March 2, 2017 | Jeff Myers

Wise Facts About Morgan Freeman


“Get busy living or get busy dying.” Got that right, Mr. Freeman.

As one of the most versatile and well-respected actors in Hollywood, Morgan Freeman is known for his many iconic film roles. And at the age of 79, he’s showing no sign of slowing down.

Read on to learn a few facts about one of the enduring good guys of Hollywood.


Morgan Freeman Facts

1. Baby of the family

Advertisement

Born June 1, 1937, in Memphis, Tenn., Morgan Porterfield Freeman, Jr. was the baby in a family of five siblings. His father was a barber and his mother, Mayme Edna, was a schoolteacher.

Shawshank Redemption FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

2. Humble beginnings

Not long after he was born, Morgan's parents relocated to Chicago. While his parents struggled to find work, Freeman stayed with his maternal grandmother in Charleston, Mississippi until he was six years old. After his grandmother’s death, Freeman moved to live with his mother, who had separated from her husband.

Morgan Freeman FactsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

3. Early influences

As a child, Freeman spent tons of time scraping together money to go to the movies; he has said some of his earliest matinee idols were actors like Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier, the first African-American to win an Oscar for Best Actor.

The West Wing factsGetty Images

Advertisement

4. The chair that changed a life

When Freeman was in junior high school, he pulled a chair from underneath a girl he had a crush on. As punishment, he was ordered to take part in his school’s drama competition. To his surprise (and probably his teachers), the 12-year-old was a natural on stage, taking top honors in the program.

Morgan Freeman FactsFlickr, Carl Lender

Advertisement

5. The wild blue yonder

After graduating from school, Freeman attended Los Angeles City College and then joined the U.S. Air Force in 1955, hoping it would lead to a career in the skies. But after four years of working as a mechanic, he decided not to re-enlist. "I had this very clear epiphany," he told AARP Magazine. "You are not in love with this; you are in love with the idea of this." He left the Air Force and moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream of acting.

Advertisement
Morgan Freeman FactsFlickr, GoArmy

Advertisement

6. His first big break

Freeman's first big break came in 1967, when he joined the cast in the first all-African American stage production of Hello, Dolly!, a musical in which he starred alongside such greats as Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway and Ernestine Jackson. That was a good year for him; Freeman also married Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, his first wife, that same year.

Morgan Freeman FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

7. "Hey, you guyyyyyyyyys!"

Freeman’s first credited film appearance was in 1971’s Who Says I Can’t Ride a Rainbow, but his first real exposure to national audiences was his time as part of The Electric Company (1971-77), a children’s TV show made by the same people who created Sesame Street. For six seasons and 780 episodes, Freeman and the rest of the cast sang and performed comedy skits to encourage younger students to read. Among his regular characters were disc jockey Mel Mounds, Count Dracula and Easy Reader (“a first-class, genuine reading freak”).

Shawshank Redemption FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

8. Paying his dues

While The Electric Company was steady work, Freeman was hoping to break into films, and his career caught a break when he landed a part as a prison inmate in the 1980 Robert Redford film Brubaker. But the film work he hoped would follow did not materialize, and Freeman retreated to television, appearing on the soap operas Ryan’s Hope and Another World, and in TV movies such as Death of a Prophet (in which he played slain civil-rights leaders Malcolm X).

Morgan Freeman FactsBrubaker(1980), 20th Century Fox

Advertisement

9. Chatting with the insane

While on the set of Brubaker, Morgan Freeman had some interesting interactions with the inmates. “When we were doing Brubaker, we were in a prison for the criminally insane. They said, don't talk to the inmates. Well, what do you do if a guy accused of butchering his family comes up and speaks to you? You don't refuse to talk to him.”

Morgan Freeman FactsBrubaker(1980), 20th Century Fox

Factinate

Sign up to our newsletter.

History’s most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. Making distraction rewarding since 2017.

Thank you!
Error, please try again.
Advertisement

10. A star is born

As the 1980s rolled on, Freeman started getting recognized for roles in which he played mentors and people in positions of authority (something that would become a theme for him as the years went on). But the role he says was his favorite was that of Fast Black, a vicious pimp in 1987’s Street Smart. “That one was about as far away from me as I can get,” he once said. That role earned him his first Oscar nomination (for Best Supporting Actor) and a glowing review from film critic Pauline Kael, who went so far as to ask the world: “Is Morgan Freeman the greatest American actor?”

Advertisement
Shawshank Redemption FactsShutterstock

Advertisement

11. Dress for success and make someone else pay for it!

“The first real role I had in a movie I played a pimp [in Street Smart] – this was in the late ‘80s – and the costume designer at the time said, ‘So, how do you see yourself?’ And at the time, all the pimps in the movies were wearing platform shoes, crushed velvet, robes, this and that. I said, ‘None of that.’ And she said, ‘Armani?’ I said yes, so she actually wiped out her costume budget buying me an Armani (suit).”

Morgan Freeman FactsStreet Smart(1987), Cannon Group

Advertisement

12. We’re starting to see a pattern here…

Freeman followed up Street Smart with head-turning roles in Clean and Sober (as a tough but supportive drug rehabilitation counselor), Lean on Me (as a tough but supportive high school principal) and Glory (as a tough but supportive officer in the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company). But it was his role as Hoke, the kindly chauffeur hired to drive Miss Daisy in 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy, that propelled him into the Hollywood A-list and earned him his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (and first Oscar nomination for Best Actor).

Morgan Freeman FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

13. “Get busy living or get busy dying”

The 1990s were very good years for Freeman. After a fun role as one of Robin’s Merry Men in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Freeman delivered powerful performances in such films as Se7en, Unforgiven, Amistad and Deep Impact. But the movie Freeman has cited as his favorite, 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption, almost didn’t include him: in the story on which the film is based, his character, Red, was a middle-aged Irishman, and major-league actors like Clint Eastwod, Harrison Ford and Robert Redford were considered for the part. But director Frank Darabont has maintained he always had Morgan Freeman in mind for the role because of his authoritative presence, calm demeanor and deep voice.

Morgan Freeman FactsRobin Hood: Prince of Thieves(1991), Morgan Creek Productions

Advertisement

14. Commitment to his craft

In The Shawshank Redemption, the scene in which Andy (Tim Robbins) and Red chat in the prison yard while Red is pitching a baseball took nine hours to shoot. Freeman pitched that baseball for the entire nine hours without a word of complaint. He showed up for work the next day with his arm in a sling.

Morgan Freeman FactsThe Shawshank Redemption(1994), Castle Rock Entertainment

Advertisement

15. Are you there, God? Oh… hi, Morgan!

Speaking of authoritative presences, it probably surprised no one when Freeman was cast to play God in the 2003 comedy Bruce Almighty, in which Jim Carrey’s everyman character is literally given the power of God. Jack Nicholson was originally approached for the role, but he passed on it.

Advertisement
Morgan Freeman FactsBruce Almighty(2003), Spyglass Entertainment

Advertisement

16. What do you think he charges for voicemail messages?

Freeman’s calm, authoritative voice makes him a big “get” for documentary filmmakers looking for the right narrator for their projects. In 2005, Freeman narrated March of the Penguins, the Oscar-winning nature documentary that went on to earn more at the box office than all of the Best Picture nominees that year. Freeman recorded all the narration for the 80-minute documentary in one day.

Morgan Freeman FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

17. Best. Year. Ever.

2005 was a huge year for Freeman. Aside from his work on March of the Penguins, his  team-up with Clint Eastwood on 2004’s Million Dollar Baby (in which he plays an ex-prize fighter helping to hone the skills of a young female boxer) earned him his first Oscar at the 2005 Academy Awards. He also narrated Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005) and appeared in Batman Begins (2005) as Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne’s technical support and ally in his war against crime – a role Freeman would reprise twice more in the film trilogy.

Morgan Freeman FactsGetty Images

Advertisement

18. Ancestry

In 2008, the TV series African American Lives 2 revealed that his Caucasian great-great-grandfather had lived with, and was buried beside, his African-American great-great-grandmother (the two could not legally marry at the time, in the segregated South).

Morgan Freeman FactsPicryl

Advertisement

19. That must keep him pretty “buzzy.”

Freeman is a beekeeper with more than two dozen hives. After hearing about the decline of honeybees and its impact on the environment, in 2014 Freeman turned his 124-acre ranch in Mississippi into a beekeeping sanctuary.

Morgan Freeman FactsFlickr, D. Miller

Advertisement

20. How he chooses his film roles

“I like being eclectic,” he has said about his film choices. “The more varied the better; the wider the range. I’ve been sucked into a kind of mold of a good guy and that’s actually almost beyond my ability to control. But other than that, a good story and an interesting character is all I am looking for.”

Advertisement
GettyImages-71001130 Morgan FreemanGetty Images

Advertisement

21. Nice guy onscreen, nice guy off screen

When he’s not busy being the good guy in his movies, Freeman is being a nice guy in the real world. Through Rock River Foundation, an organization he started, Freeman has donated millions to educational programs. He has also raised money for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and in 2004 he helped organize relief funds for hurricane victims in Grenada.

Morgan Freeman FactsFlickr, Alan Light

Advertisement

22. Actor, philanthropist, beekeeper… blues lover?

In May 2001, Freeman teamed up with two Memphis businessmen to open Ground Zero, a blues club in Clarksdale, MS, not far from his place in Charleston, MS. It got its name from the fact Clarksdale has been historically referred to as “ground zero” for the blues.

Morgan Freeman FactsFlickr, Nathan Congleton

Advertisement

23. It pays to plan ahead

In 1998, a friend built Freeman a special cabinet with an area reserved for an Academy Award, complete with a plaque that said “No Parking. Reserved for Oscar.” Freeman finally got the chance to fill that spot when he took home the statue in 2005 for his role in Million Dollar Baby.

GettyImages-52252548 Morgan Freeman, best actress Hilary SwankGetty Images

Advertisement

24. Like a class reunion, only with Lego

Freeman continues to gain fans with his work, showing no signs of slowing down.  In 2014’s The Lego Movie, he lent his voice to Vitruvius, the wise old man who believes in Emmett. It was Morgan’s first time acting in an animated role, but it was like old home week for him and the rest of the cast: he had previously worked with Liam Neeson in Batman Returns, he and Dave Franco (Wally) worked together in 2013’s Now You See Me, and he and Chris Pratt (Emmett) both appeared in 2008’s Wanted.

Morgan Freeman FactsFlickr, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Advertisement

25. Awards? Build a bigger cabinet.

Aside from his Oscar… and his Golden Globe wins… and his Cecil B. DeMille Award… and his AFI Life Achievement Award… in 2016 U.S. President Barack Obama presented Freeman with a National Medal of Arts. During the ceremony, Obama said Freeman was being honored for his outstanding work as an actor, director and narrator: “His iconic stage and screen performances have brought to life characters from the whole spectrum of the human experience, moving audiences around the world, and influencing countless young artists.”

Advertisement
GettyImages-508367756 Morgan FreemanGetty Images

Advertisement

26. That’s Dr. Freeman, thank you very much.

Perhaps because they can’t wait to hear his voice at their commencement ceremonies, Freeman has amassed a fine collection of honorary degrees from educational institutions, including Rhodes College, Brown University and Boston University.

Morgan Freeman FactsFlickr, Jeremy Sorrells

Advertisement

27. Talkin’ ‘Bout My Veneration…

In 2008, Freeman became a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, earning his medal alongside Barbra Streisand, George Jones, choreographer Twyla Tharp and the members of The Who.

GettyImages-83945874 Kennedy Center HonorsGetty Images

Advertisement

28. Not a fan of his own movies for one simple reason.

“I find it difficult to watch myself… I find it boring,” he once told an interviewer. Lucky for the rest of us, then, he’s in the minority on that opinion.

morgan freeman factsWikimedia Commons

Advertisement

29. Don’t bet money against him in a golf game.

Morgan Freeman is the first American to record a par on the “Extreme 19th” hole at Legend Golf & Safari Resort in Limpopo, South Africa. It’s the highest and longest par 3 hole in the world.

Morgan Freeman FactsFlickr, Nathan Congleton

Advertisement

30. Well-Earned recognition

Morgan Freeman was presented with the Chaplin Award in 2016, at 78 years old, to applaud his enduring commitment to cinema. You can check out the video below.

Advertisement
GettyImages-524238396 morgan freemanGetty Images

Advertisement

31. How he really feels about being the good guy

Freeman takes a positive approach to the idea that he has spent a lot of his career typecast as good guys and father figures: “As an actor, you like to be well rounded. But the industry puts you in a niche. I don't think Sidney [Poitier] ever successfully played a bad part. Fonda did once in Once Upon a Time in the West, but it was the only time he played a really bad guy. Gary Cooper never did. Clark Gable never did. So you’re in good company when you get packaged as Mr. Good Guy.”

GettyImages-55710291Getty Images

Advertisement

32. A stay in jail, with honor

A man of honor and loyalty, Morgan Freeman was put in jail while serving in the Air Force because he insisted on sticking with his friend. "Have you ever been in jail? I have. I was a kid. I was in the Air Force and I'd gone with a friend of mine to Los Angeles. When we left the base, he left his Class-A pass sitting on the table. We were hitchhiking because he was out of money. I had a little money, but I didn't want to take the bus and leave him. The police stopped us on the freeway. He asked both of us for ID and I had mine and my friend didn't have his. The cop said, 'Well, we're gonna have to call the shore patrol because we don't know if you're AWOL.' He told me, 'You got money--you take a bus.' I said, 'I'm with him.' So I went to jail for four days.

Morgan Freeman FactsShutterstock

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Advertisement

More from Factinate

Featured Article

My mom never told me how her best friend died. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery.

Dark Family Secrets

Dark Family Secrets Exposed

Nothing stays hidden forever—and these dark family secrets are proof that when the truth comes out, it can range from devastating to utterly chilling.
April 8, 2020 Samantha Henman

Featured Article

Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.

Madame de Pompadour Facts

Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress

Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.
December 7, 2018 Kyle Climans

More from Factinate

Featured Article

I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life.

These People Got Genius Revenges

When someone really pushes our buttons, we'd like to think that we'd hold our head high and turn the other cheek, but revenge is so, so sweet.
April 22, 2020 Scott Mazza

Featured Article

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but few people know her even darker history.

Catherine of Aragon Facts

Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s First Wife

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but very few people know her even darker history.
June 7, 2018 Christine Tran



Dear reader,


Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? We’re always looking for your input! Please reach out to us to let us know what you’re interested in reading. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from “Life” to “Compact Cars and Trucks” to “A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius.” We’ll get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics you’re interested in. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your time!


Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? At Factinate, we’re dedicated to getting things right. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. We want our readers to trust us. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. Please let us know if a fact we’ve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect it’s inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your help!


Warmest regards,



The Factinate team




Want to learn something new every day?

Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter.

Thank you!

Error, please try again.