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Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker

Birthday: 1961-07-15 | Place of Birth: Longview, Texas, USA

Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, producer, director, and activist. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. After making his film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Whitaker went on to earn a reputation for intensive character study work for films, such as Platoon (1986), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Bird (1988), The Crying Game (1992), Phenomenon (1996), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), The Great Debaters (2007), The Butler (2013), Arrival (2016), and Respect (2021). He has also appeared in blockbusters, such as Panic Room (2002), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) as Saw Gerrera, and Black Panther (2018) as Zuri. For his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the British historical drama film The Last King of Scotland (2006), Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Whitaker made his directorial debut with the television film Strapped (1993), and directed the films Waiting to Exhale (1995), Hope Floats (1998), and First Daughter (2004). Apart from his film career, Whitaker is also known for his humanitarian work and activism. In 2011, he was inducted as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, later receiving a promotion to Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation, and serves as the CEO of Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI), a non-profit outreach program. Description above from the Wikipedia article Forest Whitaker, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2022
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

as    Saw Gerrera

2021
Respect

as    C. L. Franklin

2021
City of Lies

as    Jack Jackson

2020
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

as    Jeronicus Jangle

2020
Burden

as    Reverend Kennedy

2019
Godfather of Harlem

as    Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson

2019
Finding Steve McQueen

as    Howard Lambert

2018
The Forgiven

as    Desmond Tutu

2018
How It Ends

as    Tom

2016
Arrival

as    Colonel G. T. Weber

2016
Roots

as    Fiddler

2016
I Am You

as    Narrator (voice)

2015
Taken 3

as    Inspector Frank Dotzler

2015
Southpaw

as    Titus 'Tick' Wills

2015
Two Men in Town

as    William Garnett

2014
Repentance

as    Angel

2013
The Last Stand

as    Agent John Bannister

2013
Zulu

as    Ali Sokhela

2013
The Butler

as    Cecil Gaines

2013
Out of the Furnace

as    Chief Wesley Barnes

2013
Making a Scene

as    Man

2013
Mysteries of the Unseen World

as    Narrator

2013
Black Nativity

as    Reverend Cornell Cobbs

2013
Pawn

as    Will

2012
Freelancers

as    Dennis Larue

2012
A Dark Truth

as    Francisco Francis

2011
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

as    Sam Cooper