22 Best Laurence Fishburne Film and Television Performances

Laurence Fishburne

Call him Larry Fishburne, call him Laurence Fishburne III. By any name, Laurence Fishburne remains one of the most exciting and powerful screen presences of his generation. Whether on the big screen or the small screen, Fishburne has displayed a tremendous range, playing sci-fi shamans, terrifying musicians, goofy grandpas, and so much more.

In every role, Fishburne brings the same level of depth and complexity, an impressive feat, given the range of parts in his filmography. The best of his works show off the depth of emotion and range of feeling that Fishburne can bring to even the most outrageous part.

For proof, look to these Laurence Fishburne film and TV performances.

1. What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993)

Laurence Fishburne in What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993)
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

It’s easy to dismiss music biopics as trite Oscar bait, films that rely on the audience’s familiarity with pop songs and force their actors to do little more than Saturday Night Live impressions. The Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It, written by Kate Lanier and directed by Brian Gibson, does have some standard biopic elements, including pop songs and a trite plot.

But at the center of the film are real and raw performances by Angela Bassett as Turner and Fishburne as her husband, musical partner, and abuser Ike Turner. Bassett was nominated for an Oscar for her take, as was Laurence, who played both the allure and the menace of the real man.

2. The Matrix (1999)

Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix (1999)
Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Perhaps the defining Laurence Fishburne film role, Morpheus, the enigmatic leader of rebels fighting machines in Lana and Lily Wachowski’s The Matrix, has become a cultural icon.

In lesser hands, Morpheus could veer to a standard wise old man figure, or worse, invoke racist tropes. But Laurence fleshes out Morpheus into a fully realized person, a man who fights to inspire Neo (Keanu Reeves) while struggling with his own loss of faith.

3. Hannibal (2013 – 2015)

Laurence Fishburne in Hannibal (2013 - 2015)
Image Credit: NBC.

Several other actors played FBI director Jack Crawford on the screen, including Dennis Farina in Manhunter and Scott Glenn in The Silence of the Lambs. But thanks to his recurring role as Crawford on Hannibal, the Brian Fuller adaptation of Thomas Harris’s novels, Fishburne’s is the definitive take.

Fishburne plays Crawford as a man who will do anything in pursuit of his idea of the good, including hiring and befriending respected psychologist Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) to work with his star profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy). And when Hannibal reveals his true nature, Crawford pays the price, which makes him determined to capture his one-time friend.

4. Hoodlum (1997)

Laurence Fishburne in Hoodlum (1997
Image Credit: MGM Distribution Co.

Midway through Hoodlum, a Laurence Fishburne film written by Chris Brancato and directed by Bill Duke, gangster Bumpy Johnson (Fishburne) suspects that the soda jerk poisoned his ice cream. He interrogates his suspected assassin by making a show of preparing a sundae, all while the boy blubbers and the Elmer Bernstein score blairs.

The scene, like every other part of Hoodlum, has no interest in subtly. But even as he and his co-stars, including Tim Roth as Dutch Schultz and Andy Garcia as Lucky Luciano, sound more like 1940s noir characters than they do the real people they represent, Laurence retains a serious edge, making him all the more frightening.

5. Boyz n the Hood (1991)

Laurence Fishburne in Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures.

Most of John Singleton’s Best Picture nominated debut Boyz n the Hood focuses on the titular young men, including Ice Cube as Doughboy and Cuba Gooding Jr. as Tre Styles. As the boys try to make a life for themselves in South Central Los Angeles, they have just one major positive influence — Tre’s father Furious Styles, played Fishburne.

Singleton gives Fishburne the hardest assignment in the film, when the otherwise realistic look at LA street culture turns didactic, if not preachy. But Fishburne captures the anger hinted at by the name Furious Styles, turning into a righteous rage that still feels powerful today.

6. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

Laurence Fishburne in John Wick Chapter 2 (2017)
Image Credit: Lionsgate.

On the one hand, Fishburne joins the cast of John Wick: Chapter 2 as an homage to The Matrix, the last time he teamed with star Keanu Reeves, who plays the titular killer. On the other hand, Fishburne brings some much-needed humor and bombast to the slick action thriller, unlocking the comedic potential that makes the franchise great.

As the grandiloquent Bowery King, Fishburne gets to bellow and preach, which fits the movie’s heightened stakes. But he does it with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, reminding the viewers that, despite all the carnage on the screen, it’s all in good fun.

7. Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

Laurence Fishburne in Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
Image Credit: Lionsgate.

For Akeelah and the Bee, writer and director Doug Atchison reunites Fishburne with his What’s Love Got To Do With It co-star Angela Bassett, this time for a much more upbeat film.

Bassett plays Tanya Anderson, the mother of brilliant young Akeelah (Keke Palmer). Limited resources threaten to keep Akeelah from utilizing her intelligence until Professor Joshua Larabee (Fishburne) takes notice and prepares her to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Atchison hits every possible inspirational movie trope he can find, and leans into them with all the soaring strings and gauzy photography at his disposal. And yet, Fishburne, like Bassett, doesn’t give in to the easy emotion, bringing depth to their characters with well-chosen pauses and playful body language.

8. Black-ish (2014 – 2022)

Laurence Fishburne and Alfre Woodard in Blackish
Image Credit: Freeform.

Created by Kenya Barris, the hit sitcom Black-ish looked at the lives of an African-American family, headed by Dre and Rainbow Johnson (Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross). As Dre’s father Pops, who lives with the Johnsons, Fishburne gets to play a traditional sitcom role, that of the free-spirited and meddling grandfather.

Instead of just phoning in the part, Fishburne embraces it, having a blast with the over-the-top character and getting to do comedy scenes with the young actors who play the Johnson kids. Instead of diminishing a performer of Fishburne’s stature by consigning him to sitcom work, Black-ish provides yet another platform for the actor to show off his range.

9. Predators (2010)

Laurence Fishburne in Predators (2010)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Speaking of over-the-top performances, Fishburne plays the craziest character in 2010’s Predators. That’s saying something, given the outlandish figures gathered for the film, directed by Nimród Antal and written by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch.

The third film in the franchise that started with 1987’s Predator, Predators follows a group of human tough guys brought to an alien planet where they are hunted by the titular beasts. Fishburne shows up late in the film as Noland, an American soldier who has survived on the planet for years, at the cost of his sanity. He embraces the goofiness of the role, playing against his grim-faced co-stars and giving Predators a much-needed injection of humor.

10. Othello (1995)

Laurence Fishburne in Othello (1995)
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing.

Othello director Oliver Parker got his start on Clive Barker films such as Hellraiser and Nightbreed, which makes Shakespeare’s tragedy an odd choice for his debut film. However, working with Barker proved the right training for his romantic and dangerous take on the play, aided by cinema’s most famous Shakespearean, Kenneth Branagh, as the malicious Iago.

As the doomed title character, Fishburne brings a sense of anger to Othello missing from many versions. Together, Parker and Fishburne prevent Othello from becoming a mere cog in Iago’s plans, giving him the agency he deserves.

11. Miss Evers’ Boys (1997)

Laurence Fishburne in Miss Evers Boys (1997)
Image Credit: HBO.

Based on the play by David Feldshuh, the television movie Miss Evers’ Boys, written by Walter Bernstein and directed by Joseph Sargent, recreates one of the most horrific projects perpetrated by the American military.

For more than four decades, the Department of Health and Human Services infected Black military men with syphilis to study the effects of the disease. As Caleb Humphries, Fishburne plays one of the infected soldiers, who forms a bond with Nurse Eunice Evers, played by Alfrie Woodard. Rather than let Humphries stay a tragic figure, Fishburne insists on emphasizing his character’s dignity, something denied him by the real U.S. government.

12. School Daze (1988)

Laurence Fishburne and Giancarlo Esposito in School Daze (1988)
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures.

In School Daze, Fishburne provides one of the most memorable moments in director Spike Lee’s impressive oeuvre.

Starting with a wide shot of the historically black school Mission College, the camera holds as Fishburne’s Dap Dunlap dashes across the quad until his face fills the screen. “Wake up!” he shouts, a command he repeats over the movie’s closing moments as all the characters gather to listen.

The closing scene represents just one of Dap’s calls to action throughout the movie, as his militant college senior demands that his fellow students do more than just learn but instead take action to improve their world.

13. Last Flag Flying (2017)

Laurence Fishburne in Last Flag Flying (2017)
Image Credit: Amazon Studios.

Everything about Last Flag Flying sounds ill-advised, from director Richard Linklater’s decision to make a sequel to the 1973 Jack Nicholson classic The Last Detail (despite co-writing a script with Darryl Ponicsan, author of the original novel) to casting new actors in the roles made famous by Nicholson, Otis Young, and Randy Quaid.

Fishburne steps in for Young as Richard Mueller, as Mule is now called, who has become a Reverend. He joins Sal Newton (Bryan Cranston as Nicholson’s character Buddusky) to accompany Larry (Steve Carrell instead of Quaid) to his son’s funeral. Whatever misgivings one might have about the project, Last Flag Flying achieves a level of soulful sadness, in part thanks to Fishburne’s steadfast and generous performance.

14. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Laurence Fishburne in Apocalypse Now (1979)
Image Credit: United Artists.

Viewers deserve forgiveness if they don’t recognize Fishburne among the chaos of Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam epic Apocolypse Now. The movie gave the teenage actor one of his first roles, and it’s hard to recognize the lanky Tyrone “Mr. Clean” Miller as the future cinema legend.

However, Fishburne gets one of the most powerful scenes in the film, as Miller and his fellows on the boat, including Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), get ambushed during a mail call. As Miller’s mother describes life at home on a tape to her son, the camera pans over his dead body.

15. Just Cause (1995)

Laurence Fishburne in Just Cause (1995)
Image Credit: Warner Bros.

The slick 90s thriller Just Cause comes from director Arne Glimcher and writers Jeb Stuart and Peter Stone, who adapt the novel by John Katzenbach.

The potboiler stars Sean Connery as lawyer and anti-capital punishment crusader Paul Armstrong, who agrees to defend accused murderer Bobby Earl Ferguson (Blair Underwood). As Armstrong uncovers the corruption that put the innocent Furguson on trial, he butts heads with Detective Tanny Brown, played as a power-tripping authority figure by Fishburne.

While that clash promises a hard look at the American criminal justice system, Glimcher and his collaborators have more interest in the thriller aspects of the story, forcing Armstrong and Brown to hunt the serial killer who did the actual murders.

16. Event Horizon (1997)

Laurence Fishburne in Event Horizon (2017)
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures.

Horror movie detractors often claim that spooky films rely on unrealistic and bad choices instead of doing what most would do when faced with the supernatural. That charge cannot be made against Captain S. J. Miller (Fishburne) of Event Horizon, written by Philip Eisner and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.

As soon as things get weird, Miller plans to fly his ship away from what appears like a haunted spacecraft. Sadly, the maniacal Dr. Weir (Sam Neill) has the upper hand, leading to the deep space nightmare that Miller and other members of the crew experience.

17. King of New York (1990)

Laurence Fishburne in King of New York (1990)
Image Credit: Carolco Pictures.

In King of New York, Fishburne gives his character, Jimmy Jump, one of the most outrageous death scenes in cinema history. Laying on the ground after getting shot by a vengeful cop, the criminal Jimmy Jump flails his arms and screams and pleads, continuing the act for several minutes.

Fishburne’s decisions might strike some as bad acting, but they fit both the character and the tone of King of New York, written by frequent collaborators writer Nicholas St. John and director Abel Ferrera. The duo go big with everything in King of New York, a stylish and overheated crime film starring Christopher Walken as power-hungry crime lord Frank White.

18. Mystic River (2003)

Laurence Fishburne in Mystic River (2003)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

The exact opposite of King of New York, the Clint Eastwood-directed mystery Mystic River demands tamped-down and almost dour performances from the entire cast, even when the script, written by Brian Helgeland from a novel by Dennis Lehane, embraces genre tropes.

Fishburne gets a small supporting role as Detective Sgt. Whitey Powers. Powers helps his partner, Detective Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon), investigate the murder of the daughter of Sean’s childhood pal and ex-con Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn). Mystic River doesn’t ask much of Fishburne, but he matches the film’s somber worldview, helping his co-stars shine.

19. Contagion (2011)

Laurence Fishburne in Contagion (2011)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Written by Scott Z. Burns and directed by Steven Soderbergh, Contagion recalls disaster movies of the 1970s, with its star-studded cast playing characters who die in shocking ways. As Dr. Ellis Cheever, Fishburne gets one of the more prominent parts on that cast, playing a smart and capable physician who doesn’t let his empathy wither in the face of a shocking pandemic.

Along with co-stars Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and others, Fishburne elevates Contagion beyond the pulpy thrillers of the past into something humane and moving but no less thrilling.

20. Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (1986 – 1990)

Laurence Fishburne in Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (1986 - 1990)
Image Credit: CBS.

Perhaps the most shocking inclusion on this list, Fishburne portrayed Cowboy Curtis for years on the kid’s TV show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. One of the many odd figures who dropped by the titular playhouse, Cowboy Curtis had the kitschy look and aw-shucks demeanor of a 1950s movie cowboy, a guy who always arrived with a smile and a tall tale for Pee-Wee (Paul Rubens) and the kids.

Lest anyone dismiss Cowboy Curtis as a low point for Fishburne, he shared the stage with Phil Hartman, Lynne Marie Stewart, and other members of the legendary sketch group The Groundlings, proving that he could hold his own among well-trained comedy masters.

21. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008 – 2011)

Laurence Fishburne in CSI Crime Scene Investigation (2008 - 2011)
Image Credit: CBS.

Fishburne joined the cast of the long-running police procedural CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in its ninth season, well after the show’s heyday. His character, Dr. Ray Langston, replaces outgoing star William Petersen, whose Gil Grissom served as lead investigator.

In a story that recalls Petersen’s Will Graham from the movie Manhunter, Langston believes that he has a predilection for murder, which will be ignited by the crimes he investigates. Fishburne only sticks around for a few seasons to explore that aspect of Langston’s character but he leaves an indelible mark on a TV institution.

22. Rumble Fish (1983)

Laurence Fishburne in Rumble Fish (1983)
Image Credit: Universal Pictures.

Fishburne has just a small part in Rumble Fish, Francis Ford Coppola’s second adaptation of an S.E. Hinton novel, along with The Outsiders. As the street tough Midget, he appears at the start of the film with a bad omen protagonist Rusty James (Matt Dillon), preparing him for a fight with a rival gang leader, much to the chagrin of his bad news brother the Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke).

Far more surreal than The Outsiders, Rumble Fish takes a self-aware approach to Hinton’s tropes. Fishburne fits right into the cast, going big with his portrayal in a way that fits the tone of the film.

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