It’s a return to roots for the acclaimed actor, who in December 1975 made his New York stage debut in a Fordham Theatre production of another O’Neill play.

“You know, my first role on stage, when I was a student at Fordham, was in The Emperor Jones,” he recently told the Times. “I’ve always loved O’Neill. And here I am, 40 years later, coming back to him in Iceman.”

Back on Campus

Washington, who has been nominated for a 2018 Tony Award for best actor, also recently returned to Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. On a Friday last April, he surprised some students in the Lowenstein Center cafeteria and on the plaza after sitting down in Pope Auditorium with CBS News reporter Michelle Miller.

In an interview broadcast April 29 on CBS Sunday Morning, Miller talked with the star about his four-decade film and stage career, which includes two Oscars, one Tony, and a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement.

“I just do what I do,” he said. “I don’t analyze it, I don’t overanalyze it, I try not to read about what other people think I’m doing. It’s not that precious to me. I’m just doing what I know how to do and what I love to do.”

DENZEL WASHINGTON JUST SHOWED UP AT @FordhamNYC TODAY! @FordhamAlumni pic.twitter.com/dzMNIjFPmT

— Mary Todd Lincoln’s Whiskey Barrel (@ArmandoGJR) April 13, 2018

The quality that sets Washington apart, according to George C. Wolfe, director of the Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh, is his ability to use “all his skill set to disappear inside of the characters.”

“I think there are a number of actors who we go to see who are enjoyable and compelling, and you’re seeing them play this role and this role and this role, and they don’t disappear,” Wolfe told Miller. “I think he surrenders to his characters in an extraordinary way.”

‘Watching This Generation Take Off’

Miller reminded Washington of comments he made nearly two decades ago regarding the relative lack of opportunities for black actors. “I see how the playing field is laid out, and it’s not level, you know; it’s not fair. You can still bump your head, you can go but so far,” he told CBS News’ Ed Bradley in a 2000 interview on 60 Minutes.

When Miller asked Washington if things have gotten any better today, he noted the tremendous box-office success of the film Black Panther. He also reflected on his own standing as a role model, particularly for younger generations of African-American actors.

“I’m proud as a father might be,” he said. “I’m not finished the race, but I feel like I’ve passed the baton. When you run a relay race, when you hand the baton off, you still run about 20, 30 yards behind the next person. So I’m still running, but I’m enjoying watching this generation take off.”

Miller noted that Washington is in a position to help others in his field. “You’re a producer, you’re a director, you hire people—that’s power,” she said.

“That’s opportunity,” he responded, “the opportunity to give others opportunities.”

Which is something Washington has been doing at his alma mater for a long time. In 2011, he established an endowed scholarship fund and an endowed chair to offer Fordham Theatre students positive influences, like the kind he received from his Fordham mentor, Robinson Stone, who once predicted that Washington’s talent would be “among the most exciting and fulfilling of our time.”

Washington’s example and his unassuming generosity are not lost on Eric Lawrence Taylor, the current recipient of the Denzel Washington Endowed Scholarship.

“In a very cool, non-publicity-seeking way, Denzel Washington has been mentoring artists of color for a long time and really providing space for a lot of us to succeed,” said Taylor, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior. “I would not be here right now without this scholarship,” he added, noting that by supporting Fordham students, Washington has shown that he has “not forgotten where he came from.”

The Iceman Cometh recently began a 14-week run that ends on July 1, shortly before Washington’s next feature film, The Equalizer 2, opens in theaters nationwide.

A group of Fordham alumni, faculty, and friends is planning to attend the May 10 performance of the play. The event, which includes dinner before the show, is currently sold out, but there is a waiting list. More info here.

Watch the Sunday Morning interview.

“I would show up to work every single day and learn of two, three, four more states that had been actively targeted by the same actors,” said Ferrante, a former FBI agent who was director of cyber incident response for President Barack Obama’s National Security Council at the time.

He says that and more in a recent 60 Minutes report, “When Russian Hackers Targeted the U.S. Election Infrastructure.” The segment highlights concerns that have come to define Ferrante’s career as a public official, private consultant, and adjunct professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at Fordham.

Ferrante is a senior managing director and the global head of cybersecurity practice at FTI Consulting and teaches in Fordham’s M.S. in cybersecurity program. He played a central role in establishing the International Conference on Cyber Security, co-organized by Fordham and the FBI and held every 18 months at the Lincoln Center campus.

In the 60 Minutes interview, Ferrante said hackers who targeted states’ systems “absolutely” could have caused havoc when Election Day came around. Asked by correspondent Bill Whitaker why they didn’t, he replied, “I don’t know if we’ll ever know.”

Watch the 60 Minutes segment here. 

Fifty years later, former CBS chairman and longtime executive producer Jeff Fager argues that 60 Minutes has undoubtedly embedded itself into the social consciousness of America.

“We were an important part of CBS, the corporation, because we were helping to educate the public about what was happening in the world,” Fager said at a Nov. 13 Q&A event sponsored by Fordham’s communications and media studies department.

Fager chronicles the iconic news program’s rise to the top in his new book, Fifty Years of 60 Minutes: The Inside Story of Television’s Most Influential News Broadcast (Simon&Schuster, 2017). Having won 138 Emmy awards and 20 Peabody awards, 60 Minutes continues to be lauded for its commitment to quality and truth, he said.

“I’m 100 percent convinced that we’re doing well because we’re feeding a hunger for real journalism in America,” he said.

He believes that the dissemination of “fake news” on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter present a critical call-to-action for journalists.

“It gets distracting when you hear the president talk about ‘fake news’ because that’s not what he’s talking about,” he said. “He’s talking about news that he doesn’t agree with, and I’m talking about news that we know is fake that ends up in front of millions and millions of Americans.”

Interestingly, Fager said that one of 60 Minutes’ more recent broadcast successes was a candid interview with former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.

“He’s one of the most controversial figures in the country, but he was fascinating,” he told the audience.

In addition to interviewing compelling subjects of our times, Fager said 60 Minutes doesn’t rely on audience research to determine what news it should cover.  He credits the show’s creator Don Hewitt, who “went against everything that was conventional,” for setting the foundation for its early successes.

“We prove every Sunday night that there is a huge audience for what’s important,” said Fager.

He cited the program’s comprehensive investigation with the Washington Post into the opioid epidemic last month and its 1995 interview with tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, as instances where 60 Minutes helped to deepen its audience member’s understanding of a familiar issue in society that they might have thought they already knew everything about.

On average, the 60 Minutes team goes through about 3,000 ideas and comes up with 100 solid ideas every year, he said.

“It’s an intense process to get a story on the air. What I love is that by the time [it] gets on the air, it really feels like it belongs there.”