Laurence Fishburne Net Worth 2021 | Famous Actor's Career Earnings

The actor Laurence Fishburne net worth is $30 million.

He has had a varied career with notable successes but argubly he is best known for his role as Morpheus in the Matrix franchise.

Fishburne's Early Life

Laurence John Fishburne III was born on 30th July 1961 in Augusta, Georgia, to junior high school teacher Hattie Bell (née Crawford) and Laurence Fishburne Jr, a juvenile corrections officer.

Fishburne’s parents divorced during his childhood, which resulted in the youngster moving to Brooklyn, New York, with his mother.

Laurence only got to see his father once a month.

He attended Lincoln Square Academy in New York, an establishment that closed during the 1980s.

Becoming An Actor

The young New Yorker started acting when he was twelve years old.

His first role came in 1973. It was the part of Joshua Hall in One Life to Live, the ABC soap opera.

Spurred on by his initial foray into the acting world the young actor had ambitions to get into movies.

His got his first major film role as a supporting role in Apocalypse Now, where he played ‘Mr. Clean’, a 17-year-old sailor.

It was a major break for the young Fishburne who got to work with a number of high profile actors including Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando.

Brando was one of the most famous actors in the world after his iconic role as Don Corleone in The Godfather and Fishburne got to see how he operated on and off the camera and even attended some of Brando's parties.

Laurence has spoken of how amazed he was that Brando's performance in Apocalypse Now was all improvised which was something he wanted to add to his repertoire of skills.

Apocalypse Now was one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the 1970s as it was director Francis Coppola's first movie after releasing one of the greatest movies of all time, The Godfather Part II in 1974.

When filming began, Fishburne was only fourteen and lied to get the role. He was, however, seventeen by the time the film was completed as it took so long to complete given that it was filmed in the Philippines.

Acting Through The 80s

Off the back of his great start in the industry Fishburne went on to appear in a number of roles throughout the 1980s in both movies and television and occasionally even on stage.

He had a minor role in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple and a recurring role in Pee-wee’s Playhouse as Cowboy Curtis.

During the 80s, Fishburne also appeared as Corporal Dorsey in an episode of M*A*S*H entitled “The Tooth Shall Set You Free”.

He appeared in Death Wish 2 (1982) as a thug named ‘Cutter’ in a movie that was poorly received by the American public and currently has an audience score of 44% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In terms of stage work in the 1980s, he appeared in Short Eyes (1984), and Loose Ends (1987).

In 1987, Fishburne also played the role of a hospital medic in the third instalment of Nightmare on Elm Street film.

Becoming a Household Name In The 1990s

It was during the 1990s that Fishburne saw his movie career really take off.

In 1991 he took on the role of Jason 'Furious' Styles in the highly acclaimed movie, Boyz n the Hood.

The movie has a score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and is still revered to this day.

Fishburne stars alongside a young Cuba Gooding Jr and former N.W.A frontman Ice Cube and plays the role of a single father trying to raise his son (Cuba Gooding Jr) in the crime-ridden area of Crenshaw, Los Angeles.

The movie deals with a number of issues that were prevalent in the black community on the west coast of America during the 1980s including gang related crime, broken family homes and those wishing to leave the area to make a new life for themselves.

In an interview in 1991 Fishburne stated that the message of the movie was "the making of men is men's business".

The role meant a lot to the 30-year-old Fishburne and his performance earned him two nominations for best supporting actor in the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards and the Awards Circuit Community Awards.

The awards for his performances kept coming when in 1992, he won a Tony Award for his performance in the stage play Two Trains Running by August Wilson.

Additionally, he won an Emmy Award for his performance in “The Box” opening episode.

1993 saw Fishburne receive his first Oscar nomination for his performance as Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It.

Turning Down Pulp Fiction and Do The Right Thing

Fishburne was originally offered the role of Jules in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic Pulp Fiction (1994).

In an interview in 2020 with The Ringer, Tarantino claimed that Laurence rejected the part due to it not being a lead role. Instead, Samuel L. Jackson was offered the role, and it turned into a career-pivoting time for him.

Conversely, Fishburne recounts it differently. He claims he turned the role down because it made light of heroin use. He said: “it made heroin use attractive.”

In a similar vein, Fishburne turned down Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing and the role of Radio Raheem. Again, Laurence didn’t agree with the overall messaging.

As we have seen the process of taking on a role means more to Fishburne than just a paycheck.

Pulp Fiction was a highly anticipated movie from an up and coming director in Quentin Tarantino and would have no doubt been beneficial to his career but Fishburne didn't want his previous work, like Boyz n the Hood, to be compromised.

An admirable outlook.

Morpheus

Towards the end of the 90s, Fishburne took on a role that would dominate his career thereafter, such was the popularity of the movie.

The Matrix was released in 1999 and starred Keanu Reeves as Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity and Laurence as Morpheus.

The science-fiction thriller has earned nearly $500million worldwide and is widely regarded as the best sci-fi movie ever to be made.

Like so many of his previous movies, Fishburne superbly takes on the role of a mentor who guides his young protege, Neo (played by Reeves), to go on and fulfil his potential.

Acting In To The New Millenium

Such was the huge success of The Matrix, Laurence reprised his role of Morpheus throughout the Matrix film sequels – The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

But despite his global film success, Fishburne didn’t shy away from performing on stage.

He worked alongside Angela Basset for four projects, and in 2006, they appeared together in Fences, a play by August Wilson.

In 2008, the 47-year-old took part in Thurgood, a Broadway production and new play by George Stevens, Jr. and directed by Leonard Foglia.

Fishburne won the Outstanding One-Person Show Drama Desk award for his performance.

The 2000s also saw Fishburne becoming a voice actor for the first time.

In 2007, he was the narrator for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and was also the voice of the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

His distinctive, deep voice worked so well for the Marvel movie character it makes you wonder why it took until the mid-2000s before the talented actor started doing voice overs.

Role In Crime Scene Investigation (CSI)

After William Petersen left the crime drama CSI, Laurence Fishburne joined the cast as Dr Raymond Langston between 2008 and 2011.

He joined with the role of an ex-pathologist turned college professor who begins consulting on a case and ends up joining the team.

Fishburne appeared regularly on CSI and, during the tenth season, was the third actor in the franchise to appear on all three CSI shows and only the second to play the same character in all three.

Recent Movies

The highly acclaimed actor has continued to appear in films and has had roles in Predators, Contagion, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Hannibal among others.

Fishburne also reprised his Morpheus role – this time for a series of commercials for the Kia K900.

In 2019 it was announced by Warner Bros that a 4th edition of The Matrix would be released, called Resurrections. Fishburne was not asked by director Lana Wachowski to reprise his role in one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of 2021, despite his former co-stars, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, being included in the latest edition.

When asked about his omission Fisburne said “I have not been asked to join them, which is fine, I am hopeful that it will be wonderful and it will satisfy audiences and that people will love it".

He has also appeared in two sitcoms: Black-ish and Grown-ish.

Currently, Fishburne is set to be the executive producer and co-creator of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, a Marvel Animation/Walt Disney Television Animation series.

Fishburne’s Achievements

Aside from the accolades and nominations mentioned above, Laurence was honoured for his prowess as an entertainer, actor and for his humanitarian pursuits with the Harvard Foundation’s Artist of the Year award.

Fishburne is also an ambassador for UNICEF.

Interestingly, Mayor Kenneth Reeves of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, awarded Fishburne the key to the city and has declared the 24th February “Laurence Fishburne Day” in the city.

Family Life and Personal Life

Laurence married Hajna O. Moss, an actress from the Bahamas, in 1985.

Spike Lee initially introduced the pair. Two years after marriage, the couple welcomed their first child, Langston.

In 1991, their second child, Montana, was born. Sadly, the couple divorced shortly after Montana’s birth.

Between 1992 and 1995, Fishburne dated Victoria Dillard, a TV and film actress.

In 2002, Fishburne married his fiancée Gina Torres, an American TV and film actress. The pair wed at The Cloisters Museum in New York City. In 2007, their daughter Delilah was born.

Ten years after the birth of their daughter, Laurence and Gina separated and divorced.

Fishburne currently resides in Hollywood but also has a residence in New York City. He plans to make a film based on Paulo Coelho’s novel The Alchemist.

Laurence’s son, Langston Fishburne, is the inspiration behind Laurence’s character name in CSI, Raymond Langston. Langston is also an actor and producer and is known for Ant-Man and the Wasp, Deadlock, and Discontinued.

Laurence Fishburne’s daughter Montana is a social media personality and model. She has posed in a variety of adult magazines, including Playboy.

She has also acted in adult films, which she says upset her father.

Laurence Fishburne Quotes

“I have a voice. It’s one of my gifts. I intend to use it on behalf of the children than UNICEF seeks to aid.”

“I think of myself as being a relatively intelligent man who is open to a lot of different things, and I think that questioning our purpose in life and the meaning of existence is something that we all go through at some point.”

“People think that I’m haughty and stuck up, but really I’m just very shy.”

“We know that passion, prejudice, party, and even goodwill, tempt many who preserve a fair character with the world to deviate from truth in the laxity of conversation.”

“I’ve played a lot of bad guys, ‘cause that was the only work I could get.”

“I wouldn’t say that going into a weekly television series is actually stepping away from anything. It’s another medium in which to work as an actor.”

“Special effects are characters. Special effects are essential elements. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”

Summary: Laurence Fishburne Net Worth 2021

• Laurence Fishburne Net Worth is $30 million.
• He is known for playing authoritative and forceful characters and characters who mentor a film’s protagonist.
• He was born in Augusta but moved to Brooklyn with his mother after his parents were divorced.
• Fishburne started acting at the age of 12.
• He has played roles on stage, on TV, and in films.
• Laurence Fishburne’s most famous role was Morpheus in the Matrix. However, he has also had a regular part in CSI, starring in all three CSI series as the same character – one of only two people ever to do so.
• Laurence has three children – two with his first wife, Hajna O. Moss, and one with his second wife, Gina Torres.
• He has many accolades and nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role (What’s Love Got to Do with It – 1993). In addition, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series in 2020 for his role as Lt. Steven Poincy.
• Fishburne lives in Hollywood but has other residences in New York.

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