In 1987, he starred as anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom alongside Kevin Kline, and though the film itself alienated some critics (Pauline Kael called it «dumbfounding»), Washington's powerful performance earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.Two years later, Washington netted another Best Supporting Actor nod — and won the award — for his turn as an embittered yet
courageous runaway slave in the Civil War drama Glory.
In a wordless, yet eloquent, picture book, a
courageous farmgirl secretly provides food to a
runaway slave.