In 1990, Washington starred as Bleek Gilliam in the Spike Lee film "Mo' Better Blues". In 1991, he starred as Demetrius Williams in the romantic drama "Mississippi Masala". Washington was reunited with Lee to play one of his most critically acclaimed roles, the title character of 1992's "Malcolm X". His performance as the black nationalist leader earned him another nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Also that year, he established the production company Mundy Lane Entertainment. The next year, he played the lawyer of a gay man with AIDS in the 1993 film "Philadelphia". During the early and mid-1990s, Washington starred in several successful thrillers, including "The Pelican Brief" with Julia Roberts in 1993, and "Crimson Tide" with Gene Hackman in 1995, as well as in the movie of the Shakespearean comedy "Much Ado About Nothing". In 1996, he played a U.S. Army officer who, despondent about a deadly mistake he made, investigates a female chopper commander's worthiness for the Medal of Honor in "Courage Under Fire" with Meg Ryan. In 1996, he appeared with Whitney Houston in the romantic comedy "The Preacher's Wife".