Driving Mr. Freeman Back On stage

Michael Falco for The New York Times

Returning to Broadway for the first time in 20 years, in “The Country Girl,” Morgan Freeman said: “Mostly I don’t want to do stage. It’s too much work.”

ONE night during the rehearsal period for a revival of “The Country Girl,” the Clifford Odets show-business drama that has lured him back to the stage, Morgan Freeman was in Sardi’s, the famous Broadway bistro, throwing a mock fit. It was just past 8, and the theatergoing dinner crowd had departed, leaving the restaurant empty. Mr. Freeman had been asked whether he’d like to sit for a caricature to adorn the restaurant wall and become one of the hundreds of luminaries from theater history to be so immortalized.

“What do you mean, do I want one?” he said, his voice, a familiar resonant growl with a hint of his Mississippi roots, rising in indignation. “I thought it was automatic. I worked at the St. James Theater right here on this block. I’ve been all over Broadway. If my picture’s not here already, I don’t want it here.”

His wink was roguish and his smile wicked. It was a piquant bit of self-skewering, a celebrity sending up a celebrity’s sense of entitlement. It’s hard to spend any time at all with Mr. Freeman without becoming aware of his self-awareness. An actor who came to opportunity late (he got his first significant stage role at 30) and stardom in middle age (he was 50 before he made it regularly to the movies), he is, at 70, a man who knows clearly who he is. Though to judge by the innumerable screen roles to which he has brought that same quality — a precise self-perception that is grand only in its modesty — he came by the knowledge naturally, or at least acquired it long ago.

“He’s very centered, and he always was,” said the playwright Alfred Uhry, who wrote “Driving Miss Daisy,” the Off Broadway play that would make Mr. Freeman’s fame when it was made into an Oscar-winning film... [article continues]

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Morgan Freeman in “The Country Girl,” is assisted by Joe Roland as Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher look on.

Morgan Freeman

Michael Falco for The New York Times

News about Morgan Freeman, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times. Above, Mr. Freeman in 2008.

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A list of resources from around the Web about Morgan Freeman as selected by researchers and editors of The New York Times.

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• African American Lives: Morgan Freeman
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  ARTICLES ABOUT MORGAN FREEMAN

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  Driving Mr. Freeman Back Onstage

  By BRUCE WEBER

  Morgan Freeman returns to the Broadway stage for the first time in 20 years in the revival of “The Country Girl.”

  April 20, 2008

  Faces From the Screen, Now Life Size

  By CARYN JAMES

  This season offers a wealth of stage appearances by actors who give us both artistry and the pleasures of star gazing.

  February 24, 2008

  Once Pure White, American Classics Cross a Color Line

  By ROBERT SIMONSON

  Three well-known American dramas have found their way to Broadway with mixed-race casts. What do the casting decisions mean, if anything?

  February 24, 2008

  Famous Black Lives Through DNA’s Prism

  By FELICIA R. LEE

  “African-American Lives 2,” a four-part series on PBS that begins on Wednesday night, belies its sleepy name with the poetry of history and the magic of science.

  February 5, 2008

  For Geezers Gone Wild, Too Little, Too Late

  By STEPHEN HOLDEN

  “The Bucket List” operates on the hope that two beloved stars rubbing their signature screen personas together can spark warm, fuzzy box office magic.

  December 25, 2007