On June 1st, 1937, Memphis, Tennessee, was the place of Morgan Freeman’s birth. He was born in 1912 to Mamie Edna (née Revere), a teacher, and the late Morgan Porterfield Freeman, a barber who passed away from cirrhosis on April 27, 1961. Freeman began starring in the PBS children’s television show The Electric Company in 1971, which provided him with financial stability and recognition among American audiences. He left the show in 1975 because the work was too much for him. According to television producer Joan Ganz Cooney, Freeman despised his role in The Electric Company because “it was a very unhappy period in his life.” Later, Freeman admitted that he does not remember the show, but he was grateful to have been a part of it.

His first credited appearance in a feature film was in the 1971 family drama Who Says I Can’t Ride a Rainbow!, starring Jack Klugman. That same year, Freeman appeared in a Purlie stage production. He returned to work in 1978 after a brief hiatus, appearing in two stage productions: 1978’s The Mighty Gents, for which he won a Drama Desk Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for his role as a wino, and White Pelicans. Freeman continued to work in theatre and, a year later, appeared in the Shakespearean tragedies Coriolanus (for which he received an Obie Award in 1980) and Julius Caesar.

Myrna Colley-Lee: Where is Morgan Freeman’s second wife now?

Morgan Freeman was married for 26 years to Myrna Colley-Lee, but the marriage ended in acrimony.