I’ll take “Fun Facts about Denzel” for a thousand, Alex.

I don’t know if you love his movies and his acting in those movies as much as I do, but if I were a betting man I’d say the majority of you do. He wins everyone over. He’s that good. Here are some fun facts that you may or may not have known about Mr. Washington:

• If you think he’s hot, you have good reason to. In 1990, magazine selected him as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world, and then again in 2002. In 1995 he was named by magazine as one of the 100 sexiest stars in history. would again recognize his good looks in 1996, this time by declaring him to be the sexiest man alive for that year.

• …and if that wasn’t enough, ran a story that same year about the biological basis of the perception of beauty. They used him as an example to show how he is scientifically a handsome man. Scientific proof!

• …oh, and made VH1’s list of “100 Hottest Hotties” in 2003.

• He has a special connection with human rights activist Malcolm X. He portrayed Malcolm twice: once in an off-Broadway stage play called and later in Spike Lee’s biopic Malcolm  (1992) . Just one year before he starred in that movie, he and his wife had twins. One of them they named Malcolm.

• He is the son of a Pentecostal minister.

• And in that church where his father served there was a woman who was regarded by her fellow congregants as a prophetess. One day while getting her hair done at Denzel’s mother’s salon, she took one look at the young Denzel and asked someone to bring her a piece of paper. On it she wrote the word “prophecy” followed by a statement that one day Denzel would speak to millions.

• If you don’t believe me that he’s a great actor, ask Tom Hanks what he thinks. He acted with him in 1993’s award winning and claims he’s learned more about acting from him than from anyone else. He said that acting with Denzel was like going to film school.

• He is named after his dad, though his father’s name has the accent at the first of his name, as in DEN-zel. As we all know, his has the accent at the end of his name, den-ZEL. Also, his father was named after the Doctor who delivered him, though it was the doctor’s surname, not given name.

• He is the first African American actor to receive two Academy Awards: best supporting actor for (1990) and best actor for (2002).

• He was considered to play Tubbs in the 80’s TV show .

• He didn’t do so hot in junior college. He had a 1.7 GPA and dropped out.

• He directed one television episode for Grey’s Anatomy as well as three films: Antwone Fisher (2002), The Great Debaters (2007), and…

Congratulations . This is your week.

Best Actress: Viola Davis as Rose Maxson in

Best Actor: Other than Denzel, I’d say Gary Oldman as Carnegie in .

Best Quote: “Forgiveness is between them and God. It’s my job to arrange the meeting.” — Denzel as Creasy in

Regarding Fences, it was this movie where I thought DW got robbed at the Oscars. Casey Affleck was very deserving, but if you haven’t seen Fences, it is a stockpile of memorable and masterful dialogues and monologues that both Denzel and Viola Davis deserved to be awarded for. Thankfully Viola was.