Denzel Washington to get award for contribution to cinema

Hollywood star Denzel Washington will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes for his contribution to cinema, the organization announced.

"Washington's long and storied career is earmarked by his countless roles in front and behind the camera," Lorenzo Soria, head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which decides the award, said in a statement. 

The annual prize honors a celebrity who has had a substantial impact on the entertainment industry.

Washington already has two Golden Globe awards he won for 1999's "The Hurricane," in which he portrayed boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, and for his role in the 1989 civil war drama "Glory."

The 60-year-old actor, who has also won two Academy Awards -- for "Glory" and for the 2001 crime thriller "Training Day" -- most recently appeared in "The Equalizer," in which he plays a veteran covert operative who seeks to atone for his dark past.

Last year, the Cecil B. DeMille Award went to George Clooney. Other past recipients include Jodie Foster, Steven Spielberg, Anthony Hopkins and Martin Scorsese.

Washington will receive his award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards on January 10.