The two “greatest” actors of the last two centuries, according to Denzel Washington
When referring to any actor as one of the all-time greats, it’s obviously inferred that they’re being considered among the best to have ever graced the silver screen since the first film was shot in 1888. Is Denzel Washington part of that number? Yes, for all intents and purposes.
In terms of how many performers have, will be, and deserve to be called the best of the best relative to how many appear in at least one movie, only an infinitesimal percentage of them make the cut. They need to be on a level above almost all of their peers, and that’s the plane Washington has been operating on for nearly four uninterrupted decades.
He’s a two-time Academy Award winner, a ten-time nominee, a three-time Golden Globe winner, and he’s even got a Tony for his work on the stage, with the A-lister remaining adamant that he’s a theatre kid who occasionally makes movies, despite the evidence suggesting it’s been the other way around for a long time.
Washington also occupies that rarest of middle ground that so many of the other perceived greats have struggled to find: he’s both an acclaimed, awards-worthy, phenomenally gifted, and classically trained thespian, but he’s also a bona fide movie star with one of the most impressive box office track records of his, or any other, era.
With that in mind, if he wants to go out on a limb and suggest that two names are the two greatest ever to do it since the turn of the 20th century, he’s entitled to. His candidates are admittedly obvious, but when it’s coming from the mouth of a heavyweight talent like Washington, it carries even more weight.
After finally getting the chance to collaborate with Meryl Streep on Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, the veteran was blown away by her effortless excellence. “I was watching her in my extra scenes,” he told Black Film. “Her and Katharine Hepburn are probably the two greatest actresses of this and the last century.”
Again, hardly a revelation, but not inaccurate. After all, Streep’s three Oscars and Hepburn’s record-setting four give them a combined total of seven, and that’s without mentioning their cumulative haul of 33 nominations, which is a ludicrous number to be shared between two actors.
No list of Hollywood’s most illustrious and esteemed legends is complete without them, and just like Hepburn was the name everyone of her era wanted to emulate whenever the next generation began breaking through, Streep has taken on that mantle to take on an almost deified status among her peers.
The same can be said of Washington, who laid down a blueprint that so many aspiring actors want to follow, having spent his lengthy stint as a world-renowned actor alternating between passion projects, prestige pictures, and gun-toting action thrillers without ever being accused of phoning it in.
If there were a Mount Rushmore of acting, a lot of folks would have Hepburn and Streep’s faces carved into it before anyone else. Of course, plenty of people would put Washington up there, too, but he’s never been the type to pat himself on the back.
