He’s played God (twice), the President of the United States and has narrated over a whopping 4845 films (approx). He also co-stars in this weeks Tom Cruise led blockbuster Oblivion – we look at his best roles (of which there are many)
By Eoghan Doherty
Okay, so we probably made the last statistic up but still, with one of the best and most recognisable voices in the Hollywood, Morgan Freeman has become so much part of our social fabric that there’s now an online demand to have a Morgan Freeman recorded voicemail message. That’s when you know you’ve really made it.
To coincide with the release Mr Freeman’s latest blockbuster sci-fi adventure Oblivion, we’re going to take a look at tfive of the top films he’s acted in. And no, The Love Guru is not one of them.
5. Unforgiven – in a film jam-packed with actors who fall in to the “oh sweet lord these old men are all amazing actors” category, Freeman stands out as Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Richard Harris do their best to keep up with him. Until one of them kills him of course. Sorry, spoiler alert.
4. The Dark Knight – as Batman’s, ahem, business manager Lucius Fox, Freeman may not have had the largest role in Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece, but he did quietly steal every scene he was in with Christian Bale. A dangerous move, especially considering Bale is Batman and could quite easily have thrown a Batstar-ninja-thingy right at his head.
3. Million Dollar Baby – nominated for an Oscar five times, Freeman finally won his well-deserved award with his performance in Clint Eastwood’s tale of an under-appreciated boxing trainer. Plus he gets to whoop some people’s asses along the way.
2. Se7en – Forget the sub-par films like Kiss the Girls and Along Came A Spider where Freeman plays a grizzled, veteran police detective, Se7en is the only Freeman grizzled, veteran police detective film you ever need to see. Plus it’s a completely twisted, deluded and terrifying film from the mind of David Fincher.
1.The Shawshank Redemption – an obvious choice maybe but there’s a reason for it – it’s an excellent film with excellent performances from all involved. Morgan Freeman double-jobs here as both Andy Dufresne’s best friend Red and narrator extraordinaire. Although the film is now so famous everyone quotes it ad nauseum so, if you haven’t seen it yet, get busy watching this film or get busy dyin’.
