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Morgan's family
- Mamie Edna (Mother; teacher)
- Morgan Porterfield Freeman (Father; barder)
- 3 older siblings, but Morgan refused to disclose who they were
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Morgan Freeman Was Freed (onto the world)!
Born on June 1st, 1937 in the dangerous city of Memphis, Tenessee (which has the highest crime rate in the nation), Morgan Freeman became the youngest of 3 in the Freeman Family. He was named after his dad, Morgan Porterfield Freeman. -
Charleston, Mississippi-- First of Many Moves
As an infant, Morgan was sent to live with his dad's grandparents. While it's unclear why, one could reasonably chalk it up to Morgan's parents not being able to care for him alongside his 3 other siblings -
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Movin' Morgan
Morgan moved around a LOT in his childhood days. He went from Charleston, MI to...
- Greenwood, MI
- Gary, IN
- Chicago, IL
OK, maybe I over-dramatized it a little bit, but you get the idea -
Morgan's First Debut on the Theatrical World
At the ripe age of 9, Freeman played the leading role in his first-ever play -
Morgan's eventful School Life
At the age of 12, Morgan moved to Greenwood, Mississippi. While accommodating himself to Broad Street High School (his new school), Morgan discovered music and theatre and won a state-wide drama competition that same year. This was the first competition he has even won. -
Morgan Attracts pneumonia
At 16, Morgan attracts pneumonia. He will have to deal with this for the rest of his life. -
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Morgan Funds His College Career
In 1955, Freeman graduated highschool! But now, he needs funding for college. Even though Jackson University offered him a partial scholarship, he turned it down in favor for... The U.S. Air Force? But somehow, he rises to success no matter what situation he's in. After serving for 4 years, Morgan was honorably discharged as a first-class Automatic Tracking Radar repairman airman in 1959. -
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Freeman's Education + Moving (again)
After serving his time in the military, he moved again to California. While there, he attended acting classes at the Pasadena PlayHouse in Pasadena, CA. He also went to Los Angeles City College in East Hollywood, CA, and learned Theatrical Arts, possibly moving AGAIN! -
Morgan Porterfield Freeman Dies
On April 27, 1961, Morgan Freeman;s Dad passed away from Cirrhosis, or better known as Liver Disease -
Morgan's *Slight* Career Pivot
During his studies at the Los Angeles City College, one of his teachers majorly impacted his career by encouraging him to pursue a dancing/musical drama career. Just who is this mysterious teacher? ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Morgan doesn't like disclosing the names of important people in his life, so we all know is that it was one of the teachers there. -
The World Fair and The Royal Hunt of the Sun
Morgan acted as a dancer in the world fair, and joined the Opera Ring theatre group. From there, he also played in the version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun, which Morgan to this day describes as when his "acting career just took off" -
Morgan's Professional Acting Debut!
Morgan made his first splash into the professional world by performing at off-Broadway (Yes, that's a real place), one level off from real Broadway. He performed as an opposite in The Nigger Lovers. Thanks to this and his acting job as an extra in Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker a couple of years prior, Morgan realized that he liked acting infinitely better than dancing, so he made the switch to a full-acting career. -
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Married!... but then divorced
On October 22, 1967, Morgan got married to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw... only to officially divorce on November 18, 1979. Why? ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Again, Morgan isn't very vocal about the people around him, however many believe that the divorce had to do with infidelity… -
Broadway Breakout!
Freeman finally made the big leagues and got to prefer AT BROADWAY!!! He played in an all-black version of the musical All Dolly!
A year later, he went to perform on Broadway again by acting in the show The Dozens -
First film of Many
Again, not too theatrical, but in the same year as the airing of The Electric Company, he acted in his first credited film ever! It was called Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow! -
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The Worst (but most necessary) 4 years of Morgan's Life
In 1971, he went on as one of the main casting members of The Electric Company, a popular PBS educational show for children. I won't go into too much detail because this is out of the scope of this timeline, but this is where he REALLY became popular. However, he grew to detest every second of being on that show. Even though it brought him financial security and immense popularity, he quit in 1975. He hated that show so much that he went on to say that he left and never looked back again! -
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Acting Tolerance Period
After his last theatrical performance in the musical Purlie in 1971, Morgan Freeman decided to take a break from acting until 1978 (excluding The Electric Company) -
3 for 1 Special! Morgan's First Award(s)!
When he resumed acting in 1978, he immediately came in hot with his appearance in The Mighty Gents. This theatre performance earned him not 1, but 3 awards! The first is the The Drama Desk Award which is an annual award that recognizes excellence in New York theatre The second is the Clarence Derwent Award, which is given to actors annually by the Actors' Equity Association on Broadway in the United States The last award is a Tony for “Best featured Actor of a Play”, which = Oscars -
Morgan's First Professional Starred role?! (Won an Obie Award for Best Title Roll). Put it here because I ran out of chars in the description lol
Yeah, it's hard to believe that until now, his only other starred role was a play he put on in 4th grade... Anyways, he starred in a rendition of Shakespeare's Coriolanus put on at Broadway. While that doesn't sound like a big deal at first glance, it actually is. How many times have you heard of a Shakespeare play being put on at Broadway? For context, many people consider Macbeth one of the most common Shakespeare plays aired on Broadway. It has run a whopping 18 times since 1928 -
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Soap Opera kind of guy???
This is Ironic to me because Morgan is literally known for having a deep voice, the opposite one would expect at an opera! Anyways... For 2 years, Morgan played Roy Bingham in the Soap Opera Another World -
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Married (again)!… But then divorced (again)
On June 16th, 1984, Morgan marries Myrna Colley-Lee after meeting through a mutual friend. They stayed together for a LONG time, but they eventually separate near the end of 2007, and formally divorce September 15, 2010. Why? I kid you not, but allegedly it’s due to “Morgan's lifestyle of infidelity”. I’m pretty sure that this is just people being way too over the top about things, but whatever -
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Morgan's Last Awards from Plays
From here on out, Morgan would mostly stop with the theatrics and start to focus more on his filming career. But that doesn't mean he didn't go out with a bang! In 1987, he was in the musical The Gospel at Colonus and in 1988, he was in the play Driving Miss Daisy. Apparently, the people behind the Obie awards give them out like it's Halloween because Morgan got 2 more Obies from these works, respectively! Or maybe he's just that good... -
A role thought about for 6 Years | Morgan Freeman's last Harah in the Theatrical World
Morgan Freeman's final play was a role that he's been thinking about for 6 years prior to then. It was Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, a comedy about a nobleman named Petruchio, who tries to "tame" his wife into obeying his every whim (doesn't sound too funny of a comedy...). Petruchio is played by Freeman. While it wasn't played on Broadway, it was, however, played at Delacorte Theater, in NYC. It's outdoors, so it looks pretty nice! -
8 (yes, 8)
After 30 years of being away from theatre, Morgan takes a quick pop in to play as a… plaintiff? In September 19, 2011, Morgan (alongside John Lithgow) played as plaintiffs in the play 8, a theatrical retelling of the (at the time) district case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which ruled against California’s 8th proposition (the banning of same-sex marriages). The case eventually got to the Supreme Court, who ruled in favor of the previous decision. Ironically the law is still in effect to this day -
Morgan’s step-granddaughter (under his care) is Murdered
On August 16, 2015, Edena Hines (the granddaughter of Freeman's first wife) got murdered by her at-the-time boyfriend by getting stabbed 25 times because he believed that she was cheating on him with Morgan. He may or may not have been high on drugs and may or may not have been reported saying “Jesus Christ is Born” while killing Hines -
All achievements that I could find (not really related)
- Made the Natural disaster relief non profit “PLANIT NOW”
- Turned 124 acres of his own land into a bee sanctuary
- Donates and raises horses at the MI Horse Park
- Paranoia about Russia ($1 mil to university of MI)
- Creates the film production company “Revelations Entertainment”
- Made a movie distribution website called ClickStar (had Intel backing/investment)
- Operates a blues club in Clarksdale, MI called “Ground Zero”
- Co-owns restaurant “Madidi” in Clarksdale And more, but word limit
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Legacy
Morgan freeman did a LOT of stuff, most of which being movies (which is out of the scope of this assignment). As of 2023, he’s been credited in 244 different movies. And even THAT number is too low, as it doesn’t count any credits from before 2000! While this was mainly about his theatrical life, he’s also has done a lot more… -
Final Sendoff
Let me send you off with 1 final Quote: “Let me be the first to tell you, drinking alcohol is the worst thing to do in cold weather. Hot soup is the best because the process of digesting food helps to warm you up.”
- Morgan Freeman -
