From Military.com:
“Morgan Freeman Turned Down an
Acting Scholarship to Join the Air Force”
There are a couple of facts that
might surprise moviegoers about Morgan Freeman's acting career. The first is
that he hasn't been a big name for all that long. The second is that he almost
didn't become an actor at all -- he began his career in the U.S. Air Force. Freeman,
recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, didn't
get his first big break until age 49. This came in 1986, when he was cast in
the film "Street Smart." Since then, he's made more than 50 films. "It
didn't have to happen at all," he told AFI in 2011. "I'm very lucky
and very grateful that I had a career ... if it happens right away, it's gonna
stop right away and that's a foregone conclusion."
As a young man living with his
grandparents in Mississippi, Freeman was enthusiastic about drama and acting.
He performed in a number of school plays in his youth and, at age 14, won a
statewide drama competition. He was even offered a scholarship to Jackson State
University to study drama. He turned it down, however, because he had another
love: flying. Part of his interest in acting in those days came from
Hollywood's war movies, especially those about planes and fighter pilots. He
would spend his summers in Chicago with his parents, where he would scrounge
for change to go to the movies. Those movies kindled a desire to learn to fly,
so when he graduated from high school in 1955, he joined the Air Force instead.
In fact, three of his four brothers also joined the military.
Freeman became a radar repairman
in the Air Force while waiting for a chance to become a pilot. He worked on
tracking radar stations that would align radar antennae toward an incoming
target, such as a missile or aircraft. He spent more than a year sitting at a
desk before he got the chance to audition for a pilot's slot. When he finally
sat behind the stick of an Air Force fighter plane, a feeling of
disillusionment came over him. This dream wasn't going to be what he thought it
would. "When I was getting close to being accepted for pilot training, I
was allowed to get in a jet airplane," he told AARP Magazine. "I sat
there looking at all those switches and dials, and I got the distinct feeling
that I was sitting in the nose of a bomb. You are not in love with this; you
are in love with the idea of this." After nearly four years of service,
Freeman left the Air Force to pursue his other passion, the one we know him for
today: acting. It would be a long road, but one he would pursue with much more
zeal and patience.
His next stop was Los Angeles,
where he studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and learned to dance in San
Francisco. He worked as a relatively unknown actor on stage and television for
more than 20 years before landing his breakout role in the acclaimed
Christopher Reeve film, "Street Smart." From there, he was cast in a
string of critically acclaimed films that would lead him to prominence:
"Lean On Me," "Driving Miss Daisy" and the Civil War drama
"Glory."
It was a wise career move, not only
for the notoriety, fame and financial security of being a celebrated Hollywood
actor. His tracking radar repair skills would become obsolete by the 1990s with
the rise of GPS-guided munitions.
^ I didn’t know Morgan Freeman is
a Veteran. This was interesting to learn. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.