Denzel Washington is a unique Hollywood celebrity. He seems not only supremely talented but remarkably grounded in how he sees the world and inhabits it. He burst upon the scene playing an American Civil War soldier in Glory, a performance for which he won the 1990 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Since then, he’s made every script he’s been offered better, playing a series of strong, intelligent, complex characters— characters he has brought to life with his own innate strength as a person and actor.
On the Broadway stage, he’s played a disillusioned working class father in Fences, the traitorous Brutus in Julius Caesar, and the leads in both The Iceman Cometh and A Raisin in the Sun. On screen, he has played an underdog lawyer representing a discriminated-against AIDS sufferer in Philadephia, a submarine officer caught up in a mutiny during a nuclear standoff in Crimson Tide, a charismatic yet corrupt police officer in Training Day, a fiercely resilient football coach facing racism in Remember the Titans, a justice-seeking retired CIA operative with OCD in The Equalizer, and an ambitious would-be king in The Tragedy of Macbeth, among many other roles.
Washington has won two Oscars, three Golden Globes, and a Tony Award while receiving nominations for two Emmys and a Grammy, as well. Washington is revered by his peers, and Tom Hanks, who co-starred with him in Philadephia, said working with Denzel was like going to film school. Hanks credits Washington with teaching him more about his craft than anyone else. Among the greatest actors of his generation, the arc of Washington’s career is traced by one strong performance after another, as evidenced by the Lifetime Achievement Award given to him by The American Film Institute in 2019 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to him in 2022.
Washington and his wife, Pauletta, married in 1984, and they have four children. Quietly, but incredibly generous in his philanthropic giving, Washington has also served more publicly as the national spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and played a frequent role in honoring wounded American veterans returning from their service abroad. He and his wife attend the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal Evangelical Christian church in Los Angeles. Washington reads the Bible daily and seems earnestly devoted to his faith. “I’ve had an opportunity,” he once said, “to play some great men and, through their words, preach. I take what talent I've been given seriously. I want to use it for good."
Approaching his 70th birthday now, Washington has hinted he might be slowing down, though he’s currently slated to appear as Othello on Broadway next year. But whether he’s acting or doing something else, based on his track record, his faith, and his perspective on life, it seems a lock that Washington will make the most of the rest of his days.
While many celebrities feel compelled to offer all sorts of advice concerning how we ought to be living, Washington seems like he’s someone we might want to listen to. In a clip from a recent interview that’s gone viral on social media, in just a brief 18 seconds Washington shared some advice he gave his own children concerning how to forge ahead along this journey, this pilgrimage we call life. “Be quiet,” he began. “Learn. Read. Relax. Get better.” Then he goes on: “The first part of your life, you learn. The second part of your life, you earn. The third part of your life, you return.”
Straight to the point, this wisdom echoes the social science-backed message author Arthur Brooks delivers in his terrific 2022 book called Strength to Strength, which takes its title from Psalm 84:
Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion.
Just as Washington advises incisively in his 18 seconds, Brooks in the 221 pages of his book, offers us a script to follow for our lives, moving from strength to strength, from role to role, using the energy and agility of our youth to pick up the skills needed to contend with the world, then using them pragmatically during our middle years, earning not just the resources required to live but the respect of others, until finally, during the last part of our lives, we return it all—repurposing it, distilling all we learned and all we earned—into a form of wisdom we use to serve. It’s an award-winning script, if we can follow it.
God—May I follow from strength to strength. Amen.
