AARP announced today that actor, producer and Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman will receive the 2016 Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Award. The Movies for Grownups multimedia franchise was established in 2002 to celebrate and encourage films with unique appeal to mature audiences and to recognize the inspiring artists 50-plus who make them.
Freeman will receive Movies for Grownups’ highest honor on Monday, February 6, 2017, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. AARP The Magazine will host the 16th annual Movies for Grownups Awards, where many other awards, including best actor, best actress and best director, will be presented. Event proceeds benefit AARP Foundation, which helps struggling people 50-plus in Los Angeles and around the country transform their lives through programs, services and vigorous legal advocacy.
“We are proud to announce that Morgan Freeman is our AARP Movies for Grownups Career Achievement winner,” said Bob Love, editor in chief of AARP The Magazine. “Morgan is a consummate artist and an actor whose unforgettable performances year after year disrupt the conventional wisdom about aging in Hollywood. We couldn’t be more pleased.”
“At a certain point in life, if you’ve had some success, awards start to fall from the sky. But this one really means something,” said Morgan Freeman to AARP The Magazine. “I started my movie career at 50 and some of the best years happened since then. I get a lot of pats on the back they’re all over the place but this one’s more than fun, it’s priceless.”
Born in June 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, Freeman had his first dramatic arts exposure on the stage, appearing in an off-Broadway production of “The Nigger Lovers” and also in an all-African American production of the exuberant musical “Hello, Dolly!” (1969). His breakout role in film was playing Fast Black in “Street Smart” (1987), a performance that landed him his first of five Academy Award nominations.
Today, Freeman’s career spans more than 50 years and includes roles in memorable films including “Glory,” “Unforgiven,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” and more. He received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2004 for his performance in “Million Dollar Baby.” Additionally, Freeman produced many films in conjunction with his company, Revelations Entertainment, including 2010’s “Invictus,” in which Freeman played Nelson Mandela; the film received Academy Award, Golden Globe and SAG nominations. In April 2017, he will co-star with Michael Caine and Alan Arkin in the comedy “Going in Style.”
Freeman joins a prestigious list of previous AARP Movies for Grownups Career Achievement honorees, including Michael Douglas, Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Sharon Stone, Robert Redford and Robert DeNiro.
For more information about AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards, go online to www.aarp.org/moviesforgrownups. The entire list of award winners will also be featured in the February/March Issue of AARP The Magazine, available in homes February 1st.