Star of countless hit movies, Denzel Washington is most likely to pop up in TV news when, say, information about a prospective “Book of Eli” prequel series drops. However, the Oscar-winning actor has undeniably left his mark on the television front. In fact, there was a time when his TV work was Washington’s biggest claim to fame thanks to his significant role as Dr. Philip Chandler on NBC’s “St. Elsewhere,” one of the greatest TV medical dramas of the 1980s, if not of all time.
Washington played the role throughout the show’s six-season run from 1982 to 1988, but, as he told Entertainment Weekly in 2010, he was already eyeing a movie career at the time. In fact, this very fact contributed to his decision to choose “St. Elsewhere” as his TV base of operations. Washington originally planned to join the cast of “All in the Family” spin-off “The Jeffersons” on CBS. But due to his silver-screen ambitions, he followed his agent’s advice and opted for the medical drama instead.
“I remember early on my agent talked to me about not getting caught up in television,” Washington said. “She convinced me not to do ‘The Jeffersons,’ which I’d read for. But ‘St. Elsewhere’ had so many characters, you could get sort of lost in the sauce and be able to sneak out and do films. And it was a great show.” His time on the acclaimed series made the young star a household name, and, what’s more, his agent’s advice worked.
Denzel Washington managed to simultaneously star on St. Elsewhere and gain recognition in film
Being able to sneak out to do films proved entirely possible for Washington, despite his regular presence on “St. Elsewhere.” Though he didn’t physically appear in each of the show’s 137 episodes, he’s credited for all of them.
Despite the challenges his impressive tenure on the show must have presented while figuring out his movie schedule, Washington found the time to make a very respectable six films during this time: the TV film “License to Kill” (1984) as well as the theatrically released “A Soldier’s Story” (1984), “Power” (1986), “Cry Freedom” (1987), and “For Queen & Country” (1988).
By the time he starred as activist Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough’s “Cry Freedom,” for which he earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, it was pretty clear that “St. Elsewhere” would be his last significant TV role. Indeed, the man who some believe is the best actor ever has only periodically returned to the world of TV after the hospital series ended, and even then, only in various voice roles and narrator duties. However, Washington never forgot his medical drama past, even after becoming a Hollywood A-lister. In 2016, he used his learned skills to direct the “Grey’s Anatomy” Season 12 episode, “The Sound of Silence.”