Denzel Washington

Has often portrayed real people: Steve Biko in Grita libertad (1987), Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992), Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter in Huracán Carter (1999), Herman Boone in Titanes: Hicieron historia (2000), Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007) and Melvin Tolson in El gran debate (2007).
Frequently plays military commanders and law enforcement officers
In almost all the films - e.g. El fuego de la venganza (2004), American Gangster (2007), John Q (2002) - where he handles or uses sidearms (usually a 9mm Beretta or similar pistols), there's a scene of him swiftly ejecting a bullet from the loaded chamber by pulling back the slide assembly and subsequently catching the bullet before it falls to the ground.
Fiery anger-driven tirades
Frequently works with directors Spike Lee, Tony Scott, Edward Zwick, and Antoine Fuqua

Tom Hanks said working with Washington on Philadelphia (1993) was like "going to film school". Hanks said he learned more about acting by watching Denzel than from anyone else.
Is the first African-American actor to receive two Academy Awards.
The actors he most wants to work with are Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. The director he most wants to work with is Martin Scorsese.
Performed most of his own stunts for the hand to hand fight sequences in the post-apocalyptic action film El libro de Eli (2010).
He turned down Brad Pitt's role in Seven (1995), telling Entertainment Weekly that the film was too "dark and evil." Washington later regretted his decision upon seeing a screening.

(In 1998) Acting's like someone asking you for years to write the characters, but they write the book.
I'm very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That's my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it's not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.
[on where he likes to keep his Oscars] Next to each other.
[on approaching 50] I have a friend who says "The first 50 was for them, this 50's for me." I like that. The weirdest part of it, or even the saddest part, is that you start to see people die. You go "Man! He wasn't even that old." I lost a friend recently who died of a heart attack. He was 58. When I was 20, 58 was old. It ain't now.
[on working with young female co-stars] That ain't fair, really. Michelle Pfeiffer hasn't been finding a lot of work recently because she doesn't like what a woman her age is offered. That's a real double standard. You get Sean Connery, who gets older and older, still playing opposite young ladies, but it doesn't work the other way around.