Morgan, a suitable case for special treatment

By the time it aired, Cagney had been long retired. He turned down several significant offers to make a comeback, including one from Francis Ford Coppola to play gangster Hyman Roth in The Godfather: Part II. Yet he agreed to be feted by the AFI because it meant he could see so many of his friends all under one roof.

It wasn't just friends. Mighty megastars of the moment, such as Steve McQueen – himself shortly to drop out and flee to a secluded house in Malibu – were in the audience. It was a big night.

Now, all these years later, Cagney (and Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Orson Welles, Steven Spielberg and Sean Connery to name just a few) is to be joined by Morgan Freeman.

Scheduled for next June, the AFI will devote its 39th Life Achievement Award to 73-year-old Freeman who was described as "an American treasure" by the AFI's chairman of trustees, Howard Stringer.

Such rhapsodising is common in the back-slapping world of Hollywood, but I've never heard a bad word about Freeman, an actor widely considered to be the pro's pro.

I interviewed Freeman over the phone about four years ago. He was plugging a forgettable thriller called Lucky Number Slevin, but happily chewed the fat over a career that saw him, quite suddenly, elevated to leading-man status as he neared 50.

He described himself as "an itinerant working actor" and shrugged off talk of stardom. It was, he mused, merely a fleeting aspect of a performer's life, difficult to sustain and sometimes hard to endure.

Yet it was clear he knew his worth. He was the actor the studios turned to when they wanted dignity, gravitas and style. As Stringer noted in his statement: "Across decades, whether playing a prisoner, a president or God, he embodies a calm authority that demands respect for the character and for the art form."

Freeman came across to me as a modest man to whom hard work had brought financial and emotional rewards. He had won an Oscar the previous year for Million Dollar Baby and would be nominated again for playing Nelson Mandela in Invictus for his old friend, Clint Eastwood.

It's good to know some things are reliable in life. Morgan Freeman is one of them. He's just solid, dependable and super. Not many can claim to have played God with a sense of humour. Freeman did it.

That alone makes him worthy of a gong.