Samuel L. Jackson: The Black Millionaire Blueprint for Success

By Terry Shropshire
Jul 20, 2012
8:07 am

The most commercially successful actor in Hollywood history had a very circuitous route to fame and fortune. A Washington, D.C., native, Jackson matriculated at famed Morehouse College in Atlanta and was swept up in the smoldering the civil rights and black power movement. There, Jackson ha a direct link to black royalty: he both served as an usher at the Martin Luther King Jr. funeral in 1968 and also later held Martin Luther King Sr. hostage inside the famed black college, demanding a more black-centered curriculum and was immediately expelled from school.

But after a brief moratorium and an excursion to L.A., Jackson returned to Morehouse with new inspiration and obtained his degree, met his future wife (LaTanya Richardson, who is also an actress) and became one of the most prolific thespians of this or any generation.

By the age of 63, he had appeared in more than 100 films, and in 2011 he was named the highest grossing actor of all time with more than $7.2 billion in wealth.

Let’s take a look back at the life of Samuel L. Jackson with the aid of biography.com.

–terry shropshire