Danny Lebern Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist best known for his leading role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise. He has also appeared in many other movies, television shows, and theatrical performances. In addition to his work as an actor, Glover strongly supports various humanitarian and political causes.
He played Detective David Tapp in the first Saw film.
Early Life[]
Danny Glover was born to postal workers Carrie and James Glover in San Francisco, California. His parents were active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, working to advance equal rights. Glover's mother was born in Louisville, Georgia, and graduated from Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. Like his father, Glover grew up loving sports.
Glover had epilepsy in his second decade and as a young adult. According to his 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 has not suffered a seizure since the age of 34.
Glover graduated from George Washington High School in San Francisco before attending City College of San Francisco for a year. He then matriculated to the American University, graduating with a B.A. in economics in 1968. While in college, he met his future wife, Asake Bomani, whom he married in 1975. Their only child and daughter, Mandisa, was born on January 5, 1976. They later divorced.
Career[]
Initially, Glover worked in city administration but always had other interests. In his late 20s, he 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 Jean Shelton for significantly impacting his development as an actor throughout his career. 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 to get more opportunities to act. He later co-founded the Robey Theatre Company with actor Ben Guillory in honor of the actor, radical activist, and concert singer Paul Robeson in Los Angeles in 1994.
Glover had various film, stage, and television roles and is best known for playing Los Angeles police Sgt. Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon series of action films. He made many cameos in other films, including the Michael Jackson video Liberian Girl of 1987. He has also received notice as the husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in The Color Purple and Lieutenant James McFee in Witness. In 1994, he made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film Override. The same year, Glover and actor Ben Guillory formed the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, focusing on theater by and about black people.
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, Glover played Raymond Chandler's private eye detective, Philip Marlowe, in the episode Red Wind of the Showtime network's 1995 series Fallen Angels.
In addition, Glover has been a voice actor in many children's movies. He was featured in the 2001 film Royal Tenenbaums, which starred 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. The jury found the EPA guilty of violating the civil rights of Coleman-Adebayo based on race, sex, color, and a hostile work environment under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Coleman-Adebayo was terminated shortly after discovering the environmental and human disaster in the vanadium mines in Brits, South Africa. Her experience inspired the passage of the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002.
In 2009, Glover performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. The documentary used dramatic and musical performances of everyday Americans' letters, diaries, and speeches.
Glover also played President Wilson, the President of the United States, in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released in theaters on November 13, 2009.
Activism[]
Glover spoke at a March for Immigrants Rights in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2007. While attending San Francisco State University, 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-running student walkout in US history and helped create the first Department of Black Studies and the first School of Ethnic Studies.
Hari Dillon, current president of the Vanguard Public Foundation, was a fellow striker at SFSU. Glover later sat on Vanguard's advisory board. Glover is also a board member of The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, Walden House, and Cheryl Byron's Something Positive Dance Group.
In 2004, Glover was arrested in the US outside the Sudan 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, Danny Glover supported 375 Union workers in Ohio. In addition, he called upon all actors at the 2010 Academy Awards to boycott Hugo Boss suits due to Hugo Boss' announcement to close a manufacturing plant in Ohio after the Workers United Union rejected a proposed pay decrease from $13 to $8.30 per hour.
In January 2006, Harry Belafonte led a delegation of activists, including Glover and activist/professor Cornel West, to meet with the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. Glover has a well-publicized friendship with Chavez, who has reportedly approved $18,000,000 to finance Glover's directorial debut in a film about Toussaint Louverture, leader of a slave uprising in Haiti in 1791.
Glover supported former North Carolina Senator John Edwards in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries until Edwards' withdrawal. However, some news reports indicated that he had endorsed Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, whom he had supported in 2004. After Edwards had dropped out, Glover supported Barack Obama.
Glover was an outspoken critic of George W. Bush, calling him a known racist and stating: "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 US states together. And most of the people who died were Afro-Americans or Hispanics."
Glover's support of California Proposition 7 in 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 the chieftaincy title "Enyioma of Nkwerre," in Imo State, Nigeria, which means "A Good Friend" in the language of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria. On September 2, 2009, Glover signed an open objection letter against including a series of films intended to showcase Tel Aviv at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Glover has become an active member of the Board of Directors of The Jazz Foundation of America. He 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. He appeared as a celebrity MC at other events for the foundation. In 2006, Britain's leading African theater company, Tiata Fahodzi, appointed Danny Glover as one of its three Patrons. He joined Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jocelyn Jee Esien in opening the organization's tenth-anniversary celebrations on February 2, 2008, at Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.
On January 13, 2010, Glover compared the scale and devastation of the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the predicament other island nations may face due to the previous year's failed Copenhagen summit. 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 [...]." He called for a new international partnership with Haiti and other Caribbean nations in the same statement and praised Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba for already accepting this partnership.
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 reported, "Glover and others stepped past the yellow police tape and were asked to step back three times at Sodexo headquarters. When they refused, Starks says officers arrested them."
Danny Glover has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war before the war began in March 2003. In February 2003, he was a featured speaker at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. Other notable speakers included author Alice Walker, singer Joan Baez, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. Additionally, 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 civilians" and "devastation of one of the cultural patrimonies of humanity." During an anti-war demonstration in Downtown Oakland in March 2003, Danny Glover praised the community leaders for their anti-war efforts, saying, "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's foreign policy, 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?"
Glover also supports Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, one of the Cuban Five held in a US prison in Victorville, Calif. He joined the thesis, according to which Hernández worked to denounce and prevent acts of terrorism, like hijacking and explosions in tourist sites, organized in the '90s with US government complaisance against the Cuban government. The news of their meeting on August 8, 2010, appeared in the Cuban press.
Honors and Awards[]
In 2010, Glover delivered the Commencement Address and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Utah State University. The same year, Starr King School for the Ministry awarded him the Doctorate of Humane Letters in absentia. Glover was awarded the doctorate for his long history of passionate activism, including support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, The Algebra Project, and The Black AIDS Institute. He was also honored for his humanitarian efforts for the Haiti earthquake victims, literacy, civil rights, and his fight against unjust labor practices.
He is co-founder and CEO of Louverture Films, dedicated to developing and producing films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value, and artistic integrity. They honored his commitment to using film to lift and advance social justice issues, such as his then-released project Trouble the Water, a documentary about New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Furthermore, Glover is closely associated with Starr King School through his role as a guest lecturer in its Non-Violent Social Change course. He also gave his support and presence to events sponsored by Starr King's Masters of Arts in Social Change program.
The Deauville American Film Festival in France paid tribute to him on September 7, 2011. In addition, the Cuban Council of State awarded Glover the Cuban National Medal of Friendship on December 29, 2016, in Havana for his solidarity with the Cuban Five during their incarceration in the United States.
On March 25, 2022, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Glover with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Governors Awards ceremony. In 2023, he was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia.
Filmography[]
Films[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Escape from Alcatraz | Inmate |
| 1981 | Chu Chu and the Philly Flash | Morgan |
| 1982 | Out | Jojo / Roland |
| 1984 | Iceman | Loomis |
| Places in the Heart | Moze | |
| 1985 | Witness | McFee |
| Silverado | Mal | |
| The Color Purple | Albert | |
| The Stand-In | Apples Finnerty | |
| 1987 | Lethal Weapon | Roger Murtaugh |
| 1988 | Bat*21 | Captain Bartholomew Clark |
| 1989 | Lethal Weapon 2 | Roger Murtaugh |
| Michael Jackson: Liberian Girl | Danny Glover | |
| Rabbit Ears: How the Leopard Got His Spots | Narrator | |
| 1990 | To Sleep with Anger | Harry |
| Predator 2 | Lieutenant Mike Harrigan | |
| 1991 | Flight of the Intruder | Cmdr. Frank 'Dooke' Camparelli |
| A Rage in Harlem | Easy Money | |
| Pure Luck | Raymond Campanella | |
| MC Hammer: 2 Legit 2 Quit | Danny Glover | |
| Grand Canyon | Simon | |
| 1992 | Lethal Weapon 3 | Roger Murtaugh |
| 1993 | The Saint of Fort Washington | Jerry / Narrator |
| Bopha! | Micah Mangena | |
| 1994 | Maverick | Bank Robber |
| Angels in the Outfield | George Knox | |
| 1995 | Operation Dumbo Drop | Capt. Sam Cahill |
| 1996 | Harriet the Spy | Cop |
| 1997 | Gone Fishin' | Gus Green |
| Wild America | Bigfoot the Mountain Man | |
| Switchback | Bob Goodall | |
| The Rainmaker | Judge Tyrone Kipler | |
| 1998 | Lethal Weapon 4 | Roger Murtaugh |
| Antz | Barbatus | |
| Beloved | Paul D | |
| The Prince of Egypt | Jethro | |
| 1999 | Our Friend, Martin | Train Conductor |
| The Monster | Henry Johnson | |
| 2000 | Bàttu | |
| Boesman and Lena | Boesman | |
| 2001 | 3 A.M. | Hershey |
| The Royal Tenenbaums | Henry Sherman | |
| 2004 | Saw | Detective David Tapp |
| The Cookout | Judge Crowley | |
| 2005 | Manderlay | Wilhelm |
| Missing in America | Jake Neeley | |
| P.N.O.K. | Col. Weldon | |
| 2006 | The Shaggy Dog | Ken Hollister |
| The Adventures of Brer Rabbit | Brer Turtle | |
| Bamako | Cow-boy | |
| Barnyard | Miles the Mule | |
| Dreamgirls | Marty Madison | |
| 2007 | Rwanda Rising | Father Aime Rukanika |
| Poor Boy's Game | George | |
| Shooter | Colonel Isaac Johnson | |
| Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation | Priest - friend of Sam Nujoma | |
| Terra | President Chen | |
| Honeydripper | Tyrone Purvis | |
| 2008 | Be Kind Rewind | Mr. Fletcher |
| Blindness | Man with Black Eye Patch | |
| Unstable Fables: Tortoise vs. Hare | Walter Tortoise | |
| Gospel Hill | John Malcolm | |
| This Life | Bill | |
| Prana | Owner | |
| 2009 | Night Train | Miles |
| The Harimaya Bridge | Joseph Holder | |
| Down for Life | Mr. Shannon | |
| 2012 | President Thomas Wilson | |
| 2010 | Death at a Funeral | Uncle Russell |
| Second Line | Businessman | |
| För kärleken | Franzis Namazi | |
| I'm Still Here | Danny Glover | |
| Alpha and Omega | Winston | |
| Legendary | Harry 'Red' Newman | |
| Mooz-Lum | Dean Francis | |
| De mayor quiero ser soldado | School Director | |
| Five Minarets in New York | Marcus | |
| 2011 | Son of Morning | Gabriel Peters |
| Age of the Dragons | Ahab | |
| Playing Doctor | Dr. Arnett | |
| Donovan's Echo | Donovan Matheson | |
| Mysteria | Investigator | |
| Heart of Blackness | Vaudreuil | |
| 2012 | LUV | Arthur |
| Sins Expiation | Father Leonard | |
| Cruise Control | Danny Glover | |
| The Children's Republic | Dubem | |
| 2013 | The Bouquet | Reverend John |
| Highland Park | Ed | |
| Chasing Shakespeare | William Ward | |
| The Shift | Floyd | |
| Space Warriors | Commander | |
| Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight | Thurgood Marshall | |
| Tula: The Revolt | Shinishi | |
| Extraction | Harding | |
| 2014 | Tokarev | Det. Peter St. John |
| Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses | Bernie Pope | |
| Ninja Immovable Heart | Ex-Director Matthew Reynolds | |
| Supremacy | Mr. Walker | |
| 2047: Sights of Death | Sponge | |
| Beyond the Lights | Captain Nicol | |
| Gus - Petit oiseau, grand voyage | Darius | |
| Day of the Mummy | Carl | |
| 2015 | Toxin | Dr. Locke |
| Bad Asses on the Bayou | Bernie Pope | |
| Ninja Interlude | Matthew Reynolds | |
| About Scout | Red Freston | |
| Consumed | Hal | |
| Checkmate | Elohim | |
| Waffle Street | Edward Collins | |
| Gridlocked | Sully | |
| Diablo | Benjamin Carver | |
| Andròn: The Black Labyrinth | Chancellor Gordon | |
| 2016 | Dirty Grandpa | Stinky |
| Complete Unknown | Roger | |
| Sr. Pig | Ambrose | |
| Darkweb | ||
| 93 Days | Dr. Benjamin Ohiaeri | |
| Back in the Day | Eddie 'Rocks' Travor | |
| Pushing Dead | Bob | |
| Against the Wall | ||
| Almost Christmas | Walter | |
| Monster Trucks | Mr. Weathers | |
| 2017 | The Good Catholic | Victor |
| Extortion | Constable Haagen | |
| Vagabonds | Uncle Issa | |
| Buckout Road | Dr. Powell | |
| 2018 | Proud Mary | Benny |
| Sorry to Bother You | Langston | |
| Come Sunday | Quincy Pearson | |
| Ulysses: A Dark Odyssey | Mr. Ocean | |
| The Old Man & the Gun | Teddy | |
| Death Race: Beyond Anarchy | Baltimore Bob | |
| 2019 | The Last Black Man in San Francisco | Grandpa Allen |
| The Dead Don't Die | Hank Thompson | |
| Strive | Mr. Rose | |
| Jumanji: The Next Level | Milo | |
| 2020 | The Drummer | Mark Walker |
| 2022 | American Dreamer | Jerry |
| Press Play | Cooper | |
| 2023 | Double Soul | Michael Tedeschi |
| The Naughty Nine | Santa Claus |
Television Series[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | B.J. and the Bear | MacThomas |
| Lou Grant | Leroy | |
| Paris | ||
| 1981 | Palmerstown, U.S.A. | Harley |
| The Greatest American Hero | Vice Officer | |
| Hill Street Blues | Jesse John Hudson | |
| Gimme a Break! | Bill | |
| 1983 | Chiefs | Marshall Peters |
| 1986 | Tall Tales & Legends | John Henry |
| 1983-1989 | American Playhouse | Walter Lee Younger / Lester |
| 1989 | Lonesome Dove | Joshua Deets |
| Saturday Night Live | Roger Murtaugh | |
| 1991 | Captain Planet and the Planeteers | Professor Apollo |
| 1993 | Queen | Alec Haley |
| 1995 | Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child | King |
| Fallen Angels | Philip Marlowe | |
| 2003 | Biography | Narrator |
| 2005 | Earthsea | Ogion |
| ER | Charlie Pratt Sr. | |
| 2007-2008 | Brothers & Sisters | Isaac Marshall |
| 2009 | My Name Is Earl | Thomas |
| Nite Tales: The Series | Jeremiah | |
| 2010 | American Masters | Narrator |
| Human Target | Client | |
| 2011 | Leverage | Charlie Lawson |
| Psych | Mel Hornsby | |
| 2012 | Touch | Arthur Teller |
| 2013 | American Dad! | Minstrel Krampus |
| Ironside | Frank | |
| 2016 | Criminal Minds | Hank Morgan |
| Mozart in the Jungle | Mayor | |
| 2017 | Cold Case Files | Narrator |
| 2020 | Black-ish | Uncle Norman |
| 2021 | Marvel's Wastelanders: Old Man Star-Lord | Red Crotter |
| 2023 | I'm a Virgo | Weatherman |
Television Films[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 | The Face of Rage | Gary |
| Memorial Day | Willie Monroe | |
| 1985 | And the Children Shall Lead | William |
| 1987 | Mandela | Nelson Mandela |
| 1988 | A Place at the Table | Mr. Scott |
| 1989 | Dead Man Out | Dr. Alex Marsh |
| 1993 | The Talking Eggs | Narrator |
| 1996 | America's Dream | Silas |
| 1997 | Buffalo Soldiers | Sgt. Washington Wyatt |
| 2000 | Freedom Song | Will Walker |
| 2003 | Good Fences | Tom Spader |
| 2005 | The Exonerated | David Keaton |
| 2012 | Hannah's Law | Isom Dart |
| 2013 | Shuffleton's Barbershop | Charlie Shuffleton |
| 2017 | Tour de Pharmacy | Slim Robinson |
| The Christmas Train | Max Powers | |
| Locke & Key | Joe Ridgeway | |
| 2018 | Christmas Break-In | Ray |
Video Games[]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Brer Rabbit and the Wonderful Tar Baby | Narrator |
| 2006 | Barnyard | Miles |
| 2023 | Crime Boss: Rockay City | Gloves |
Gallery[]
