Danny Glover

For the footballer, see Danny Glover (footballer). For the actor and musician, see Donald Glover.

Danny Glover
Danny Glover in January 2008
Born	Daniel Lebern Glover (1946-07-22) July 22, 1946 San Francisco, CA, United States
Occupation(s)	Actor, director, activist
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Eliane Cavalleiro (2009 – present)

Daniel Lebern "Danny" Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director and political activist. Glover is well known for his roles as Mr. Albert Johnson in The Color Purple, as Michael Harrigan in Predator 2, as corrupt cop James McFee in Witness, as Detective Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series (where he coined the catchphrase "I'm too old for this shit"), as Detective David Tapp in Saw, and as George Knox in Angels in the Outfield. He has also appeared in many other movies, television shows, and theatrical productions. He is an active supporter of various humanitarian and political causes.

Early life and education

Glover was born in San Francisco, the son of Carrie (née Hunley) and James Glover. His parents, postal workers, were active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working to advance equal rights. Glover's mother, daughter of a midwife, was born in Louisville, Georgia and graduated from Paine College in Augusta, Georgia.

Glover attended George Washington High School in San Francisco. He attended San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the late 1960s but did not graduate. SFSU later awarded him an honorary degree. Glover trained at the Black Actors' Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater.

As an adolescent and a young adult, Glover suffered from epilepsy but has not suffered a seizure since age 35.

Career

Glover at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival

Glover originally worked in city administration working on community development before transitioning to theater. He has said:

"I didn't think it was a difficult transition. Acting is a platform that can become a conveyer for ideas. Art is a way of understanding, of confronting issues and confronting your own feelings—all within that realm of the capacity it represents. It may have been a leap of faith for me, given not only my learning disability (dyslexia) but also the fact that I felt awkward. I felt all the things that someone that's 6'3" or 6'4" feels and with my own diminished expectations of who I could be [and] would feel. Whether it's art, acting or theater that I've devoted myself to I put more passion and more energy into it."

His first theater involvement was with Conservatory Theater, a regional training program in San Francisco. Glover also trained with Jean Shelton at the Shelton Actors Lab in San Francisco. In an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Glover credited Jean Shelton for much of his development as an actor. Deciding that he wanted to be an actor, Glover resigned from his city administration job and soon began his career as a stage actor. Glover then moved to Los Angeles for more opportunities in acting, where he would later go on to co-found the Robey Theatre Company with actor Ben Guillory in honor of the actor and concert singer Paul Robeson in Los Angeles in 1994.

Glover has had a variety of film, stage, and television roles, and is best known for playing Los Angeles police Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon series of action films. He also starred as the husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in the celebrated literary adaptation The Color Purple, and as Lieutenant James McFee in the film Witness. In 1994 he made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film Override. Also in 1994, Glover and actor Ben Guillory formed the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, focusing on theatre by and about Black people. During his career, he has made several cameos, appearing, for example, in the Michael Jackson video Liberian Girl of 1987. Glover earned top billing for the first time in Predator 2, the sequel to the sci-fi action film Predator. That same year he starred in Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

In common with Humphrey Bogart, Elliott Gould and Robert Mitchum, who have played Raymond Chandler's private eye detective Philip Marlowe, Glover played the role in the episode "Red Wind" of the Showtime network's 1995 series Fallen Angels. In 1997, under his former production company banner Carrie Films, Glover executive produced numerous films of first time directors including Pamm Malveaux's neo-noir short film Final Act starring Joe Morton, which aired on the Independent Film Channel. In addition, Glover has been a voice actor in many children's movies. Glover was featured in the popular 2001 film Royal Tenenbaums, also starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

In 2004, he appeared in the low-budget horror film Saw as Detective David Tapp. In 2005, Glover and Joslyn Barnes announced plans to make No FEAR, a movie about Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo's experience. Coleman-Adebayo won a 2000 jury trial against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The jury found the EPA guilty of violating the civil rights of Coleman-Adebayo on the basis of race, sex, color and a hostile work environment, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Coleman-Adebayo was terminated shortly after she revealed the environmental and human disaster taking place in the Brits, South Africa, vanadium mines. Her experience inspired passage of the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). As of 2013 the No Fear title has not appeared but The Marsha Coleman-Adebayo Story was announced as the next major project of No Fear Media Productions. In 2009, Glover performed in The People Speak a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States".

Glover played President Wilson, the President of the United States in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released in theaters November 13, 2009. In 2010, Glover participated in a Spanish film called "I Want to Be a Soldier". In 2012, he starred in the film Donovan's Echo.

Planned directorial debut

Glover sought to make a film biography of Toussaint Louverture for his directorial debut. In May 2006, the film had included cast members Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Roger Guenveur Smith, Mos Def, Isaach De Bankolé, and Richard Bohringer. Production, estimated to cost $30 million, was planned to begin in South Africa, filming from late 2006 into early 2007. In May 2007, President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez contributed $18 million to fund the production of Toussaint for Glover, who is a prominent U.S. supporter of Chávez. The contribution annoyed some Venezuelan filmmakers, who said the money could have funded other homegrown films and that Glover's film was not even about Venezuela. The following June, some Venezuelan filmmakers petitioned for Glover to reconsider using the funds provided by their president while the actor was scouting locations outside the Venezuelan capital Caracas. The petition resulted in the local film guilds Anac and Caveprol being outlawed by Venezuela; the country's state-backed film institute Cnac was also instructed to sever ties with the guild. In April 2008, the Venezuelan National Assembly authorized an additional $9,840,505 for Glover's film, which is still in planning.

Personal life

Glover purchased a 6,000 square feet (560 m²) house in Dunthorpe, Oregon, in 1999.

On September 2, 2009, Glover signed an open letter of objection to the inclusion of a series of films intended to showcase Tel Aviv at the Toronto International Film Festival.

On April 16, 2010, Glover was arrested in Maryland during a protest by SEIU workers for Sodexo's unfair and illegal treatment of workers. He was given a citation and later released. The Associated Press reports "Glover and others stepped past yellow police tape and were asked to step back three times at Sodexo headquarters. When they refused, Starks says officers arrested them."

Activism

Glover speaks at a March for Immigrants Rights in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2007.

While attending San Francisco State University (SFSU), Glover was a member of the Black Students Union, which, along with the Third World Liberation Front and the American Federation of Teachers, collaborated in a five-month student-led strike to establish a Department of Black Studies. The strike was the longest student walkout in U.S. history. It helped create not only the first Department of Black Studies but also the first School of Ethnic Studies in the U.S.

Hari Dillon, current president of the Vanguard Public Foundation, was a fellow striker at SFSU. Glover later co-chaired Vanguard's board. He is also a board member of The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, Walden House, and Cheryl Byron's Something Positive Dance Group. He was charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly after being arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington during a protest over Sudan's humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

Glover's long history of union activism includes support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, and numerous service unions. In March 2010, Glover supported 375 Union workers in Ohio by calling upon all actors at the 2010 Academy Awards to boycott Hugo Boss suits following announcement of Hugo Boss's decision to close a manufacturing plant in Ohio after a proposed pay decrease from $13 to $8.30 an hour was rejected by the Workers United Union.

In January 2006, Harry Belafonte led a delegation of activists, including Glover and activist/professor Cornel West, in a meeting with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez.

Glover was an early supporter of former North Carolina Senator John Edwards in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries until Edwards' withdrawal, although some news reports indicated that he had endorsed Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, whom he had endorsed in 2004. After Edwards dropped out, Glover then endorsed Barack Obama.

Glover was an outspoken critic of George W. Bush, calling him a known racist. "Yes, he's racist. We all knew that. As Texas's governor, Bush led a penitentiary system that executed more people than all the other U.S. states together. And most of the people who died were Afro-Americans or Hispanics."

Glover's support of California Proposition 7 (2008) led him to use his voice in an automated phone call to generate support for the measure before the election.

On April 6, 2009, Glover was given a chieftaincy title in Imo State, Nigeria. Glover was given the title Enyioma of Nkwerre, which means A Good Friend in the language of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.

Glover has become an active member of board of directors of The Jazz Foundation of America. Danny became involved with The Jazz Foundation in 2005, and has been a featured host for their annual benefit A Great Night in Harlem for several years, as well appearing as a celebrity MC at other events for the foundation. In 2006, Britain's leading African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi appointed Glover as one of its three Patrons, joining Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jocelyn Jee Esien opening the organization's tenth-anniversary celebrations (Sunday, February 2, 2008) at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.

Glover is also an active board member of the TransAfrica Forum.

On January 13, 2010, Glover compared the scale and devastation of the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the predicament other island nations may face as a result of the failed Copenhagen summit the previous year. Glover said: "...the threat of what happens to Haiti is a threat that can happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations... they're all in peril because of global warming... because of climate change... when we did what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens..." In the same statement, he called for a new form of international partnership with Haiti and other Caribbean nations and praised Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba, for already accepting this partnership.

On November 1, 2011, Glover spoke to the crowd at Occupy Oakland on the day before the Oakland General Strike where thousands of protestors shut down the Port of Oakland.

Glover is a member of the board of directors of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank led by economist Dean Baker.

Activism against Iraq war and invasion

Danny Glover has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq War before the war began in March 2003. In February 2003, he was one of the featured speakers at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco where other notable speakers included names such as author Alice Walker, singer Joan Baez, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. Glover was a signatory to the April 2003 anti-war letter "To the Conscience of the World" that criticized the unilateral American invasion of Iraq that led to "massive loss of civilian life" and "devastation of one of the cultural patrimonies of humanity". During an anti-war demonstration in Downtown Oakland in March 2003, Glover praised the community leaders for their anti-war efforts saying that "They're on the front lines because they are trying to make a better America.... The world has come together and said 'no' to this war – and we must stand with them."

On the Obama administration

On the foreign policy of the Obama administration, Glover said: "I think the Obama administration has followed the same playbook, to a large extent, almost verbatim, as the Bush administration. I don’t see anything different... On the domestic side, look here: What's so clear is that this country from the outset is projecting the interests of wealth and property. Look at the bailout of Wall Street. Why not the bailout of Main Street? He may be just a different face, and that face may happen to be black, and if it were Hillary Clinton, it would happen to be a woman.... But what choices do they have within the structure?"

Honors and awards

Utah State University

In 2010, Glover delivered the Commencement Address and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Utah State University.

Starr King School for the Ministry

Also in 2010, Starr King School for the Ministry awarded the Doctorate of Humane Letters (Litterarum Humanarum Doctor), in absentia, to Mr. Glover. His call to humanity to see itself as the recipient of a legacy of caring and commitment that began with prior parental and religious communities and that it should carry on for the sake of those who will follow are in alignment with Starr King's values. Mr. Glover was awarded the doctorate specifically for his long history of passionate activism, including support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, as well as his humanitarian efforts on behalf of the Haiti earthquake victims, literacy and civil rights and his fight against unjust labor practices. Mr. Glover is co-founder and CEO of Louverture Films, dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity; we honored his commitment to using film to lift up and advance social justice issues, such as his then recently released project "Trouble the Water", a documentary about New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

Glover has had a close association with Starr King School through his role as guest lecturer in its course on Non Violent Social Change and lending his support and presence to events sponsored by Starr King's Masters of Arts in Social Change (MASC) program.

Deauville American Film Festival

He was also the recipient of a tribute paid by the Deauville American Film Festival in France on September 7, 2011.

Filmography

List of film credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Escape from Alcatraz	Inmate
1981	Chu Chu and the Philly Flash	Morgan
1982	Deadly Drifter	Jojo/Roland	Alternative title: Out
1984	Iceman	Loomis
1984	Places in the Heart	Moze
1985	Witness	Det. Lt. James McFee
1985	Silverado	Malachi 'Mal' Johnson
1985	The Color Purple	Mr. Albert Johnson
1987	Lethal Weapon	Sergeant Roger Murtaugh
1988	Bat*21	Capt. Bartholomew Clark
1989	Lethal Weapon 2	Roger Murtaugh
1990	To Sleep with Anger	Harry	Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead
1990	Predator 2	Lt. Mike Harrigan
1991	Flight of the Intruder	Cmdr. Frank 'Dooke' Camparelli
1991	A Rage in Harlem	Easy Money
1991	Grand Canyon	Simon
1991	Pure Luck	Raymond Campanella
1992	Lethal Weapon 3	Roger Murtaugh
1993	The Saint of Fort Washington	Jerry/Narrator
1993	Bopha!	Micah Mangena
1994	Maverick	Bank Robber	Uncredited
1994	Angels in the Outfield	George Knox
1994	Override		Director, TV Short
1995	Operation Dumbo Drop	Capt. Sam Cahill
1997	Wild America	Bigfoot	Uncredited
1997	The Rainmaker	Judge Tyrone Kipler	Uncredited
1997	Gone Fishin'	Gus Green
1997	Switchback	Bob Goodall
1998	Lethal Weapon 4	Roger Murtaugh
1998	The Prince of Egypt	Jethro	Voice only
1998	Beloved	Paul D. Garner
1998	Antz	Barbatus	Voice only
1999	Our Friend, Martin	Train Conductor	Voice only
2000	Boesman and Lena	Boesman
2001	3 A.M.	Charles "Hershey" Riley
2001	The Royal Tenenbaums	Henry Sherman
2002	Just a Dream		Director Nominated—Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Children/Youth/Family Special
2004	The Cookout	Judge Crowley
2004	Saw	Detective David Tapp
2005	Manderlay	Wilhelm
2005	Missing in America	Jake Neeley
2006	Bamako	Cow-boy
2006	Barnyard	Miles the Mule	Voice
2006	The Shaggy Dog	Ken Hollister
2006	Dreamgirls	Marty Madison
2007	Shooter	Colonel Isaac Johnson
2007	Poor Boy's Game	George	Nominated—Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
2007	Battle for Terra	President Chen	Voice only
2007	Honeydripper	Tyrone Purvis
2007	Miranda Regresa	John Doe
2008	Be Kind Rewind	Mr. Fletcher
2008	Gospel Hill	John Malcolm
2008	Blindness	Old man with the black eye patch/Narrator
2008	The Garden	Himself
2008	Saw V	Detective David Tapp	Cameo and archive footage from Saw
2008	Unstable Fables: Tortoise vs. Hare	Walter Tortoise	Voice
2009	Night Train	Miles
2009	Down For Life	Mr. Shannon
2009	The People Speak	Himself	Documentary
2009	The Harimaya Bridge	Joseph Holder
2009	2012	President Wilson	Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
2009	At The End of Slavery	Narrator
2010	Stride	James 'Honeybear' Powell
2010	Death at a Funeral	Uncle Russell
2010	Dear Alice	Franzis	Original title: För kärleken
2010	Legendary	Harry "Red" Newman
2010	Alpha and Omega	Winston	Voice
2010	Son of Morning	Gabriel Peters
2010	Age of the Dragons	Ahab
2010	Mooz-lum	Dean Francis
2010	I Want to Be a Soldier	The Principal
2010	Five Minarets in New York	Marcus	Original title: New York’ta Beş Minare
2011	Heart of Blackness	Vaudreuil
2011	Donovan's Echo	Donovan
2012	Highland Park	Ed
2013	Space Warriors	Commander
2013	Chasing Shakespeare	William Ward
2014	Bad Asses	Bernie Pope
2014	Tokarev	Detective St. John	Filming
2014	Toussaint		Director, producer Pre-production
2014	Tula: The Revolt	Shinishi	Pre-production
2014	Blackbird

List of television credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	B. J. and the Bear	Matt Thomas, TV Reporter	1 episode, uncredited
1979	Lou Grant	Leroy	1 episode
1979	Paris		1 episode
1980	Palmerstown, U.S.A.	Harley	Unknown episodes
1981	Keeping On	Lester	Television movie
1981	The Greatest American Hero	Vice officer	1 episode
1981	Hill Street Blues	Jesse John Hudson	4 episodes
1981	Gimme a Break!	Bill	1 episode
1983	The Face of Rage	Gary	Television movie
1983	Chiefs	Marshall Peters	Miniseries
1983	Memorial Day	Willie Monroe	Television movie
1985	And the Children Shall Lead	William	Television movie
1986	Tall Tales & Legends	John Henry	1 episode
1987	Place at the Table		Television movie
1987	Mandela	Nelson Mandela	Television movie Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie
1989	A Raisin in the Sun	Walter Lee Younger	Television movie
1989	Lonesome Dove	Joshua Deets	Miniseries Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor - Miniseries or a Movie. (See also Bose Ikard)
1989	Dead Man Out	Dr. Alex Marsh	Television movie Alternative title: Dead Man Walking
1989	Saturday Night Live	Roger Murtaugh	1 episode
1991	Captain Planet and the Planeteers	Professor Apollo (Voice)	1 episode
1992	The Talking Eggs	Narrator	Television movie
1993	Alex Haley's Queen	Alec Haley	Miniseries
1995	Fallen Angels	Philip Marlowe	1 episode Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Drama Series
1996	America's Dream	Silas	Television movie (segment "Long Black Song")
1997	Buffalo Soldiers	Sgt. Washington Wyatt	Television movie
2000	Freedom Song	Will Walker	Television movie Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor - Miniseries or a Movie Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2003	Good Fences	Tom Spader	Television movie
2003	Biography	Narrator	1 episode
2003	The Law and Mr. Lee	Henry Lee	Television movie
2004	Legend of Earthsea	Ogion	Miniseries
2005	The Exonerated	David	Television movie
2005	ER	Charlie Pratt, Sr.	4 episodes
2006	Take 3	Col. Weldon	Television movie
2007–2008	Brothers & Sisters	Isaac Marshall	6 episodes
2009	My Name Is Earl	Thomas Monroe	1 episode
2010	Human Target	Client	1 episode
2011	Psych	Mel Hornsby	1 episode
2011	Leverage	Charlie Lawson	1 episode, Season 4 Episode 4, "The Van Gogh Job"
2012	Touch	Professor Arthur Teller	Co-starring role
2013	American Dad!	Krampus	1 episode, Season 10 Episode 8, "Minstrel Krampus"
2013	Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight	Thurgood Marshall	Television movie

List of theatre credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	"Master Harold"...and the Boys	Willy
2003		Sam

Awards

List of awards

Award	Year	Category	Title of work
CableACE Award	1989	Actor in a Movie or Miniseries	Mandela
CableACE Award	1996	Dramatic or Theatrical Special	America's Dream (Shared with David Knoller, Carolyn McDonald, Ron Stacker Thompson, and Ashley Tyler)
CableACE Award	1996	Actor in a Dramatic Special or Series	America's Dream
NAACP Image Awards	1989	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture	Lethal Weapon
NAACP Image Awards	1990	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Mini-Series or Television Movie	Mandela
NAACP Image Awards	1995	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Television Movie or Mini-Series	Queen
NAACP Image Awards	1999	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture	Beloved
NAACP Image Awards	2001	Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special	Freedom Song
Independent Spirit Award	1991	Best Male Lead	To Sleep With Anger
Jamerican International Film Festival	2002	Lifetime Achievement Award
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival	2008	Festival President's Award
Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival	2003	Lifetime Achievement Award
MTV Movie Award	1993	Best On-Screen Duo	Lethal Weapon 3 (Shared with Mel Gibson)
San Francisco International Film Festival	1993	Piper-Heidsieck Award
Women in Film Crystal Awards	1994	Humanitarian Award

External links

General

• Danny Glover at IMDb
• Danny Glover at the Internet Broadway Database
• Danny Glover at the TCM Movie Database
• The People Speak at IMDb
• A free video excerpt of a lecture by Glover
• The TransAfrica Forum
• Danny Glover at Emmys.com
• "Danny Glover: The Fire Within". AARP Magazine. May & June 2004. Retrieved December 1, 2009. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Cheryl Byron and Something Positive
• Danny Glover in the news supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal
• The ongoing effort to draft Danny Glover into the San Francisco Mayoral race
• At The End of Slavery, a film created by International Justice Mission and narrated by Danny Glover

Interviews

• Al Jazeera English's Riz Khan interview with Danny Glover on YouTube
• Screening Identities – Danny Glover in conversation with Manthia Diawara Walls and Bridges
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Danny Glover (TV Interview)
• Danny Glover Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
• Interview on Democracy Now! (audio)
• Interview in The Progressive
• mariannef (April 4, 2007). "Africa on Fire! Interview with Danny Glover". KBOO. Retrieved December 1, 2009.
• Danny Glover on Democracy Now! February 26 2007 discussing the Oscars and the Panafrican Film and Television Festival in Burkina Faso
• Danny Glover talks about Bamako on YouTube