Denzel Washington’s Best Performances, Ranked

Washington made several tense action movies with director Tony Scott (Unstoppable, The Taking of Pelham 123, Man on Fire, etc.), but Crimson Tide is the best. He plays a submarine XO going head to head with his commanding officer (played by Gene Hackman) about unclear orders. And as the military conflict escalates, it’s the discord between the two men that goes nuclear.

In this Washington-Lee collaboration, the actor plays a convicted father paroled for a week in exchange for convincing his high-schooler son (played by NBA athlete Ray Allen) to play for the governor’s alma mater. Washington’s performance plays to some of his greatest strengths — his character is a man plagued by vices, wronged by the justice system, and on shaky ground with his son.

Washington reunited with his Virtuosity costar Russell Crowe for this film, a Ridley Scott picture dramatizing the life of Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas. Washington is almost too good at playing bad, but here, he also adds shades of comedy. (“That’s $25,000 alpaca!” he yells at an underling who’s cleaning blood from a rug. “You blot that s***, you don’t rub it. Put the club soda on there.”)

Directed by Norman Jewison, who was once slated to direct Malcolm X, this sports biopic starred Washington as the titular boxer, born Rubin Carter, who was wrongfully imprisoned for murder for nearly two decades. True to his name, Washington’s Hurricane has his tempestuous moments, but the actor gives just as moving a performance in his quieter moments, too.

Washington’s onscreen gift of gab makes him a perfect candidate to play a hostage negotiator, as he did in this crime thriller, another collaboration with Lee. His character doesn’t just have to navigate a bank-heist situation, he also has to face off against NYPD colleagues, unhelpful witnesses, and secretive corporate forces, all of which he does in captivating fashion.

Not just a starring vehicle for Washington but a breakout film for Don Cheadle, this Walter Mosley adaptation is a neo-noir tale following WWII vet Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins (Washington) as he is hired to find a missing woman and drawn into a chasm of crime and deception in postwar Los Angeles. Washington plays a hard-boiled private eye like the best of ’em, one beset by the added struggle of racism.

Washington graduated from TV actor to film star with this Civil War picture, a retelling of the battles fought by (and within) the Union Army’s mostly-Black 54th Massachusetts. Backed by Morgan Freeman and Andre Braugher, Washington plays a soldier whose real war is one for dignity, and he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work.

In this Robert Zemeckis drama, Washington plays a pilot who crash-lands a passenger jet and saves most of the passengers. Unlike similar tales though, like Sully, Washington’s character is an alcoholic whose drinking both jeopardized hundreds of lives but perhaps saved them, too. So is he still a hero? Should he be exonerated? These questions weigh heavily on the pilot, and Washington conveys that inner torment.

After winning Tony Awards for their stage performances in this August Wilson play, Washington and Viola Davis starred in a film adaptation of same, with Washington also directing. Though Fences is more a showcase of Davis’ talent than his, Washington still excels as a working-class who is wronged by 1950s American society and who wrongs his devoted family.

Washington earned a Best Actor Oscar for playing a corrupt Los Angeles narcotics detective in this crime thriller. As Det. Alonzo Harris mentors the wide-eyed cop Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke), Washington plays the role with such bravado and braggadocio, even when the walls start closing in, that his true feelings and intentions are always close to the vest.

More than a decade after playing Malcolm X in the off-Broadway play When the Chickens Came Home to Roost, Washington returned to the role for Lee’s sweeping biopic of the civil-rights activist in all his evolutions and complexities. Washington captures Malcolm X in his charismatic public moments and his pensive private moments, and he very much deserved the Oscar for which he was nominated.