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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.