"Safe House", a 2012 film starring Washington (Tobin Frost) and Ryan Reynolds (Matt Weston) as two CIA agents, was about Frost trying to ferret out a corrupt faction within the department who are leaking secrets to the enemy which jeopardize undercover agents in the field. Weston, a rookie, gets caught up in the struggle when Frost appears at the safe house he is protecting seeking refuge.
2. Keith Frazier
Answer: Inside Man
Directed by Spike Lee and starring Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe, and Christopher Plummer, this 2006 movie featured Washington in the role of Keith Frazier, a New York detective who is being investigated for his possible involvement in an embezzlement scam with a drug dealer, all while trying to prevent a bank robbery from taking place.
This was the fourth movie that Spike Lee and Washington had worked on together. the others were: "Mo' Better Blues" (1990), "Malcolm X" (1992), and "He Got Game" (1998).
3. Gray Grantham
Answer: The Pelican Brief
Teaming with Julia Roberts, "The Pelican Brief" (1993) saw Denzel Washington playing the role of investigative reporter, Gray Grantham, as he tries to help Roberts (Darby Shaw), who plays a young law student, solve the mystery behind the deaths of two Supreme Court Justices.
4. Bleek Gilliam
Answer: Mo' Better Blues
The first collaboration of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, "Mo' Better Blues" (1990), follows the life of Bleek Gilliam (Washington), a jazz trumpeter from Brooklyn, trying to keep his band from falling apart due to a rivalry that grows into something more within the group between he and saxphonist Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes) over the beautiful Clarke Bentancourt (Cynda Williams), who joins the band as a singer.
With an all star cast featuring Snipes, Samuel L. Jackson, John and Nick Tuturro, Williams, and Charlie Murphy (not to mention Giancarlo Esposito and Spike Lee), "Mo' Better Blues" is probably one of Washington's most fondly-remembered films in his vast catalogue.
5. Arnold Billings
Answer: Power
In "Power" (1986), Arnold Billings (Washington) is a lawyer who opposes political consultant Pete St. John (Richard Gere) as he attempts to find someone to fill the recently-vacated Senator's seat of Sam Hastings (E.G. Marshall). As St. John's search for a replacement goes further along, he finds that there was more to Hastings' retiring from politics than was previously understood. Denzel won an Outstanding Supporting Actor's Image Award for his portrayal in 1988.
6. Napoleon Stone
Answer: Heart Condition
In "Heart Condition" (1990), one of the few comedies within his vast catalogue of movies, Washington played Napoleon Stone, a lawyer who is murdered and ends up having his heart transplanted into the body of racist detective, Jack Moony (Bob Hoskins), after he suffers a fatal heart attack. Moony not only gets a second chance at life, but a constant companion in the ghost of Stone.
7. Anthony Hubbard
Answer: The Siege
Anthony Hubbard (Washington) was the head of the FBI's Counter-Terrorist Task Force in this 1998 film directed by Edward Zwick entitled, "The Siege". After a highly sought after Islamic leader, Khalil Saleh (Assif Mandvi),is detained after entering the United States, Hubbard finds himself embroiled in a power struggle with General William Deveraux (Bruce Willis) of the U.S. Army on whether or not martial law should be imposed, after New York City finds itself the target of terrorist attacks due to Saleh's disappearance.
8. Matt Lee Whitlock
Answer: Out of Time
In 2003, Denzel Washington (Matt Lee Whitlock) starred with Sanaa Lathan, Eva Mendes, and Dean Cain, in "Out of Time", a film about a police chief (Whitlock) who finds himself caught up in a web of deceit after the woman with whom he was having an affair (Lathan/ Ann Merai Harrison), and her husband (Cain/ Chris Harrison), are found dead. Whitlock becomes the prime suspect due to not only the affair, but also because he took a half million dollars in drug money from the evidence room in order to pay for Ann Merai's cancer treatments.
However, with the help of his ex-wife, Alex, (played by Eva Mendes) who happens to be a homicide detective, Whitlock finds there's more to the Harrisons' "deaths" than meets the eye.
9. Roger Porter
Answer: Carbon Copy
In 1981, the world was introduced to Denzel Washington when he appeared with George Segal in, "Carbon Copy"; it Washington's first role in a major motion picture. Washington played Roger Porter, the illegitimate son of corporate mogul, Walter Whitney (Segal).
While resistant at first to his "new" son because he thinks Roger wants his money, Walter eventually comes to accept him, but only after he loses everything. It is then that he comes to understand that even though he's now flat broke, Roger loves him unconditionally and only wanted to have a relationship with him from the beginning.
10. Whip Whitaker
Answer: Flight
Denzel Washington was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, as well as a Golden Globes Nominee, for his portrayal of airline pilot, Whip Whitaker, in the 2012 film "Flight". Whitaker is facing criminal charges due to his possibly having been under the influence of drugs and alcohol when an investigation occurs after he was forced to crash land his plane during a jaunt from Orlando, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia which also caused the death of flight attendant, Katerina Marquez (played by Nadine Velazquez), who was also Whip's lover, as well as a few passengers.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ponycargirl before going online.
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