Laurence Fishburne

Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. Throughout his career, he has gained recognition for his roles on stage and screen as militant and authoritative characters. Fishburne first came to prominence appearing in Apocalypse Now (1979) and achieved further recognition for his supporting role in Boyz n the Hood (1991). Later, he became known for portraying Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy (1999–2003) and the Bowery King in the John Wick film series (2017–).

For his portrayal of Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Fishburne was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He has also won six Emmy Awards for various television projects, and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in Two Trains Running (1992). He has also received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and five Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Other notable film credits include The Color Purple (1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), School Daze (1988), King of New York (1990), Deep Cover (1992), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Higher Learning (1995), Event Horizon (1997), Mystic River (2003), Akeelah and the Bee (2006), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Predators (2010), Contagion (2011), Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and The Mule (2018). On television, he had a recurring role as Cowboy Curtis in Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986–1990), starred in the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008–2011), portrayed Jack Crawford in the NBC thriller series Hannibal (2013–2015), and played Earl "Pops" Johnson in the ABC sitcom Black-ish (2014–2022).