FrameThrower · Actors · Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
11 films · 640 frames · top-billed in 5 · 1986–2021
Born 15 July 1961 · Longview, Texas, USA
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, director, and activist. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
After making his film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Whitaker went on to earn a reputation for intensive character study work for films, such as Platoon (1986), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Bird (1988), The Crying Game (1992), Phenomenon (1996), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), The Great Debaters (2007), The Butler (2013), Arrival (2016), and Respect (2021).…
Awards
On FrameThrower we have: 11 films · 640 frames · top-billed in 5 · 1986–2021
- Academy Award for Best Actor2007
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama2007
- BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role2007
- Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
- Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor1988
- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie
- Global Citizen Awards2022
- Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres2021
- Crystal Award2017
- Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
- NAACP Image Award – Chairman's Award
How their films are shot
Measured across 640 frames from the 11 films we hold. This is the look of the work Forest takes, not a claim about any single frame — we index the cast of a film, never the people in a shot.
Across the 11 films we hold, 49% of their frames are night, 51% low key — the look of the work Forest takes.
Time of day
Lighting
Shot size
Camera angle
Mood
Films in the library
Every poster opens that film — stills, cinematography notes and colour palette.
Respect
2021 · C. L. Franklin
Arrival
2016 · Colonel Weber
Panic Room
2002 · Burnham
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
1999 · Ghost Dog
Bird
1988 · Charlie 'Bird' Parker
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2016 · Saw Gerrera
Out of the Furnace
2013 · Chief Wesley Barnes
The Last Stand
2013 · Agent John Bannister
Where The Wild Things Are
2009 · Ira (voice)
The Crying Game
1992 · Jody
Platoon
1986 · Big Harold
Often with
Shared films in this library, not a full filmography.
A reference database for filmmakers
FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 640 frames from Forest Whitaker's 11 films, and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.