What is the greatest Denzel Washington role of all time?

Righteous heroes and corrupt villains, civil rights icons and haunted soldiers — his career is a masterclass in moral complexity delivered with effortless authority. Cast your vote!

1

Training Day (2001)

Washington won the Oscar playing Detective Alonzo Harris, a corrupt LAPD narcotics officer who initiates a rookie into his brutal world.

2

Malcolm X (1992)

Washington delivers a monumental performance as the civil rights leader, tracing his journey from street criminal to Nation of Islam minister to global icon.

3

Fences (2016)

Washington plays Troy Maxson, a former baseball player haunted by his unfulfilled dreams and slowly poisoning his family with bitterness and pride.

4

Glory (1989)

Washington won his first Oscar as Private Trip, an escaped slave who joins the first all-Black Civil War regiment and refuses to accept second-class treatment.

5

The Hurricane (1999)

Washington plays Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, the world-class boxer wrongfully convicted of murder and his seventeen-year fight to prove his innocence.

6

Philadelphia (1993)

Washington plays Joe Miller, a homophobic lawyer who takes on the civil rights case of an AIDS-stricken attorney fired by his firm.

7

Man on Fire (2004)

Washington plays former CIA operative Creasy, who unleashes relentless vengeance after the kidnapping of the young girl he was hired to protect.

8

American Gangster (2007)

Washington plays Frank Lucas, the real-life Harlem drug lord who built a heroin empire by smuggling drugs in the coffins of Vietnam War soldiers.

9

Flight (2012)

Washington plays a talented but deeply alcoholic airline pilot who miraculously lands a failing plane but must then face the truth about himself.

10

Remember the Titans (2000)

Washington plays Herman Boone, the first Black head coach of a newly integrated Virginia high school football team facing community racism.

11

Crimson Tide (1995)

Washington plays Executive Officer Hunter, who locks horns with Gene Hackman's hardline captain over launching a nuclear strike in this taut submarine thriller.

12

Inside Man (2006)

Washington plays detective Keith Frazier negotiating a hostage situation in a Manhattan bank heist that is far more complicated than it appears.

13

The Equalizer (2014)

Washington plays Robert McCall, a quietly menacing ex-government agent who comes out of retirement to help a young woman exploited by the Russian mob.