Personal Life and Family
Davis is married to actor Julius Tennon. The couple adopted a daughter, Genesis, in 2011.
QUICK FACTS
- Birth Year: 1965
- Birth date: August 11, 1965
- Birth State: South Carolina
- Birth City: Saint Matthews
- Birth Country: United States
- Gender: Female
- Best Known For: Viola Davis is an actress known for her award-winning performances in the TV series ‘How to Get Away With Murder,’ the Broadway productions of ‘King Hedley II’ and ‘Fences’ and its film adaptation.
- Industries
- Theater and Dance
- Drama
- Astrological Sign: Leo
- Schools
- Rhode Island College
- The Juilliard School
CITATION INFORMATION
- Article Title: Viola Davis Biography
- Author: Biography.com Editors
- Website Name: The Biography.com website
- Url: https://www.biography.com/actors/viola-davis
- Access Date:
- Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
- Last Updated: May 14, 2021
- Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
Who Is Viola Davis?
Viola Davis grew up in Rhode Island, where she began acting — first in high school, and then at Rhode Island College. After attending the Juilliard School of Performing Arts, Davis made her Broadway debut in 1996 in Seven Guitars. She has won Tony Awards for her performances in King Hedley II (2001) and a revival of August Wilson’s Fences (2010), which co-starred Denzel Washington. Her film work includes Doubt (2008), for which she received an Oscar nomination, The Help (2011), Ender’s Game (2013) and Get on Up (2014). In 2015 she became the first African American woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her work on the television series How to Get Away with Murder. She reprised her role playing Rose Maxson in the 2016 film adaptation of Fences, directed by and co-starring Washington, for which she received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2017.
Форсаж 10 (2023) (Fast X)
Боевик, Зарубежный фильм, Криминал, Триллер
tagHD 2160р, tagHD 1080, tagHD 720, tagПро гонки
Режиссеры: Луи Летерье, Роб Коэн
В ролях: Вин Дизель, Джордана Брюстер, Тайриз Гибсон
Легендарный гонщик и вор Доминик Торрето возвращается вместе со своей командой. В недалёком прошлом он был профессиональным угонщиком машин, но в его жизни произошли кардинальные изменения. Он грабил бензовозы, банки, полицейские участки. Но всё это в далёком прошлом, ведь теперь Доминику придётся работать на правительство. Появился более серьёзные и грозный противник, преступления которого куда страшнее, чем мелкие преступления Торрето. Вместе со своей командой ему снова придётся погрузиться в мир безумных перестрелок, головокружительных погонь, гонок, красивых тачек и сексуальных женщин.
Машина Времени (1960) (The Time Machine)
Зарубежный фильм, Мелодрама, Приключения, Триллер, Фантастика
tagHD 1080, tagHD 720, tagПро путешествия во времени, tagСтимпанк, tagЭкранизация
Экранизация по произведению: Герберт Джордж Уэллс
Режиссер: Джордж Пэл
В ролях: Род Тейлор, Алан Янг, Ивет Мимо
1899 год. Джордж накануне нового тысячелетия демонстрирует друзьям свое изобретение — машину времени. Его рассказ о прошлом и будущем коллеги встречают скептически. Они не верят в путешествие во времени. Когда друзья расходятся по домам отмечать новый год, Джордж садится за рычаги своего изобретения, чтобы подтвердить свою теорию. Так начинается его путешествие, которое окажется приключением целой жизни….
‘Fences’
In 2016 Davis won a Golden Globe award for reprising her role as Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of Fences, co-starring Washington. After receiving the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Davis dedicated the honor to her father, who she said was “born in 1936, groomed horses, had a fifth-grade education, didn’t know how to read until he was 15 . . . he had a story and it deserved to be told, and August Wilson told it.”
In 2017 Davis received her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Fences. In her powerful acceptance speech, Davis spoke about portraying «ordinary people» and their human experience. “You know, there is one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered and that’s the graveyard,” she said. “People ask me all the time — what kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola? And I say exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories — the stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost.”
“I became an artist and thank God I did,” she continued “because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.”
‘The Help’
In 2011, Davis co-starred with Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain in the film adaptation of the best-selling book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This 1960s drama shows the racial divide between white housewives and their African American servants in a Southern town.
In the film, Davis plays Aibileen, a maid who is interviewed by a young white writer named Skeeter for a book about the lives of «the help.» The experiences of her character are familiar to Davis. «The women in this story were like my mother, my grandmother,» she explained to Variety. «Women born and raised in the Deep South, working in tobacco and cotton fields, taking care of their kids and other people’s kids, cleaning homes.»
Davis worked with the director and screenwriter Tate Taylor to refine her character, making sure that her responses and actions were believable. Because racial tensions were so high during the time that the film is set in, she believed her character would have been afraid of saying too much to anyone. Davis played Aibileen with great restraint and won extensive praise for her work on the film.
However, during an interview with the New York Times in September 2018, Davis expressed regret for having participated in the film.
“But not in terms of the experience and the people involved because they were all great, Davis explained. «The friendships that I formed are ones that I’m going to have for the rest of my life. I had a great experience with these other actresses, who are extraordinary human beings.»
She continued: “I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard. I know Aibileen. I know Minny . They’re my grandma. They’re my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie.”
Early Career
Growing up poor in Rhode Island, Davis found an oasis from her family’s financial woes in watching movies. Her father worked at racetracks, often as a horse groomer. She discovered a love of acting early in high school. At Rhode Island College, Davis earned her degree in theater in 1988. From there, she soon continued her studies at the famed Juilliard School of Performing Arts in New York City.
Before long, Davis began to establish a name for herself in the New York theater world. She made her Broadway debut in August Wilson’s tragic comedy Seven Guitars in 1996. In the play, Davis starred as Vera, a woman who takes back the boyfriend who wronged her. She again worked with Wilson on his 2001 drama King Hedley II, for which she won her first Tony Award.
‘Doubt’
In 2008 Davis’ career reached new heights with her nuanced performance in Doubt. She, once again, made a tremendous impression with a small supporting role, and showed she could hold her own against some of Hollywood’s greatest talents. In the film, Davis played the mother of a boy who may have been sexually assaulted by a priest (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) at his Catholic school. She delivered an especially strong performance, as her character clashes with the school’s principal (Meryl Streep) over her son and the alleged crime. For her work, Davis received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
‘How to Get Away with Murder’
In 2014, Davis began her six-season run as Professor Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder. The often edgy mystery drama series was the brainchild of Shonda Rhimes of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal fame. In 2015, Davis won an Emmy for her role and made history, becoming the first African American performer to win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. The emotional Davis cited the experiences of Harriet Tubman and honored the work done by others, including fellow Black actresses, to bring forth a more diverse creative industry.
«The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there. So here’s to all the writers, the awesome people that are Ben Sherwood, Paul Lee, Peter Nowalk, Shonda Rhimes, people who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading woman, to be Black,» she said in her speech. «And to the Taraji P. Hensons, the Kerry Washingtons, the Halle Berrys, the Nicole Beharies, the Meagan Goods, to Gabrielle Union: Thank you for taking us over that line. Thank you to the Television Academy.»
