DO YOU KNOW: Today's Feature is DENZEL WASHINGTON

1. Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York, on December 28, 1954. He is the son of a Pentecostal minister and a beauty shop owner and has two siblings.

2. When he was 14, his parents' marriage broke down and he and his older sister were sent away to boarding school.

3. Denzel first studied journalism at Fordham University but then discovered an interest in acting. He made his feature film debut in the comedy A Carbon Copy (1981) and was cast on the hit TV medical drama St. Elsewhere (1982-8).

4. Denzel Washington married actress Pauletta Pearson in 1983; they have four children. Their oldest son, John David, was drafted in 2006 by the NFL's St. Louis Rams. He now plays for the Sacramento Mountain Lions in the United Football League. Their other children are daughter Katia and twins Olivia and Malcolm.

5. Washington grabbed his first of five Oscar nominations for Cry Freedom (1987) as real-life South African apartheid martyr Steve Biko. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Glory (1989).

6. In 1995 he was ranked as one of the top 100 Sexiest Stars according to editors at Empire magazine. The actor claimed to be very surprised to see his name on that list.

7. Washington and his wife renewed their vows in 1995, after 12 years of marriage, in a South African ceremony officiated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

8. In 2001, he received his second Oscar (this time in a leading role) for the cop thriller Training Day. The following year, he directed his first film, the drama Antwone Fisher, in which he also co-starred.

9. The actor has portrayed the character of Malcolm X twice. Once in Spike Lee’s film “Malcolm X” and then in the theatre production titled “When the Chickens Came Home to Roost.”

10. Washington wouldn't kiss Julia Roberts in "The Pelican Brief" (1993) because he didn't want to get his core audience of African-American women upset - which is what eventually happened when he gave in and kissed Caucasian Milla Jovovich in "He Got Game" (1998).