actors today, in America at least, and has been for over 20 years or so, yet this is never even mentioned in his Wikipedia page. Why so?

To give examples supporting my claim:

a) while I have no objections to the section "early life" under "career", the section "1990s" is laughable. So is the next section, "2000s". If one knows anything about Mr. Washington, it's obvious that they portray his career in an overly biased and inaccurate way, seriously undermining his achievements and saying little about what the films mentioned really were about or what reception they had when they came out. Also, Denzel is famous for his versatility as an actor and for his thorough preparation for the roles he plays, yet these things are never mentioned. He's also widely considered as one of the most talented actors alive and by many considered as one of Hollywood's greatest actors ever, but this has also been overlooked.

b) then there's the quotations attributed to him. Not only are there very few of them in the whole page (five to be exact) but almost all of them paint a biased and wrongful picture of what the man represents. There are many revealing quotations of him out there which help explain the choices he has made or say something about what type of person he is or what he supports, yet the only ones mentioned here are ones taken out of context and suggest that he's either sympathetic of rough neighbourhoods with violence and drugs and the like (aka "the streets got them"), that he's stupid, that he's arrogant or that he's some kind of a religious fanatic (seen in the context of today's increasingly secular world). Ok there's one quote that is indeed favorable to him towards the end, but that's still one in five.

I know I may sound biased here, rooting for Mr. Washington, but I just want him to have the Wikipedia page he deserves, just like his peers, which is objective, truthful and fair. Isn't that what Wikipedia promotes and demands? I know I haven't supplied any references here to support my claims (I'm sure these aren't too difficult to find), but I nonetheless hope that you help improve this page. Overall, I love Wikipedia and I hope that you will always stay true to your policies and your vision of an objective, verifiable, free and awesome encyclopedia, available to everyone :)

Fuoriclasse (talk) 11:59, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Fallen (film) 1998 (Starring Denzel Washington)

Just a friendly amendment. I think this film should be added to his list of 1990 films. He was in the film "Fallen" in 1998 and the details are on the film's wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_(film). I know it was one of my favorite films with him in it. The creepy murderer singing "Time Is On My Side" by the Rolling Stones, then several people started singing it as the "spirit" touched them, was such an excellent effect in the film. Also, John Goodman and Donald Sutherland played excellent roles in the film. Thanks, Arizona Mildman 04:17, 9 December 2013 (UTC)Arizona Mildman 04:15, 9 December 2013 (UTC)Arizona Mildman 04:17, 9 December 2013 (UTC)Arizona Mildman 9:08 pm December 8th, 2013 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.106.57.50 (talk) 04:07, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Current image

Why was the image of Denzel Washington changed? The current picture of him is terrible. I understand this is probably the most up to date image of Washington available but that doesn't warrant replacing the prior one. He's biting his lip, not looking at the camera, and has a concerned look on his face. Does anyone else think we should either restore the prior image or find a new one? Meatsgains (talk) 04:10, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

took well over a decade (14 years) to get him a new picture....its not as easy to find free images as it may seem..there were other options from the same event but they were all poorer than this image (bad lighting and angle)..yes he is biting his lips but its actually a good and high quality image in comparison..--Stemoc 03:00, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

A quality free image of Denzel Washington is hard to find? That is very surprising. Well, I suppose that answers my question then. Thanks! Meatsgains (talk) 21:49, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

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Denzel Washington death/disappearence hoax

The so-called "news" stories about both Denzel Washington death and/or disappearence in December 2016 are complete fabrications. See, for example, Denzel Washington Died? Actor Becomes Victim of Internet Death Hoax The hoax appeared in internet tabloid form and in fake news on facebook. It seems to be part of the larger celebrity death hoaxes that have included Clint Eastwood, Bill Cosby, Robert Redford, Carlos Santana, and Paul McCartney. See Death hoax. --Bejnar (talk) 05:40, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Tax troubles

Not a word about his tax scandal? They threatened to send him down for three years. Why isn't any of this on here? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.81.156.198 (talk) 12:05, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

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MOS:ETHNICITY and "African-American"

I would respectfully suggest that "African-American" does belong in the lede per MOS:ETHNICITY, which states "Ethnicity, religion, or sexuality should generally not be in the lead unless it is relevant to the subject's notability." Given that many of his awards in his career have been for playing characters that are quite pointedly African-American (including Malcolm X), I would say that it would be appropriate to include it as it would seem to be relevant to his notability. Waggie (talk) 01:05, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

I have to disagree. Will Smith is an American... Oprah Winfrey is an American... Sammy Davis Jr. was an American...and so on, in comparable articles. Schazjmd (talk) 01:11, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

I don't have an opinion one way or the other (I can see both arguments); we just need to make a consensus decision instead of having drive-by changes.--Jorm (talk) 01:18, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Agreed, I think both sides have merit worth considering. I'm mostly just posting here to prompt a discussion and to develop consensus. Thank you! Waggie (talk) 01:29, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, it's constantly going back and forth on the pending changes feed, and I think generally there's a tendency to stick with whatever might be there before a new/unregistered editor changes it. So I'm glad you started the discussion, Waggie, thank you. But looking at MOS:ETHNICITY and the comparable articles, I think the trend and the right thing to do is stick with nationality for the first sentence. Any particular awards or "firsts" or influence based on ethnicity would of course mention it at that point in the article, but I do not believe Washington is only notable as a black actor—he's just an outstanding actor. Now I'll shut up and hopefully more editors will add their views so we can get a solid consensus one way or another. Schazjmd (talk) 01:34, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

I find it extraordinary that User:Jorm claims not to have an opinion, when they have repeatedly reverted people who follow the guidelines, without ever explaining why, and even went so far as to make a spurious request for page protection. As to the argument, Denzel Washington is notable for being an actor, not for being a black man. His ethnicity is irrelevant to his notability. 51.7.23.117 (talk) 01:37, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

It's not extraordinary; it's called anti-vandalism. And you can go fuck yourself with your insinuations and aspersions, IP.--Jorm (talk) 01:40, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Even more extraordinary, you clearly don't even know what vandalism is. Read WP:NOTVAND. And WP:NPA too, obviously. 51.7.23.117 (talk) 01:43, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

What I'm trying to point out here, 51.7.23.117, is that the guideline can be interpreted both ways. Hence the need for a discussion here, incidentally which Jorm asked you to do in an edit summary, and you didn't. And Schazjmd} raises some good points, thank you! And probably not necessary for anyone to be incivil, please. Waggie (talk) 01:42, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

I have fully protected the article briefly to stop the edit warring. (I always prefer protection over EW-blocking when possible, but be warned, one of you was in danger of such a block.) I'm glad to see you are now discussing and hope you can reach a consensus. Looking at the history, it appears that the article has always said "American" in the lead sentence until a month ago, when someone inserted "African" and it became a subject of edit warring. If you need guidance, I would note that the usual practice, when there is controversy over wording, is to prefer the long-standing wording unless there is consensus to change it. -- MelanieN (talk) 05:08, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

[1] 4th January, anonymous editor inserts "African-" without explanation. I would say that's obvious vandalism with a racist undertone. But the edit was accepted. [2] 7th January, User:Hughes Anderson removed it with the accurate edit summary "Correction* African American is a race. Not a nationality." [3] 7th January, User:Jorm reverted, with the unhelpful edit summary "yeah, no."

Since then, they have reverted five more times: no edit summary, "Stop doing this", "Please stop changing this", "Take it to the talk page. Do not vandalize.", no edit summary. The last one was after I had edited the article yesterday, citing the relevant guideline. Not one of their reverts indicated what policy or guideline they believed they were following.

At that point, User:Jorm made a spurious request for page protection, falsely claiming persistent vandalism. I see 4 acts of vandalism in the article this year, the fourth of which was after the request for page protection, so the claim was made after vandalism at a rate of approximately one act every two weeks. Obviously, the point of the RFPP was to gain the upper hand in the content dispute they had decided they wanted.

And then of course we have their response to me above. So that's not explaining why they were reverting, falsely claiming that good-faith edits are vandalism, gaming the system with a bad-faith RFPP, and making personal attacks. I think that's quite a lot of problematic behaviour. 51.7.23.117 (talk) 08:54, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Please focus on the discussion of content, rather on the behavior of other editors. If your goal is to argue a case for having "American" instead of "African-American", then please do so. This is not the venue for discussion of other topics. Thank you. Waggie (talk) 09:26, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

That case has been made. There was no case made for the contrary. That is the whole point of what I am saying. 51.7.23.117 (talk) 09:35, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

"Widely Regarded Cultural Icon"

Not an expert on the intricacies of Wikipedia form so hesitant to make an edit myself. The following sentence in the lead seems to have some heavy bias without any citation: "He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation, and is considered an American cultural icon." A similar sentence on Marlon Brando's page has more controlled and specific language with a citation: "He is well-regarded for his cultural influence on 20th-century film."

I would expect at least an [according to whom?] until a proper source could be found. I'll leave the decision to those more familiar with the process, just thought it would be worth bringing attention to. --2600:1000:B06B:ABFF:CF5:C203:11D6:1798 (talk) 18:01, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

I agree with your assessment, it's some unusual puffery that was added in January without discussion. Denzel is an amazing actor, but that type of characterization of his influence should be sourced and attributed. I've removed it for now. Schazjmd (talk) 18:11, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

Tom Hanks’s page has something very similar to this. You could at least rephrase it to still include an honorary statement for Denzel in the first paragraph, along with the proper citations. AfroWorld33 (talk) 23:53, 27 July 2020 (UTC)