Other notable film credits include The Color Purple (1985), School Daze (1988), King of New York (1990), Mystic River (2003), Contagion (2011), and Last Flag Flying (2017).

In 1972, at the age of 11, Fishburne received positive reviews for his first acting role[6] in the initial ABC Theater teleplay If You Give a Dance You Gotta Pay the Band.

[10] His most memorable childhood role was in Cornbread, Earl and Me,[11] in which he played a young boy who witnessed the police shooting of a popular high school basketball star.

He later earned a supporting role in Apocalypse Now, in which he played Tyrone Miller, a cocky 17-year-old Gunner's Mate 3rd Class from the Bronx, nicknamed Mr. Clean.

[13] He appeared in the early 1980s movies Band of the Hand, Death Wish 2 and The Cotton Club, and had a minor role in the critically acclaimed Steven Spielberg film The Color Purple.

[14] Fishburne had a recurring role as Cowboy Curtis on Paul Reubens' CBS children's television series Pee-wee's Playhouse.

[20][24] Fishburne won an Image Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture" for his performance as West Indian Professor Maurice Phipps in the 1995 American drama ensemble film, Higher Learning.

[26][27] In 1995, Fishburne wrote, directed, and starred in the play Riff-Raff at the now defunct Off-Broadway Circle Rep Theater.

Fishburne is perhaps best known for his role as Morpheus, the hacker-mentor of Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, in the 1999 blockbuster science fiction film The Matrix.

[33] Fishburne also played a gay high school teacher in a Los Angeles production of Alfred Uhry's Without Walls in the same year.

[35] He provided the voice of the narrator in the 2007 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, TMNT, which was a commercial success.

[37] On February 24, 2007, Fishburne was honored with the Harvard Foundation's Artist of the Year award at the annual show Cultural Rhythms.

[42] On August 18, 2008, it was reported that Laurence Fishburne would join the cast of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation after William Petersen, who played Gil Grissom, left the series.

[43] Fishburne joined the show on the ninth episode of the 9th season as a college professor and former pathologist whose area of expertise involves some criminals' predisposition to commit acts of violence.

[47] On June 7, 2011, Fishburne announced that he was leaving CSI to return to movies and theatre, opting not to renew his contract and would not appear in Season 12.

[51] In 2016, Fishburne reprised his role as White in the sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice[52] and appeared in the science fiction/romance movie Passengers.

[53] In 2017, he appeared in the neo-noir action thriller film John Wick: Chapter 2 as The Bowery King, in his first collaboration with Keanu Reeves since The Matrix trilogy.

[54] Fishburne served as co-creator and executive producer in the Marvel Animation/Disney Television Animation series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

[62] Fishburne and actress Gina Torres got engaged in February 2001 and got married on September 22, 2002,[63] at the Cloisters, a museum in New York City.