Possessing as much flash, energy and intelligence as anyone currently in the game, Laurence Fishburne has certainly played his share of regulation black hoodlums and threats but also has benefited from color-blind casting as his tour de force Broadway performance as England's King Henry II (opposite Stockard Channing as his Eleanor) in a 1999 revival of "The Lion in Winter" attests. His role as Cowboy Curtis, best buddy to Pee-wee Herman on TV's legendary kid series "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (CBS), is another reminder of his tremendous versatility.

Although born in Georgia, Fishburne was raised by his divorced mother in Brooklyn. It was she who encouraged him to be an actor and young Larry (as he was then billed) began his professional career with a New York stage debut at age ten. For three years (from 1973 to 1976), he portrayed adoptee Joshua West Hall on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live" and made his film debut as the "Me" in "Cornbread, Earl and Me" (1975). After 18 months filming in the Philippines, Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" (1979) brought him to mainstream attention, and he subsequently appeared in the director's "Rumble Fish" (1983), "The Cotton Club" (1984) and "Gardens of Stone" (1987). Other prominent roles included playing Swain in Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple" (1986) and Afro-centrist Dap Dunlap in Spike Lee's "School Daze" (1988).

Fishburne starred as a loose cannon former convict in the 1990 world premiere of August Wilson's "Two Trains Running" at Yale Repertory Theater and recreated the role on Broadway in 1992, winning several prizes including a Tony Award. After his no-holds barred histrionics elevated his psychotic killer in "The King of New York" (1990) above that of a garden-variety thug, he provided the moral center of "Boyz N The Hood" (1991) as Furious Styles, a model father who steers his son away from L.A. gang life, then radiated a sullen intensity as an undercover cop in Bill Duke's edgy thriller, "Deep Cover" (1992). On the heels of his winning an Emmy for a guest appearance in the 1992 Fox anthology series "Tribeca", Fishburne earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his riveting, unflattering portrait of 60s pop star Ike Turner, so critical to the success of the Tina Turner biopic "What's Love Got to Do With It" (1993), which reunited the actor with Angela Bassett, his estranged wife in "Boyz". He also lent solid support as a streetwise chess player in the underrated "Searching for Bobby Fischer" (also 1993).

In 1995, Fishburne appeared in four diverse features. In John Singleton's "Higher Learning", he was an articulate political science professor attempting to motivate his apathetic students. Underutilized as a spy paired with Ellen Barkin in "Bad Company", he delivered the goods as a tough cop resentful of the investigations of a law professor (Sean Connery) in "Just Cause". And despite never having performed Shakespeare before, Fishburne made screen history as the first black actor to portray the Bard's Moor in a major studio film in Oliver Parker's "Othello". 1995 saw Fishburne make his Off-Broadway debut as a playwright and director with "Riff-Raff", a popular, loosely structured drama about an African-American con man (Fishburne) and his relationship with a white junkie, which he adapted into the feature "Once in the Life" (2000). Also that year, the actor delivered an Emmy-nominated turn as a courageous WWII pilot in the superior HBO movie "The Tuskegee Airmen".

Reteaming with Bill Duke, Fishburne executive produced and starred in "Hoodlum" (1997), essaying real-life Harlem racketeer 'Bumpy' Johnson, on whom his "The Cotton Club" character had been based. The extremely watchable Depression-era film benefited greatly from the fresh angle its black point-of-view brought to a fairly well-known historical account, and Fishburne displayed a great range of emotions lurking under Bumpy's seemingly placid exterior. He pulled down his second Emmy as executive producer of the universally acclaimed "Miss Evers' Boys" (HBO, 1997), a dramatization of the Tuskegee Study, a shameful medical experiment in which the US Public Health Service withheld treatment from a group of African-American men with syphilis to examine the effects. Fishburne also co-starred as an early participant in the study who romances Alfre Woodard's nurse Eunice Evers. After executive producing and starring as Socrates Fortlow in HBO's "Always Outnumbered" (1998), he enjoyed his biggest commercial success to date with the sci-fi actioner "The Matrix" (1999). Finding a balance between action hero and Zen Master, Fishburne offered a commanding presence as the mysterious revolutionary Morpheus, but it was the arresting visual style of its writer-directors (the Wachowski brothers) that attracted the hordes through the turnstiles.

After the mega-success of "The Matrix," Fishburne took his first turn behind the camera as the director of "Once in the Life" (2000), an adaptation of his 1994 play "Riff Raff" in which he starred as two-bit hood 20/20 Mike, a supposed expert at self-preservation whose world is thrown into chaos when his white junkie half-brother fouls up a heroin heist. The film was well-acted and handsomely filmed, but suffered from the claustrophobic confines of its theatrical origins. Fishburne next appeared in the fast-paced action film "Biker Boyz" (2003) as Smoke, the reigning champion among a ring of African American professionals by day who become motorcycle streetracers by night. That same year he returned to the role of Morpheus--now exchanging his signature cool for volume and bravado in Morpheus' new incarnation as a borderline zealot--for "The Matrix Reloaded" and its filmed-back-to-back sequel, "The Matrix Revolutions."

The actor was then used to strong effect by director Clint Eastwood in "Mystic River" (2003), playing police detective Whitey Powers, who doubts the ability of his partner (Kevin Bacon) to stay impartial on a homicide case involving two of his childhood friends (Sean Penn and Tim Robbins). Next it was on to the role of a powerful crime kinpin whose arrest provokes an all-out invansion of a police precint house in the well-assembled 2005 remake of the thriller "Assault on Precinct 13."

from movies.yahoo.com

  A Landlord's Tale (2007) (announced)
Bobby (2006) (filming) .... Edward Robinson
The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2006) (filming) .... Tad Gruzsa
Mission: Impossible III (2006) (post-production)
... aka M:I-3 (USA: promotional abbreviation)
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) (completed) .... Dr. Joshua Larabee

True Crime: New York City (2005) (VG) (voice) .... Isaiah Reed
The Matrix Online (2005) (VG) (voice) .... Morpheus
... aka MxO (USA: promotional abbreviation)
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) .... Marion Bishop
... aka Assaut sur le central 13 (France)
Five Fingers (2005)
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) .... Morpheus
... aka The Matrix Revolutions: The IMAX Experience (USA: IMAX version (promotional title))
Mystic River (2003) .... Sgt. Whitey Powers
Enter the Matrix (2003) (VG) .... Morpheus
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) .... Morpheus
... aka The Matrix Reloaded: The IMAX Experience (USA: IMAX version (promotional title))
Biker Boyz (2003) .... Smoke
Osmosis Jones (2001) (voice) .... Thrax
Once in the Life (2000) .... 20/20 Mike

The Matrix (1999) .... Morpheus
Always Outnumbered (1998) (TV) .... Socrates Fortlow
... aka Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (USA: DVD title)
Hoodlum (1997) .... Bumpy Johnson
Event Horizon (1997) .... Captain Miller
Miss Evers' Boys (1997) (TV) .... Caleb Humphries
Fled (1996) .... Charles Piper
Before Your Eyes (1996) (TV) .... Narrator
Othello (1995) .... Othello
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) (TV) .... Hannibal Lee
Just Cause (1995) .... Sheriff Tanny Brown
Bad Company (1995/I) .... Nelson Crowe/Narrator
Higher Learning (1995) .... Professor Maurice Phipps
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) .... Vinnie
... aka Innocent Moves
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) .... Ike Turner, Sr.
... aka Tina: What's Love Got to Do with It (Australia) (UK)
Deep Cover (1992) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Russell Stevens, Jr./John Hull/Narrator
Boyz n the Hood (1991) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Jason 'Furious' Styles
... aka Boys in the Hood
Class Action (1991) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Nick Holbrook
Decoration Day (1990) (TV) .... Michael Waring, DOD Man
King of New York (1990) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Jimmy Jump
Cadence (1990) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Roosevelt Stokes
... aka Count a Lonely Cadence
... aka Stockade

Red Heat (1988) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Lt. Charlie Stobbs
School Daze (1988) .... Dap
Cherry 2000 (1987) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Glu Glu Lawyer
Gardens of Stone (1987) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Sgt. Flanagan
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Max
... aka A Nightmare On Elm Street Part III (USA: closing credits title)
"Pee-wee's Playhouse" (1986) TV Series (as Larry Fishburne) .... Cowboy Curtis
Band of the Hand (1986) .... Cream
Quicksilver (1986) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Voodoo
The Color Purple (1985) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Swain
The Cotton Club (1984) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Bumpy Rhodes
Rumble Fish (1983) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Midget
I Take These Men (1983) (TV) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Hank Johnson
... aka Surprise, Surprise! (USA)
For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story (1983) (TV) (as Larry Fishburme) .... Jimbo Collins
... aka For Us, the Living (USA: short title)
Death Wish II (1982) (as Laurence Fishburne III) .... Cutter
A Rumor of War (1980) (TV) .... Lightbulb
Willie and Phil (1980) .... Wilson
"The Six O'Clock Follies" (1980) TV Series .... Robby Robinson

Apocalypse Now (1979) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Tyrone 'Clean' Miller
... aka Apocalypse Now Redux (International: English title: longer version)
Fast Break (1979) (as Laurence Fishburne III) .... Street Kid
Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975) (as Lawrence Fishburne) .... Wilford Robinson
... aka Hit the Open Man
If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band (1975) (TV)
"One Life to Live" (1968) TV Series .... Dr. Joshua "Josh" Hall #1 (1973-1976)