In the Cockpit with Morgan Freeman is the fifth volume in the Passion for Flight series. These short biographies (20,000 words or less) tell the stories of notable pilots who inspire young and old alike to take to the skies. This popular producer and Academy Award winning-actor found his passion for acting and for aviation when he was a child in Mississippi. His dream of becoming a jet pilot didn’t come true during the nearly four years he served in the Air Force, but by the time he left the military, he had already begun working his way towards an acting career. He made his Broadway debut in 1968, in “Hello, Dolly!” and landed a role on “The Electric Company” three years later as “Easy Reader.” He received his first Academy Award and Global Globe nominations in 1987 for his portrayal as a pimp in “Street Smart,” his second Academy Award nomination in 1989 for his role as a chauffeur in “Driving Miss Daisy,” and his third for his portrayal of a prisoner in “The Shawshank Redemption” in 1994. He won an Academy Award for his part in “Million Dollar Baby,” in 2004, and received another Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for his superb performance as former South African President Nelson Mandela, in “Invictus,” in 2009. The People’s Choice Awards honored Morgan Freeman in January 2012 with the first ever Favorite Movie Icon Award, and he was the 2012 recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award.As for his dream of being a pilot, that became a reality after he returned to Mississippi to build a home in the mid-1990s, and became close friends with attorney and pilot Bill Luckett.Di Freeze interviewed Morgan Freeman and Bill Luckett for this approximately 5,200-word biography. This is not meant to be a comprehensive history, but it contains major acting and aviation milestones.