Laurence Fishburne

Born in Augusta, Ga., in 1962, Fishburne grew up in Brooklyn`s Park Slope section, the only child of divorced parents. ”I was an only child who had to make up stuff,” says Fishburne. ”I essentially had to play by myself.” By 10, he had an agent and his first role-playing a baseball-struck kid in Charles Fuller`s 1972 play ”In My Many Names and Days.”

That play led to a TV movie, which was spotted by soap opera doyenne Agnes Nixon who was so impressed by the young Fishburne`s abilities that she wrote a role for him on ”One Life to Live.”

”That was a lot of fun,” recalls the actor, who played the adopted son of Al Freeman Jr. for four years. ”I got to miss school for two days a week, go to the city, get my $15 for lunch, get my ham and cheese sandwiches, go behind the older actors and pick up their half-smoked cigarette butts.” – Chicago Tribune