Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, producer filmmaker, and activist. His accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and the Honorary Palme d’Or.
He made his film debut in Nick Castle’s Tag: The Assassination Game (1982), with Robert Carradine, Linda Hamilton, Kristine DeBell, Perry Lang, John Mengatti, Michael Winslow, Frazer Smith, Xander Berkeley, and Bruce Abbott. Other films in the 1980s include Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), with Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Brian Backer, Robert Romanus, and Ray Walston; Vision Quest (1985), with Matthew Modine, Michael Schoeffling, Ronny Cox, and Linda Fiorentino; Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986), with Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Helen Shaver, John Turturro, and Bill Cobbs; Oliver Stone‘s Platoon (1986), with Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Keith David, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, and Johnny Depp; John Badham’s Stakeout (1987), with Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, Madeleine Stowe and Aidan Quinn; Barry Levinson’s Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), with Robin Williams, Bruno Kirby, Robert Wuhl, J.T. Walsh, Noble Willingham, and Richard Edson; Bloodsport (1988), with Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton, and Bolo Yeung; Clint Eastwood‘s Bird (1988), with Diane Venira – which won him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama; and Walter Hill’s Johnny Handsome (1989), with Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth McGovern, Lance Henriksen and Morgan Freeman.
Films in the early 1990s include Richard Benjamin’s Downtown (1990), with Anthony Edwards, Penelope Ann Miller, and Joe Pantoliano; Diary of a Hitman (1991), with Sherilyn Fenn, James Belushi, Sharon Stone, and Lois Chiles; Bill Duke’s A Rage in Harlem (1991), with Gregory Hines, Badja Djola, Robin Givens, Zakes Mokae, and Danny Glover; Howard Deutch’s Article 99 (1992), with Ray Liotta, Kiefer Sutherland, Lea Thompson, John Mahoney, McGinley, Keith David, Kathy Baker, and Eli Wallach; Neil Jordan‘s The Crying Game (1992), with Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson; Alan J. Pakula’s Consenting Adults (1992), with Kevin Kline, Mastrantonio, Kevin Spacey, Rebecca Miller, and E.G. Marshall; Bank Robber (1993), with Patrick Dempsey, Lisa Bonet, Olivia d’Abo, Michael Jeter, and Reinhold; Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatcher’s (1993), with Gabrielle Anwar, Billy Wirth, Terry Kinney, Meg Tilly, Christine Elise, and R. Lee Ermey; Blown Away (1994), with Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Suzy Amis, and Lloyd Bridges; Robert Altman’s Ready to Wear (1994), with Anouk Aimée, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Kim Basinger, Rea, Lauren Bacall, Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Lili Taylor, Sally Kellerman, Tracey Ullman, Linda Hunt, Rupert Everett, Richard E. Grant, Danny Aiello, Teri Garr, Lyle Lovett, Jean Rochefort, Michel Blanc, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Ute Lemper, Anne Canovas, François Cluzet, and Tatjana Patitz; and Jason’s Lyric (1994), with Allen Payne, Jada Pinkett, Bokeem Woodbine, Treach, Eddie Griffin, Lahmard Tate, and Lisa Nicole Carson.
Films in the mid to late 1990s include Roger Donaldson’s Species (1995), with Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Marg Helgenberger, and Natasha Henstridge; Wayne Wang’s Smoke (1995), with Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Channing, Harold Perrineau Jr., Giancarlo Esposito, and Ashley Judd; an uncredited role in Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995), with Dreyfuss, Glenne Headly, Olympia Dukakis, William H. Macy, and Jay Thomas; Phenomenon (1996), with John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Robert Duvall, and Jeffrey DeMunn; Body Count (1998), with David Caruso, Fiorentino, John Leguizamo, Ving Rhames, and Donnie Wahlberg; Jim Jarmusch‘s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), with John Tormey, Cliff Gorman, Henry Silva, Isaach De Bankolé, Tricia Vessey, Victor Argo, Gene Ruffini, Richard Portnow, and Camille Winbush; and Light It Up (1999), with Usher Raymond, Rosario Dawson, Judd Nelson, Sara Gilbert, and Vanessa L. Williams.
Films in the early 2000s include Battlefield Earth (2000), with Travolta, Barry Pepper, Kim Coates, Richard Tyson, and Sabine Karsenti; Four Dogs Playing Poker (2000), with Stacy Edwards, Balthazar Getty, Olivia Williams, Daniel London, and Tim Curry; John Irvin’s The Fourth Angel (2001), with Jeremy Irons, Jason Priestley, Charlotte Rampling, and Lois Maxwell; Green Dragon (2001), with Patrick Swayze, Don Duong, Hiep Thi Le, Billinjer C. Tran, Trung Nguyen, and Kieu Chinh; David Fincher‘s Panic Room (2002), with Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam; Joel Schumacher’s Phone Booth (2002), with Colin Farrell, Katie Holmes, Radha Mitchell, and Sutherland; Baltasar Kormákur’s A Trip to Heaven (2005), with Julia Stiles, Jeremy Renner, and Peter Coyote; American Gun (2005), with Linda Cardellini, Tony Goldwyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Donald Sutherland, Amanda Seyfried, Nikki Reed, Michael Shannon, and Melissa Leo; and Mary (2005), with Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Modine, and Heather Graham.
He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in Kevin McDonald’s The Last King of Scotland (2006), with James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Simon McBurney, and Gillian Anderson. Other films in the mid to late 2000s include Mark Rydell’s Even Money (2006), with Nick Cannon, Basinger, Danny DeVito, Kelsey Grammer, Tim Roth, Carla Gugino, Jay Mohr, and Liotta; The Marsh (2006), with Anwar and Justin Louis; a voice role in Everyone’s Hero (2006), with Jake T. Austin, Rob Reiner, Macy, Brian Dennehy, Raven-Symoné, Robert Wagner, Richard Kind, Dana Reeve, Joe Torre, Mandy Patinkin, and Whoopi Goldberg; The Air I Breathe (2007), Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Emile Hirsch; Ripple Effect (2007), with Virginia Madsen, Minnie Driver, and Philippe Caland (who also directed); and The Great Debaters (2007), with Denzel Washington (who also directed), Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker, John Heard, and Kimberly Elise.
More films in the late 2000s include Vantage Point (2008), with Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Édgar Ramírez, and Ayelet Zurer; Street Kings (2008), with Keanu Reeves, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Common and The Game; Winged Creatures (2008), with Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Josh Hutcherson, Guy Pearce, Jennifer Hudson, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Embeth Davidtz; Powder Blue (2009), with Jessica Biel, Swayze, Liotta, Eddie Redmayne, Kris Kristofferson, and Lisa Kudrow; a voice role in Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are (2009), with Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, and the voices of Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Dano, and Michael Berry Jr.; and Hurricane Season (2009), with Taraji P. Henson, Isaiah Washington, Bonnie Hunt, Lil Wayne, Bow Wow, and Courtney B. Vance.
Films in the early 2010s include Repo Men (2010), with Jude Law, Liev Schreiber, Alice Braga, and Carice van Houten; Lullaby for Pi (2010), with Rupert Friend and Clémence Poésy; My Own Love Song (2010), with Renée Zellweger, Madeline Zima, Nick Nolte, and Elias Koteas; The Experiment (2010), with Adrien Brody, Cam Gigandet, Clifton Collins Jr., and Maggie Grace; Rick Famuyiwa’s Our Family Wedding (2010), with America Ferrera, Carlos Mencia, Diana-Maria Riva, Lance Gross, Charlie Murphy and Regina King; Catch .44 (2011), with Bruce Willis, Malin Åkerman, Reed, Deborah Ann Woll, and Brad Dourif; Freelancers (2012), with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Robert De Niro; A Dark Truth (2012), with García, Coates, Deborah Kara Unger, and Eva Longoria; and a voice role in the English dub of Ernest & Celine (2012), with Mackenzie Foy, Bacall, Paul Giamatti, Macy, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Jeffrey Wright, and David Boat.
More films in the 2010s include Kim Jee-woon’s The Last Stand (2013), with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzmán, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford, and Genesis Rodriguez; Repentance (2013), with Anthony Mackie, Mike Epps, Nicole Ari Parker, and Sanaa Lathan; Zulu (2013), with Orlando Bloom; Lee Daniel’s The Butler (2013), with Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, James Marsden, Alan Rickman, and Williams; Kassi Lemmons’s Black Nativity (2013), with Angela Bassett, Tyrese Gibson, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Jacob Latimore, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Nas; Scott Cooper’s Out of the Furnace (2013), with Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Dafoe, Zoë Saldana, and Sam Shepard; Rachid Bouchareb’s Two Men in Town (2014), with Keitel, Ellen Burstyn, Guzmán and Brenda Blethyn; and Taken 3 (2014), with Liam Neeson, Grace, Famke Janssen, and Dougray Scott.
Films in the mid to late 2010s include Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw (2015), with Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomie Harris, Jackson, Oona Laurence, and Rachel McAdams; Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016), with Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Tzi Ma; Gareth Edwards’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), with Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, and Jiang Wen; Roland Joffé’s The Forgiven (2017), with Eric Bana and Jeff Gum; Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018), with LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer; Burden (2018), with Garrett Hedlund, Andrea Riseborough, Tom Wilkinson, Tess Harper, and Usher; Ryan Coogler‘s Marvel installment Black Panther (2018), with Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Bassett, and Andy Serkis; How It Ends (2018), with Theo James, Grace Dove, Nicole Ari Parker, Kat Graham, and Mark O’Brien; City of Lies (2018), with Depp; and Finding Steve McQueen (2019), with Travis Fimmel, Rachael Taylor, William Fichtner, Lily Rabe, and Rhys Coiro.
Films in the 2020s include Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020), with Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, Lisa Davina Phillip, Ricky Martin, and Madalen Mills; Respect (2021), with Hudson, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, and Mary J. Blige; Big George Foreman (2023), with Khris Davis, Jasmine Mathews, John Magaro, Sullivan Jones, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., and Sonja Sohn; a voice role in The King of Kings (2025), with Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Pierce Brosnan, Roman Griffin Davis, Kingsley, and Oscar Isaac; and Havoc (2025), with Tom Hardy, Jessie Mei Li, Justin Cornwell, Quelin Sepulveda, Guzmán, Yeo Yann Yann, and Timothy Olyphant.
Whitaker has also directed the films Waiting to Exhale (1995), with Whitney Houston, Bassett, Lela Rochon, Loretta Devine, Dennis Haysbert, Michael Beach, Gregory Hines, Donald Faison, and Mykelti Williamson; Hope Floats (1998), with Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick Jr., Gena Rowlands, and Mae Whitman; and First Daughter (2004), with Holmes and Michael Keaton.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Tag: The Assassination Game (1982) – directed by Nick Castle
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) – directed by Amy Heckerling
- Vision Quest (1985) – directed by Harold Becker
- The Color of Money (1986) – directed by Martin Scorsese
- Platoon (1986) – directed by Oliver Stone
- Stakeout (1987) – directed by John Badham
- Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) – directed by Barry Levinson
- Bloodsport (1988) – directed by Newt Arnold
- Bird (1988) – directed by Clint Eastwood
- Johnny Handsome (1989) – directed by Walter Hill
- Downtown (1990) – directed by Richard Benjamin
- Diary of a Hitman (1991) – directed by Roy London
- A Rage in Harlem (1991) – directed by Bill Duke
- Article 99 (1992) – directed by Howard Deutch
- The Crying Game (1992) – directed by Neil Jordan
- Consenting Adults (1992) – directed by Alan J. Pakula
- Strapped (1993) – director only
- Bank Robber (1993) – directed by Nick Mead
- Body Snatchers (1993) – directed by Abel Ferrara
- Blown Away (1994) – directed by Stephen Hopkins
- Prêt-à-Porter (1994) – directed by Robert Altman – aka Ready to Wear
- Jason’s Lyric (1994) – directed by Doug McHenry
- Species (1995) – directed by Roger Donaldson
- Smoke (1995) – directed by Wayne Wang
- Waiting to Exhale (1995) – director only
- Phenomenon (1996)* – directed by Jon Turteltaub
- Body Count (1998) – directed by Robert Patton-Spruill
- Hope Floats (1998) – director only
- Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) – directed by Jim Jarmusch
- Light It Up (1999) – directed by Craig Bolotin
- Witness Protection (1999) – directed by Richard Pearce – TV movie
- Battlefield Earth (2000) – directed by Roger Christian
- Four Dogs Playing Poker (2000) – directed by directed by Paul Rachman
- The Fourth Angel (2001) – directed by John Irvin
- Jew Balloons (2001) – short
- The Hire: The Follow (2001) – directed by Wong Kar-wai – uncredited – short
- Green Dragon (2001) – directed by Timothy Linh Bui
- Panic Room (2002) – directed by David Fincher
- Phone Booth (2002)* – directed by Joel Schumacher
- Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004) – directed by Vadim Jean
- First Daughter (2004) – also director
- A Little Trip to Heaven (2005) – directed by Baltasar Kormákur
- American Gun (2005) – directed by Aric Avelino
- Mary (2005) – directed by Abel Ferrara
- Even Money (2006) – directed by Mark Rydell
- The Marsh (2006) – directed by Jordan Barker
- Everyone’s Hero (2006) – directed by Colin Brady, Christopher Reeve & Daniel St. Pierre
- The Last King of Scotland (2006) – directed by Kevin Macdonald
- The Air I Breathe (2007) – directed by Jieho Lee
- Ripple Effect (2007) – directed by Philippe Caland
- The Great Debaters (2007) – directed by Denzel Washington
- Vantage Point (2008) – directed by Pete Travis
- Street Kings (2008) – directed by David Ayer
- Dragon Hunters (2008) – directed by Arthur Qwak & Guillaume Ivernel – English dub
- Winged Creatures (2008) – directed by Rowan Woods
- Powder Blue (2009) – directed by Timothy Linh Bui
- Where the Wild Things Are (2009) – directed by Spike Jonze
- Hurricane Season (2009) – directed by Tim Story
- Repo Men (2010)* – directed by Miguel Sapochnik
- Lullaby for Pi (2010) – directed by Benoit Philippon
- My Own Love Song (2010) – directed by Olivier Dahan
- The Experiment (2010) – directed by Paul T. Scheuring
- Our Family Wedding (2010) – directed by Rick Famuyiwa
- Catch .44 (2011) – directed by Aaron Harvey
- Freelancers (2012) – directed by Jessy Terrero
- A Dark Truth (2012) – directed and written by Damian Lee
- Ernest & Celestine (2012) – directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar & Benjamin Renner – English dub
- The Last Stand (2013)* – directed by Kim Jee-woon
- Zulu (2013) – directed by Jérôme Salle
- Pawn (2013) – directed by David A. Armstrong
- The Butler (2013)* – directed by Lee Daniels
- Black Nativity (2013) – directed by Kasi Lemmons
- Out of the Furnace (2013) – directed by Scott Cooper
- Repentance (2014) – directed by Philippe Caland,
- Two Men in Town (2014) – directed by Rachid Bouchareb
- Taken 3 (2014) – directed by Olivier Megaton
- Dope (2015) – directed by Rick Famuyiwa – also producer
- Southpaw (2015) – directed by Antoine Fuqua
- Arrival (2016) – directed by Denis Villeneuve
- Rogue One (2016)* – directed by Gareth Edwards
- Sorry to Bother You (2018) – directed by Boots Riley – also producer
- Burden (2018) – directed by Andrew Heckler
- Black Panther (2018) – directed by Ryan Coogler
- The Forgiven (2018) – directed by Roland Joffé
- How It Ends (2018) – directed by David M. Rosenthal
- City of Lies (2018) – directed by Brad Furman
- Finding Steve McQueen (2019) – directed by Mark Steven Johnson
- Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020) – directed by David E. Talbert
- Respect (2021) – directed by Liesl Tommy
- Big George Foreman (2023) – directed by George Tillman Jr.
- The King of Kings (2025) – directed by Seong-ho Jang
- Havoc (2025) – directed by Gareth Evans
- Rose’s Baby (202-) – directed by Trudie Styler
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