If you grew up in the 1970s, there's a good chance you think of Morgan Freeman as a hippie who dug words, man.
Long before Freeman became an Oscar winner, God and the narrator of virtually every documentary you've ever seen (and before accusations tarnished his image), he was Easy Reader on PBS' "The Electric Company." A "Sesame Street" for older kids, it featured Freeman as a vampire who liked vegetables and as a vaguely hippie-ish guy who taught kids how to pronounce and spell words.
He's transformed his career in the nearly five decades since, biding his time until his smooth voice and dignified aspect — which made him seem godlike even before he was actually cast as God in "Bruce Almighty" — captured Hollywood's attention.
The movie that finally did it in 1987 was "Street Smart." Freeman's casting seems outside of the box, viewed from the vantage point of a 129-credit career filled with judges, vice presidents and other take-charge types, but it was a go-to part for Black actors: a pimp.
The unexpected calm and elegance that Freeman brought to that all-too-expected role probably gave him a leg up, because since then, Freeman has regularly made two or three — or, in 2005, eight — projects a year.
Freeman's height, impeccable vocal training and dancer's bearing situated him perfectly to take advantage of Hollywood's growing awareness that it had not done well by Black actors or audiences. If the Blaxploitation era of the '70s was an overcorrection to '50s and '60s movies in which Sidney Poitier played saints who never put a foot wrong, things were swinging back to Poitierland in the '80s and '90s, and Freeman was there to play stoic war heroes ("Glory"), judges ("The Bonfire of the Vanities") and administrators ("Lean on Me").
In a career packed with turning points, "Driving Miss Daisy" was another biggie, earning Freeman his first best actor Oscar nomination. It was also a huge hit and it led to others. He has portrayed an uncountable number of BAFs (Black Authority Figures), including Frederick Douglass at least three times. He's not a shape-shifter like Sean Penn or Meryl Streep; Freeman's persona carries from role to role. But you sense that he's confident with that persona, choosing roles that either exploit or rebel against aspects of it.
He has resisted categorization, playing against type as outlaws in "Nurse Betty" and "Unforgiven." He also was willing to make fun of his moneymaker, throwing curveballs into comedies such as "Ted 2," in which Freeman is a lawyer representing a potty-mouthed teddy bear who tells him, "I think I want to sleep on a bed made of your voice."
