Denzel Washington named Best Actor for ‘Fences’ at 2017 SAG Awards

Actor and filmmaker Denzel Washington has been honored with a SAG Award for Best Actor for his performance in August Wilson’s “Fences,” at the 23rd Annual Screen Actor Guild Awards tonight, Sunday, January 29, 2017, at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, California. The yearly SAG Awards honor the best in motion pictures and television for the prior calendar year. The 23rd Annual SAG Awards ceremony was televised live on TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. (ET)/5 p.m. (PT).

Denzel Washington directed and stars in this adaptation of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which centers on a black garbage collector named Troy Maxson in 1950s Pittsburgh. Bitter that baseball's color barrier was only broken after his own heyday in the Negro Leagues, Maxson is prone to taking out his frustrations on his loved ones. Both Washington and co-star Viola Davis won Tonys for their performances in the 2010 revival of the play. Stephen Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, and Mykelti Williamson round out the supporting cast.

This is the first SAG Award win for Denzel Washington. Although Casey Affleck has had a lot of buzz for this category for his performance in “Manchester by the Sea,” and he won the Golden Globe Award just a few weeks ago, I believe that Denzel Washington has a better opportunity to win the Oscar in February.

“Fences” is rated PG-13 (for thematic elements, language and some suggestive references) and has a run-time of 133 minutes.