arrangement because you were having difficulty with your dating life? >> that's absolutely right. >> you're a very nice, smart guy. isn't that enough? >> apparently not. >> a little bit of sugar. i'm deborah feyerick in new york. denzel washington begins right now. what do you see when you look at me? >> a major talent. >> don't do that. >> charisma to burn. >> come on now. come on now. >> denzel washington. a side you've never seen. >> oh! where did you get this? >> i was police commissioner for a day. >> his journey from star athlete to hollywood star. >> i think it's a greatest act of working today. numero uno. >> cnn spotlight, denzel.

july 1974. "death wish" hits theaters starring charles bronson. the vigilante here confronting alley must alley mugger number. an uncredited actor named denzel washington makes his first film appearance. september 2014, the script is flipped. 40 years after that "death wish" debut, it's denzel going vigilante in his latest, "the equalizer" with director antoine pucka. >> i know it's acting, but you convinced me. make the wrong move with denzel, he can equalize a fella or two. >> ah! i'm not that guy. no, i'm a nice love -- no, it's just a role. it's not denzel.

>> who is denzel? the story begins in mt. vernon, new york. he's born in 1954. the second of three children to less thannis, a beautician and denzel senior, a pentecostal minister. >> i played a little this is denzel's life. i want to show you a couple. >> ah. >> i would like to bite these cheeks. >> where did you get this? >> i want to bite his cheeks. >> where did you find this? you've got to go through my family. >> i have my ways. >> and you know who that is? that's my older sister. and we're sitting on the porch. this is 1955. i know, we should have used this in the movie. yeah. >> you look serious. >> wow. >> this is the one i love, though. this is suited -- >> there he is.

>> this we use for the boys and girls club. my mom -- i had a little vest on. >> it's his mom who brings him to the local boys club in mt. vernon at age 6. he meets billy thomas, who becomes a mentor. >> billy thomas. he ran the boys and girls club where i grew up. >> his first membership card is issued in 1962. it's a lifelong connection. the club experiences begin to shape an arrestisttistic and at young man. >> arts and crafts. >> as denzel turns 14, his parents split. mom sends him to oakland academy, a private boarding school about an hour away from home. andrew penny is a student there too. >> he was very opinionated, very carris mattic. the kind of guy that people

gravitate to like a magnet. he was a great dresser. he always came with nice knit sweater that was part of the scene. i remember the first time i saw patent leather shoes, he was wearing them. he was a half back on the football team, had a lot of speed. he played varsity basketball. >> that's high school. >> just an overcall competitive and very good athlete. >> i think i was a junior in high school. and hi i had learned to keep my mouth shut. i had this cut under my lip. i still have. because i was playing ball, and i jumped up and as i was coming down, he went up. busted me in the lip. i was playing basketball. i played football as well. >> which one was your first love, basketball or football? >> football. >> that first love breaks his heart. this is footage from 1972.

oakland academy's final game. team captain, half back, number 32, denzel washington. teammate andrew penny remembers the game day well. >> unfortunately, we lost the game. and i remember after the game he was sitting there, and had tears rolling down his eyes. because he was so passionate about winning and being competitive. of that's denzel. >> denzel heads to college at fort ham university in new york city. academically, he jumps among majors in pre-med, poly sci and journalism. he gives basketball a shot. >> i was coaching the freshman team. >> pj carlissimo meets a walk-on. >> i think we tried out 70 or 80 guys. denzel made the team.

wasn't a good offensive player, but he was a good defensive player. played very hard. he was really competitive. >> between practices, games and classes, denzel explores college theatre. eventually, basketball takes a back seat. >> he took a semester off. and i think when he came back, he first started to know he wanted to get into acting, because he had a couple different majors, as we all did going through school. he finally settled on that. he started to know what he wanted to do. and that was when he started going down and watching theatre and meeting people. >> he graduates with a theatre degree in 1977, the same year he gets his first credited role in the tv movie "wilma." on-set, the ack it tore meets pauletta pearson, the pretty co star who later becomes his wife.

hopscotching in off broadway work, he lands at the prestigious negro broadway company. >> i have been hearing the most preposterous things about me. >> malcolm x in 1981. and charles weldan, another actor in the troup, recognizes he's in the presence of something special. >> he had whatever it is, and as we say in this business, it was just -- he just stood out. it was just great. he didn't -- you didn't see pretentiousness at all. you know, he was the character. he was the character. >> his next character, private peterson in the award-winning "a soldier's play." the "new york times" heaps prays praise on the rising star. a cooler young renegade he was called. but the cool renegade is just

getting warmed up. up next, hollywood comes calling. >> bang! >> and a tv show is about to make denzel washington a household name. >> when you watched him then, you kind of had to say this is not going to be the end. this is going to be a one show and that's it. he's going to go even higher. ♪ want to change the world? create things that help people. design safer cars. faster computers. smarter grids and smarter phones. think up new ways to produce energy. ♪ be an engineer. solve problems the world needs solved. what are you waiting for? changing the world is part of the job description. [ male announcer ] join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring america's future engineers. energy lives here.

the patient has vanished, disappeared. >> 1982, denzel moves from the stage to the screen. landing a role on the tv medical drama, "saint elsewhere." denzel is a television rookie among a cast of veterans. but his talent is obvious to his cast mate, william daniels, right from the start. >> he was just a really good actor. you knew it from being at that table. >> get away from me! >> he was always kind of the cool, calm, collected person. >> nurse, mrs. zenvari, 302, did

you give her -- >> you wrote it, we gave it. >> dr. phillip chamber for six seasons. his star is rising. daniels isn't a bit surprised when denzel makes the leap to movies. >> i had the feeling that he belonged in film. he had a certain gravitas. >> film success for denzel is immediate. his first major movie "cry freedom," earns him a supporting actor oscar nomination for his performance as anti apartheid activist. >> a south africa for equals, black or white. >> denzel doesn't win, but he's nominated again in the same category just two years later for his work in the civil war film "glory." >> if you boys just turn right around, head on down that and you let us head down there. >> them men dying up that road. >> denzel plays tripp, a former

slaved turned soldier in the union's first all-black regiment. the role earns denzel his first academy award. >> there is no question that "glory" was a career-making moment for denzel washington. >> film offers flood in. denzel begins starring in multiple movies a year, collaborating frequently with top directors like spike lee. >> was there a moment in any one of those films where you had had that kind of light bulb moment and said, "good lord, there is nothing like this man." >> every film. >> in 1992, the duo takes on the ambitious pick "malcolm x." he watched denzel perform this scene. >> i'm telling you, mr. mohamed said these things were going to come to pass and now these things are coming to pass. >> malcolm was in denzel at that moment. he prepared for a year for that role. >> let the black man separate from his house. let the black man have his own

house. let the black man have his own land and his own crops. >> you don't give a performance like that by just showing up. >> "malcolm x" brings denzel his third oscar nomination, but this time as lead actor. he's had this 40-year career that has not been a plateau. he's still ascending today. how unusual is that, number one. and number two, for a black actor? >> astonishing. i will say this. repeatedly. he's the greatest -- i think he's the greatest actor working today. >> i was just talking to spike lee a couple days about you. and he said denzel washington is the greatest living actor in the world. >> i'm just trying to be the best me. i can be. the greatest? life has taught me try being the best you can be. >> denzel's best is impressive with unparalleled acting range.

among his nearly 50 films, 1993's "philadelphia." >> what happened to your face? >> i have aids. >> oh. oh, i'm sorry. >> as an attorney, reluctant to represent a man with aids, denzel's character carries the public fear of the disease predominant in america at that time. >> how many lawyers you go to before you call me? >> nine. >> his philadelphia co star, tom hanks, says he felt privileged to work side by side with an actor as skilled as denzel. >> the fact that a tom hanks would refer to a denzel washington as schooling him really tells you a lot about how actors feel about denzel. >> denzel is fine for being known as his acting. just don't call him a star. you said at one point that your professional job is to be the best or a better actor. >> right. >> but you don't know how to be

a celebrity. what do you mean by that? >> that's not a profession. well, it is for some people. it is. yeah, they're -- and i'm not knocking the hustle. hustling is hustling. >> you are a celebrity. >> that's something someone calls you. that is not my profession. >> denzel's profession? a master of the art of transformation. >> he has an unusual combination of vulnerability and a real man's man quality. you know, people buy him as a boxer or gangster or a formal special ops agent. >> you want to see a hurricane? go ahead and see it. come on up in here. >> his turn as a boxer wrongly convicted of murder in 1999's "the hurricane" earns him his second nomination. the trophy eludes him in 2000, but not for long. as rogue detective alonzo harrison "training day" denzel

is riveting. >> denzel walks through life the way i felt the last two weeks of high school. you know? just a confidence and a self assuredness that is really admirable. >> training day, officer hois. >> we were there to make a movie. he has a respect for the fact people are going to pay money to watch this, you know. so we're going to give them something worth watching or are we not. >> "training day" finally earns denzel the oscar for best actor in a leading role, becoming only the second black actor, after sydn sydney portier to do so. >> i'm in debt to sydney. i just love him. >> coming up, faith, family -- >> why are you so mad? don't worry about it. >> and the co star who raised his game. >> she brought it one day in rehearsal. and i was like, i don't know what it is i've been doing, but it ain't that. [door bell rings]

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>> phil unites him. >> if i had to write the headline for this film, i would say denzel washington is a bad man. >> he took out the east coast version of the russian mafia. >> let him do it. he just does it. >> i did my homework. >> so that's him. you took the stand. >> one of the things that antwoine really took advantage

of in this film is your eyes. you've had those expressive eyes, though, i mean, throughout your life. okay, denzel. time to lay another picture on you. that looks just like you. >> this is a funny story. you used to go to the department store to get the pictures. and my mother got [expletive] she thought the woman that was taking the pictures giving my father too much attention. talk about the equalizer. she was like. it was like, mom, why are you so mad? >> don't worry about it! that's the photo you should have got. oh, yeah. >> 31 years. >> we met when we were three. >> yeah, we did.

i might have been, like, two. . >> for a major star, he keeps a low profile. a life built on core values. >> he talks about his faith. how important as someone knows him as the actor. >> that's the rock. paula, beautiful wife, partner and all of the kids. >> four kids, the first born in 1984. >> when i was a young actor, i was, like, oh, acting is my life. and when my first son was born, it was, like, wait a minute, acting is made of living. this is the miracle of life! he's given millions to charity and gives his time to the boys and girls clubs, the place where he learned life lessons and, all of those years ago, one as police commissioner.

is. >> i think about some good things. he's a good person. >> my first love was an actor. and i got back to new york and said i've

>> i don't know what it is that i've been doing, but i've got to get back to that. so she helped jump start me. >> earning another oscar nomination and more add mmirati from his piers. >> his performance and his insighted into who that person is is so powerful that it becomes a very major movie. >> this toxicology report states that you are drunk. >> we know that you love acting.

but what's next? what's left? >> there are plenty of people with suggestions. spike lee says he's ready to make a fifth movie with den zerl. >> i 'got to write it lt. someone has to like it. and then someone has to pay $20 million. give him his money, it's well earned. >> the basketball coach long ago taugt denzel the xs and os, he diagrammed his path to success.

he's noot scanot scared to go outside his comfort level.