Danny Glover

Early life

Glover was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Carrie (née Hunley) and James Glover, both of whom were postal workers and were active in the NAACP. Glover grew up with a love for sports just like his father. Glover's mother, daughter of a midwife, was born in Louisville, Georgia and graduated from Paine College.<ref>http://chronicle.augusta.com/login.shtml?orq:http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/050602/met_174-7006.000.shtml</ref> Glover graduated from George Washington High School (San Francisco) before attending American University and matriculating at San Francisco State University. At university, he also met his future wife Asake Bomani, whom he married in 1975. They have been divorced for some time now.

In his late twenties, Glover enrolled in the Black Actors Workshop at the American 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 Actor's Studio, Glover credited 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, which eventually brought him to Los Angeles.

Glover suffered from epilepsy as a teenager and young adult; according to his own account, he "developed a way of concentrating so that seizures wouldn't happen." Using this technique, which he describes as a type of self-hypnosis, Glover says he hasn't suffered a seizure since the age of 35.<ref>"Famous Star of the Big Screen steps out from the Shadows". International Bureau for Epilepsy. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.</ref>

Career

Glover has had a variety of film, stage, and television roles. He is best known for his role as Los Angeles police Sgt. Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon movie series, and his role as the abusive husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in The Color Purple. He was given top billing for the first time in Predator 2, the sequel to the sci-fi actioner Predator. In addition, Glover has been a voice actor in many children's movies. Among many awards, he has won five NAACP Image Awards, for his achievements as an actor of color . Danny Glover also worked in 2001 blockbuster Royal Tenenbaums also starring Gywneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

He joined the ranks of actors, such as Humphrey Bogart, Elliott Gould, and Robert Mitchum, who have portrayed Raymond Chandler's private eye detective Philip Marlowe in the episode 'Red Wind' of the Showtime network's 1995 series Fallen Angels. Glover made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film Override in 1994. Also in 1994, Glover and actor Ben Guillory formed the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, focusing on theatre by and about the Black experience.

In 2005, Glover and Joslyn Barnes announced plans to make "No FEAR," a movie about Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo's experience.<ref>http://www.nofearcoalition.org/index.html</ref> 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 No FEAR Act.

In May of 2007, it was announced that the Venezuelan Government would give Glover $18 million to make a film version of the 18th-century Haiti slave uprising that was led by Toussaint Louverture.<ref>[1]</ref> The Asociación Nacional de Autores Cinematográficos (ANAC) and several prominent Venezuelan filmmakers such as Solveig Hoogesteijn, Jonathan Jakubowicz, Franco de Peña and José Ramón Novoa criticized such large investment in Glover's movie since the same amount of money is equivalent to the budget for 4 years given by the Venezuelan government to the National Film Board of Venezuela (CNAC) and could could support the production of over 34 Venezuelan films.<ref>[2]</ref> An additional $9.840.505 was approved by the Venezuelan National Assembly in April of 2008.<ref>http://www.eluniversal.com/2008/04/10/til_art_asamblea-aprueba-9-m_800033.shtml</ref>

Glover is known for saying "I'm too old for this shit!" in multiple films.

Activism

File:Danny Glover Madison3.jpg

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

While attending San Francisco State University, Glover was a member of the Black Students Union<ref>Actor and activist Danny Glover to be honored by San Francisco State University</ref> who along with the Third World Liberation Front led the five month strike for Ethnic Studies. Not only did this help to create the first school of Ethnic Studies in the U.S., but it was also the longest student strike in the history of the United States.<ref>SFSU Centennial history</ref> During the strike, he protested alongside Hari Dillon who is now the president of the Vanguard Public Foundation, of which Glover sits on the advisory board.

Glover serves as a board member to numerous national and international organizations. He is presently chair of the TransAfrica Forum, "a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the general public — particularly African-Americans — on the economic, political and moral ramifications of U.S. foreign policy as it affects Africa and the Diaspora in the Caribbean and Latin America" and a board member of Cheryl Byron's Something Positive Dance Group. In March 1998, he was appointed ambassador to the United Nations Development Programme.

Glover is among a number of high-profile U.S. supporters of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. The group also includes singer Harry Belafonte and Princeton University scholar Cornel West, who have sided with the Venezuelan president against accusations of democratic abuses.<ref name="refname">"Hugo Chavez to Finance Danny Glover Movies". Fox News (2007-05-22). Retrieved on 2007-05-30.</ref>

Between 2007 and 2008, Glover has received loans close to U.S. $28 million from the Venezuelan government to make a film based on the life of François Dominique Toussaint-Louverture, an Haitian freedom fighter.<ref>"Assembly approves extra $9 million for Danny Glover". El Universal (2008-04-102). Retrieved on 2008-04-11.</ref><ref>"National Assembly grants $9 million to Danny Glover". Tal Cual Digital newspaper. </ref>

He also serves on the Advisory Council for TeleSUR, "Television of the South", a pan-Latin American television network based in Caracas, financed by the Venezuelan government. It began broadcasting on July 24, 2005. His role in this capacity and his resulting interaction with Chávez have drawn criticism for Glover from some Western media.<ref>"Chavez Repeats 'Devil' Comment at Harlem Event". FOX News (2006-09-21). Retrieved on 2006-09-22.</ref>

On Friday May 4, 2007 Glover endorsed former Senator John Edwards for the Democratic nomination for President in the 2008 Presidential Race.<ref>"Prominent Civil Rights Activists Endorse Edwards For President" (2007-05-05). Retrieved on 2007-05-05.</ref> After Edwards withdrew from the race, Glover endorsed Barack Obama.<ref>Hayden, Tom; Bill Fletcher, Jr., Danny Glover and Barbara Ehrenreich (2008-03-24). "Progressives for Obama", The Nation. Retrieved on 2008-03-27. </ref>

On January 24, 2008, he was convicted of trespassing during a union rally at a Sheraton Hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He was convicted along with union representative Alex Dagg and Ontario Federation of Labour president Wayne Samuelson.<ref>"Danny Glover convicted of trespassing in Ontario".</ref>Although Canadian Niagara Hotels were seeking $22,000 in a private prosecution, Glover, Dagg and Samuelson were sentenced with a $100 fine on February 8, 2008. The justice of the peace suggested that "the prosecution was unnecessary to protect the interests of the hotel's owner, and that the company should have put more effort toward good faith negotiations with the union".<ref>"Actor Danny Glover fined $100 for trespassing in Ontario". CBC News (2008-02-08).</ref>

Filmography

• Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
• Deadly Drifter (1982)
• Places in the Heart (1984)
• Silverado (1985)
• Witness (1985)
• The Color Purple (1985)
• Lethal Weapon (1987)
• Mandela (1987)
• Bat*21 (1988)
• Lonesome Dove (1989)
• Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
• A Raisin in the Sun (1989)
• To Sleep With Anger (1990)
• Predator 2 (1990)
• Flight of the Intruder (1991)
• Grand Canyon (1991)
• Pure Luck (1991)
• Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
• Queen (1993) (TV miniseries)
• The Saint of Fort Washington (1993)
• Bopha! (1993)
• Civil War Journal (Narrator) (1993-1994)
• Maverick (1994)
• Angels in the Outfield (1994)
• Operation Dumbo Drop (1995)
• Fallen Angels: Red Wind (1995)
• The Rainmaker (1997)
• Gone Fishin' (1997)
• Switchback (1997)
• Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
• The Prince of Egypt (1998)
• Beloved (1998)
• Antz (1998)
• Boesman and Lena (2000)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
• The Cookout (2004)
• Saw (2004)
• Legend of Earthsea (2004) (TV miniseries)
• Manderlay (2005)
• Missing in America (2005)
• Bamako (2006)
• Barnyard (2006)
• The Shaggy Dog (2006)
• Dreamgirls (2006)
• Shooter (2007)
• Poor Boy's Game (2007)
• Honeydripper (2007)
• Be Kind Rewind (2008)
• Gospel Hill (2008)
• Blindness (2008)
• Por Vida (2008)
• Unstable Fables: Tortoise vs. Hare (2008) (voice)<ref>"Tortoise vs. Hare" Coming This Fall . March 6, 2008</ref>
• Night Train (2009)
• 2012 (2009)
• Stride (2009)
• The Harimaya Bridge (2009)

References

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Danny Glover

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External links

• Danny Glover at the Internet Movie Database
• Al Jazeera English's Riz Khan interview with Danny Glover
• A free video excerpt of a lecture by Glover
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Danny Glover (TV Interview)
• The TransAfrica Forum
• Interview on Democracy Now! (audio)
• Interview in AARP Magazine
• Interview in The Progressive
• Interview (4/5/2007) from Africa On Fire! on KBOO
• Danny Glover in the news supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal
• 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
• The ongoing effort to draft Danny Glover into the San Francisco Mayoral race
• Cheryl Byron and Something Positive
• Danny Glover Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos