"Laurence Fishburne" Mother Being Evicted and Son Won't Give Her a Penny! [See Pics]

DETAILS INSIDE

Laurence Fishburne, call your mother.

I hate to be the one to break the news. But the woman 

who gave life to the talented actor, who said she 

emptied her retirement savings account so her only 

child would grow into a star, director, producer and 

playwright, claims she’s down on her luck. Hattie 

Crawford Fishburne, 80, told me that, unable to pay 

the rent for several months, she’s received written 

notice informing her she’ll be evicted from her Los 

Angeles apartment Tuesday.

And she said she can’t reach her wealthy son, with 

whom she last spoke more than a year ago when his 

father died.

“He’s gone Hollywood!” Hattie Fishburne told me.

“For 20 years, I funded my son’s career,’’ she said. 

“He promised me he would take care of me. He 

promised me a house, a golden retriever, a calico cat. 

To this day, I have not got a Christmas present or a 

‘Thank you, Mama’ present. He hasn’t given me a 

penny. “I’m so hurt and disappointed.”

Laurence Fishburne, 53, is riding high, playing Earl 

“Pops” Johnson and executive producing the hit ABC-

TV sitcom “Black-ish,” and appears as Jack Crawford, 

an FBI special agent, in “Hannibal” on NBC. He plays 

Daily Planet editor Perry White in the upcoming movie 

“Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice,’’ reprising a 

role he played in the 2013 flick “Man of Steel.” He was 

Morpheus in “The Matrix” movie trilogy, and was 

nominated for an Oscar for his starring role as the 

wife-abusing musician Ike Turner in the 1993 flick 

“What’s Love Got to Do with It.’’

The man sometimes called “Fish” is estimated by the 

website Celebrity Net Worth to possess a personal 

fortune of $20 million.

Hattie Fishburne raised her son almost single-

handedly in New York City. Mother and child settled in 

Park Slope, Brooklyn, moving there from Georgia after 

Hattie divorced her son’s dad, Laurence Fishburne Jr., 

when the kid was young. Now she insists that her only 

child, officially named Laurence Fishburne III, has 

forsaken her.

“I was a damn good teacher, honey,’’ said Hattie, who 

said she was fired as a New York City public school 

math and science junior high school teacher in the 

’90s after getting beaten up by a little girl, then 

accused falsely of beating up her principal. (A 

spokesman for the city’s Department of Education 

could not locate any records.) She then moved to 

California, resumed teaching and retired in 2009.

Now, she said, she can’t pay her $1,500 monthly rent 

with her pension and Social Security benefits of 

$3,000 a month, and suffers from arthritis, an 

underactive thyroid and high cholesterol, and has 

difficulty walking after a “catastrophic” car accident.

“I can’t buy food, clothing and shelter, go to the 

theater,” she said.

“I haven’t bought a dress since I retired. I need to find a benefactor.’’

Laurence Fishburne started acting professionally on 

stage, at his mother’s urging, at age 10, was cast in 

the TV soap opera “One Life to Live’’ by 12, and broke 

into the movies at 14. As legend has it, at age 14, he 

conned his way into winning the role of Tyrone “Clean” 

Miller in the 1979 flick “Apocalypse Now” by telling 

director Francis Ford Coppola that he was 18. Billed 

as “Larry Fishburne,” the vertically gifted lad — he 

now stands 6 feet and a half-inch tall — traveled to the 

Philippines for filming with his mom in tow.

Modal Trigger

Bill Clinton with Hattie and Lawrence Fishburne

Photo: John Chapple

But in 1994, Hattie made news when she said she 

was being evicted from her Brooklyn home — she told 

me she was forced to live with a female friend for two 

years. Laurence has not spoken publicly about this. 

But in 1999, he accompanied his mom to Washington, 

DC, for the Kennedy Center Honors awards gala. A 

picture of the pair posing with President Bill Clinton is 

one of Hattie’s most treasured possessions.

Laurence praised his mother in a 2000 interview with 

Cigar Aficionado magazine.

“I’ve got to tell you, my mother is very bright,” he said. “I mean she’s got a really, really amazing mind. Now 

I’m a really smart guy. I’m bright. I know s- -t from 

shinola. And all that I get from her.”

So what happened?

The manager of Hattie’s apartment building told me 

only that “things have changed.” But Hattie believes 

she’ll still be evicted. Laurence’s rep told me the actor 

is shooting “Hannibal” in Toronto and could not be 

reached for comment.

Laurence Fishburne has a daughter with his current 

wife and a son and daughter from a previous union. 

That daughter, Montana, has said her dad stopped 

speaking to her after she started acting in porn films in

2010 at age 18, a career she’s given up. She was 

spotted last year working as a stripper in Texas.