Denzel Washington is close to making history.

The 62-year-old, who nominated for Best Actor for his work in Fences, would cement his place in the annals of history should he take that trophy home by having more Oscars under his belt than any other African American actor.

He should already feel like a winner though.

He has the most nominations with 7, and he’s the only African American to win multiple acting Oscars.

And there are even reports by Forbes Magazine that out of all this year’s Oscar nominees, Denzel’s the highest paid of the bunch.

They claim that the Fences star has banked more then 290 million pretax dollars since Forbes started tallying his earnings in 2003.

Critics have noted the Casey Affleck is the front runner… but Denzel’s SAG win gives him a massive boost going into the award show. The last 12 actors to win SAG’s best actor award went on to win the Oscar – except for in 2004.

Fingers crossed Denzel. We’d love to see you make history.