People
Morgan Freeman
Acting · follow into films and chains
Biography
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. Noted for his distinctive deep voice, Freeman is known for his various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Freeman was raised in Mississippi where he began acting in school plays. He studied theatre arts in Los Angeles and appeared in stage productions in his early career. He rose to fame in the 1970s for his role in the children's television series The Electric Company. Freeman then appeared in the Shakespearean plays Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, the former of which earned him an Obie Award. His breakout role was in Street Smart (1987), playing a hustler, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He achieved further stardom in Glory, the biographical drama Lean on Me, and comedy-drama Driving Miss Daisy (all 1989), the latter of which garnered him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1992, Freeman starred alongside Clint Eastwood in the western revenge film Unforgiven; this would be the first of several collaborations with Eastwood. In 1994, he starred in the prison drama The Shawshank Redemption for which he received another Academy Award nomination. Freeman also starred in David Fincher's crime thriller Se7en (1995), and Steven Spielberg's historical drama Amistad (1997). Freeman won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Clint Eastwood's 2004 sports drama Million Dollar Baby. In 2009, he received his fifth Oscar nomination for playing former South African President Nelson Mandela in Eastwood's Invictus. Freeman is also known for his performance as Lucius Fox in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012). In addition to acting, Freeman has directed the drama Bopha! (1993). He also founded film production company Revelations Entertainment with business partner Lori McCreary. He is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor, the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. For his performances in theatrical productions, he has won three Obie Awards, one of the most prestigious honors for recognizing excellence in theatre.
Notable films
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Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.
Chains
KinoChain journeys
Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.
Death as Choreography: Eight Films of Inventive Demise
From cosmic indifference to moral punishment, these eight horror films treat death as a precise, theatrical art form. Each kill is a set piece, a statement, and...
8 films
When Studios Marry: Films Born of Corporate Chaos
From the ashes of mergers and acquisitions come some of cinema's most fascinating experiments. This chain traces how boardroom decisions shaped the art on scree...
8 films
The Mind's Eye: Crime Films of Obsession and Interiority
From a detective's haunted pursuit to a killer's fractured psyche, this chain traces cinema's most intimate crime stories, where the real action happens inside...
8 films
When the Sequel Outshines the Original
From gritty crime epics to mind-bending sci-fi, these sequels didn't just continue stories, they redefined them. Here's a chain of films that prove the second (...
8 films
20 Home Video Releases Every Film Obsessive Should Own
There was a brief, glorious period in the late 1990s and early 2000s when buying a film on home video felt less like acquiring a product and more like being han...
20 films
The Long Goodbye: Twilight of Heroes and Outlaws
There is a moment in Richard Lester's Robin and Marian (1976) that cuts deeper than any broadsword. Sean Connery, sporting grey in his beard and exhaustion in h...
8 films
The DVDs That Changed Everything
In the late 1990s, home video underwent a seismic shift driven by a double revolution: an unprecedented jump in technical quality, and an unprecedented access t...
10 films
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Acted
The Dinosaurs
2026 · Self - Narrator (voice)
Now You See Me: Now You Don't
2025 · Thaddeus Bradley
Life on Our Planet
2023 · Self - Narrator (voice)
The Ritual Killer
2023 · Dr. Mackles
Our Universe
2022 · Self - Narrator (voice)
Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend
2022 · Self (archive footage)
Solos
2021 · Narrator (voice)
Vanquish
2021 · Damon
Coming 2 America
2021 · Morgan Freeman
Into Nature's Wild
2020 · Narrator (voice)
Angel Has Fallen
2019 · Alan Trumbull
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
2018 · Drosselmeyer
March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step
2017 · Narrator (English voice)
Ben-Hur
2016 · Sheik Ilderim
Now You See Me 2
2016 · Thaddeus Bradley
Last Knights
2015 · Bartok
Dolphin Tale 2
2014 · Dr. Cameron McCarthy
Lucy
2014 · Professor Norman
Island of Lemurs: Madagascar
2014 · Narrator (voice)
The Lego Movie
2014 · Vitruvius (voice)
Now You See Me
2013 · Thaddeus Bradley
Olympus Has Fallen
2013 · Alan Trumbull
The Dark Knight Rises
2012 · Fox
The Magic of Belle Isle
2012 · Monte Wildhorn
Dolphin Tale
2011 · Dr. McCarthy
RED
2010 · Joe Matheson
The Maiden Heist
2009 · Charles Peterson
The Dark Knight
2008 · Lucius Fox
Gone Baby Gone
2007 · Jack Doyle
Evan Almighty
2007 · God
The Contract
2006 · Frank Carden
Lucky Number Slevin
2006 · The Boss
An Unfinished Life
2005 · Mitch Bradley
Batman Begins
2005 · Lucius Fox
Million Dollar Baby
2004 · Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris
Bruce Almighty
2003 · God
Dreamcatcher
2003 · Col. Abraham Curtis
The Sum of All Fears
2002 · DCI William Cabot
High Crimes
2002 · Charlie Grimes
Along Came a Spider
2001 · Alex Cross
Nurse Betty
2000 · Charlie
Under Suspicion
2000 · Captain Victor Benezet
Deep Impact
1998 · President Tom Beck
Amistad
1997 · Theodore Joadson
The Long Way Home
1997 · Narrator (voice)
Chain Reaction
1996 · Paul Shannon
Se7en
1995 · Somerset
Outbreak
1995 · General Billy Ford
The Shawshank Redemption
1994 · Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding
Unforgiven
1992 · Ned Logan
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
1991 · Azeem
The Bonfire of the Vanities
1990 · Judge Leonard White