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80 free Denzel Washington trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Denzel Washington trivia quiz runs the length of a career that The New York Times called the greatest of the 21st century: the Mount Vernon boy who wanted to go to Texas Tech for the uniforms, the Fordham basketball guard who found acting at a summer camp, Dr. Phillip Chandler on St. Elsewhere, and then Cry Freedom, Glory, Malcolm X, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, The Hurricane, Training Day, Man on Fire, Inside Man, American Gangster, Flight, Fences, The Equalizer, The Tragedy of Macbeth and Gladiator II. The stage work is here too, from his 1988 Broadway debut through Brutus, Troy Maxson, Hickey and Othello, along with the family (Pauletta, John David, Malcolm), the church, the Boys & Girls Clubs, and the awards. Easy questions ask which film won him Best Actor and who played his son in He Got Game; the hard ones want the name of his production company, the play he made his Broadway debut in and the real runaway train behind Unstoppable. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Washington and his films, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
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Q 01Denzel Washington was born on 28 December 1954 in which New York suburb?
Mount Vernon
His mother ran a beauty parlour there; his father worked for the city water department and a department store as well as preaching.
Q 02What was his father's vocation?
Pentecostal minister
The children were barred from the cinema and grew up on Bible epics like King of Kings and The Ten Commandments instead.
Q 03Where did he earn a BA in Drama and Journalism in 1977?
Fordham University
He later gave it $2 million for an endowed chair in the theatre department and received an honorary doctorate there in 1991.
Q 04In college he played basketball as a guard under which coach, later an NBA head coach?
P. J. Carlesimo
A colleague at a YMCA summer camp suggested he try acting after seeing him in a staff talent show.
Q 05He wanted to attend Texas Tech because its teams shared which nickname with his hometown Boys Club?
Red Raiders
He said the Lubbock uniforms looked like the ones he grew up wearing.
Q 06His screen debut was a 1977 made-for-television docudrama about which sprinter?
Wilma Rudolph
He met his future wife Pauletta Pearson on that set; they married in 1983.
Q 07What was his first Hollywood film, a 1981 comedy with George Segal?
Carbon Copy
He played Roger Porter, the long-lost 17-year-old son of Segal's wealthy San Marino businessman.
Q 08He played Dr. Phillip Chandler on which NBC hospital drama from 1982 to 1988?
St. Elsewhere
He was one of only a handful of Black actors to stay with the series for its entire six-year run.
Q 09The hospital drama in which he played Dr. Chandler was set at St. Eligius in which city?
Boston
Its finale implied the whole series had taken place inside a snow globe held by an autistic boy.
Q 10His first Oscar nomination came for playing which South African activist in Cry Freedom (1987)?
Steve Biko
South Africa's censors unexpectedly let the film screen uncut even though the activist's own writings were still banned.
Q 11Who directed Cry Freedom, the 1987 anti-apartheid drama that earned him his first Oscar nomination?
Richard Attenborough
The script by John Briley was based on two books by journalist Donald Woods, and the film premiered while apartheid was still in force.
Q 12In Cry Freedom, which actor played journalist Donald Woods opposite his Biko?
Kevin Kline
Woods, a liberal white editor, initially found the activist too radical before the two became friends.
Q 13He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for which 1989 film?
Glory
He played Trip, a defiant ex-slave who is flogged for going AWOL to find new shoes.
Q 21What is the name of the production company he founded in 1992?
Mundy Lane Entertainment
It was the same year Malcolm X came out; 40 Acres and a Mule is Spike Lee's company.
Q 22Who directed Philadelphia (1993), in which he played lawyer Joe Miller opposite Tom Hanks?
Jonathan Demme
Bill Murray, William Hurt, Nick Nolte and Tim Robbins were all considered for Miller before the part went to Washington.
Q 23In The Pelican Brief he played reporter Gray Grantham of which fictional newspaper?
Washington Herald
Bill and Hillary Clinton hosted a private White House screening a week before release.
Q 14In his 1989 Civil War film he played Private Trip, a soldier of which regiment?
54th Massachusetts
Trip persuades the men to refuse their pay when they learn Black soldiers earn about three-quarters of a white soldier's wage.
Q 15Which colonel, played by Matthew Broderick, commanded the regiment in that Civil War film?
Robert Gould Shaw
Shaw's body ends the film sliding into a mass grave beside Trip's after the assault on Fort Wagner.
Q 16He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for which 2001 film?
Training Day
Roger Ebert called it a rare villainous role: "like a monster from a horror film, unkillable and implacable".
Q 17In the 2001 film that won him Best Actor, what was the name of his corrupt LAPD narcotics officer?
Alonzo Harris
The film follows him and Ethan Hawke's rookie over a single 24-hour shift through Westlake, Echo Park and South Central.
Q 18His 2001 Best Actor win made him the second Black actor to win the category, after whom?
Sidney Poitier
Poitier's win was for Lilies of the Field in 1963; Washington has called him a mentor and a friend.
Q 19Which actor has he called his "hero", saying "He is who I wanted to be"?
James Earl Jones
He credits Jones with starting his college theatre career, and insists he considers himself a stage actor rather than a Hollywood star.
Q 20Which future head of state made a cameo as a Soweto schoolteacher in Malcolm X (1992)?
Nelson Mandela
Al Sharpton also appears; the role earned Washington his first Oscar nomination in the lead category.
Q 24In Crimson Tide he played executive officer Ron Hunter aboard which nuclear submarine?
USS Alabama
Gene Hackman's Captain Ramsey wants to launch; Hunter has him arrested for trying to bypass the two-man rule.
Q 25Which role did he play in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993)?
Don Pedro
Keanu Reeves played the villainous half-brother Don John, and Kate Beckinsale made her film debut as Hero.
Q 26In Courage Under Fire, Meg Ryan's Captain Walden is up for which decoration, never yet given to a woman?
Medal of Honor
Civil War surgeon Mary Edwards Walker had in fact received it, though not for combat valour, and was struck off the roll in 1917 before being restored in 1977.
Q 27In The Preacher's Wife (1996) with Whitney Houston, what was the name of his angel?
Dudley
Henry is the preacher, played by Courtney B. Vance; the angel ends up falling for the preacher's wife.
Q 28His 1996 Whitney Houston Christmas comedy was a remake of which 1947 Cary Grant film?
The Bishop's Wife
Both are based on Robert Nathan's 1928 novel; Penny Marshall directed the remake.
Q 29In He Got Game (1998), his son Jesus Shuttlesworth was played by which NBA player?
Ray Allen
His character Jake is on temporary release from Attica to persuade the boy to sign with the governor's alma mater, Big State.
Q 30In Mo' Better Blues he played jazz musician Bleek Gilliam, who plays which instrument?
Trumpet
His career ends when he is beaten with his own horn defending his manager Giant; Terence Blanchard supplied the actual playing.