Is there anything that Denzel Washington can’t do? He directs, he acts, he has an Oscar and a Tony, he’s been nominated for a Grammy and tons of Emmys (don’t worry D, we’ll work on that EGOT status). It get even better. Tony Award winner Denzel Washington has been selected as the recipient of the 2016 Cecil B. DeMille Award, to be presented at the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 10 2016 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The announcement was made by Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Lorenzo Soria, who knew Washington was the perfect choice given his entire film career. “Washington’s long and storied career is earmarked by his countless roles in front and behind the camera,” he says.
The Cecil B. DeMille Award is given annually to a “talented individual for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.” The winner is chosen by the HFPA Board of Directors. Washington will be only the third Black recipient of The Cecil B. DeMille Award in its 63-year history, joining Sidney Poitier in 1982 and his Glory co-star, Morgan Freeman in 2012.
Washington holds the record for most Academy Award nominations for a Black actor with six nominations and two wins, one for Best Supporting Actor in Glory, and one for Best Actor in Training Day. His win in 2001 for Training Day ended an unconscionable 38-year gap between Black actors winning in the Best Actor category.
In 2010, Washington won the Tony Award for Best Actor In A Play for his role in August Wilson’s Fences alongside Tony Award winner Viola Davis. He was last seen on Broadway in the 2014 revival of A Raisin In The Sun also starring LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Sophie Okonedo, and Anika Noni Rose.
More recently, Denzel has been putting a hand in the directing/producing field. As Broadway Black previously reported, Washington closed a deal with HBO where he will direct and produce film adaptations of the August Wilson cycle, one a year for the next nine years. The first will be Fences which he will star in alongside former co-star Viola Davis.
The 2016 Golden Globes airs live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
