(Photo: Getty Images)

Anthony Mackie is having an epic year. He took the lead in the Disney + superhero series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, reprising his longtime role as Sam Wilson a.k.a. Falcon, and appears opposite Amy Adams in this month's buzzy Netflix psychological horror movie The Woman in the Window. Next comes an episode of Amazon's mysterious but classy-looking anthology series Solos, which premieres Friday. To whet your appetite, let's find out a little more about this very talented actor.

1. Going to a Shakespeare play as a teenager was a pivotal moment for him.

"I was tripped out by it. At that moment, I knew that I wanted to do theater and I wanted to be an actor," he told The Guardian. "And this was way before movies and s**t like that – I never thought I would be where I am in my career today. So, you know, it kinda worked out."

Recalling why Shakespeare had such a profound effect on him, he said: "You had this old white dude, 500 years ago, on the other side of the globe, writing about what was going on in my life. It's like, wow, these are kinda universal themes. It made me want to see the world."

2. He's a father of four, but keeps his kids' lives private.

"I live in New Orleans. I’m very stern and deliberate on my end with my time with my kids. And I ask people to be respectful of that," Mackie told Fatherly this year. "So for the most part, people are respectful. And for the most part, the places that I go, the people let people know, don’t do that. You know? So that’s why I live in New Orleans."

3. While he was shooting Million Dollar Baby, the great Morgan Freeman gave him some advice.

At the time, Mackie was torn between accepting an "awful" but well-paid movie, and a rewarding but less lucrative stage play. Freeman advised him to pick the latter. Mackie told The Guardian: "'When Hollywood wants you they'll come get you,' [Freeman] said. 'And when they come get you they'll pay for you. But right now, work on your craft.' And I did the play and subsequently every job I take I think back to that. I've got those words printed out and stuck on my wall."

4. He once tried to sneak into Prince's house with actress Sanaa Lathan.

"Prince was having a house party in LA. And his house is a gated house within a gated community! I got in Sanaa Lathan’s trunk to try to sneak into Prince’s house," Mackie told IMDb recently. "... And his security pulled me."

Nice try, Anthony, nice try.

5. He had a special rapport with the late Chadwick Boseman.

“For Chad and I, [representation] was never a conversation that needed to be had because of our backgrounds," Mackie told Variety earlier this year. "There was a hinted-at understanding between the two of us, because we’re both from humble beginnings in the South; we have very similar backgrounds. We knew what the game was. We knew going into it."

6. He used to have his own bar in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

Called NoBar, it earned some pretty good reviews on Yelp, but sadly closed down in 2015. When it opened four years prior to that, Mackie was on hand to serve drinks, Grub Street reports.

7. He built everything at the bar except for the chairs.

An accomplished carpenter, Mackie built the bar itself, the bar-back, the footrest, and all the tables. "My dad was a carpenter and a roofer, and every summer he would make his sons work with him – I did it for three years," Mackie told HuffPost when the bar was about to open. "I have a lots of carpenters and contractors in my family so that's how I got the bug. There's just something remarkable about taking a piece of wood and making it into something. It's gratifying, really fulfilling. Anybody can buy a $2,500 designer table but not everybody can make one."

8. He trained at the world-famous Juilliard School in New York City.

Mackie's classmates included Lee Pace, who was also his high school and college roommate. "I had a lot of f**king Lee Pace!" Mackie recalled jovially in a Vanity Fair interview.

9. He's a keen fisherman.

He has his own 25ft pontoon, which he takes out on the wetlands near his home in New Orleans. Summing up the pastime's appeal, Mackie told Bloomberg: "You just go out 10 minutes, drop anchor, and it’s like a little living room."

10. And finally, he prides himself on being a nice guy.

As he explains – and demonstrates – in this perfectly charming interview.

Do you have a favorite Anthony Mackie role to date?