Danny Glover - Actors and Actresses

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Nationality: American. Born: San Francisco, California, 22 July 1947. Education: San Francisco State University, degree in economics; studied acting at Black Actors' Workshop, American Conservatory Theatre, beginning in 1975. Family: Married Asake Bomani, 1975; children: Mandisa. Career: Actor. Began acting in the late 1960s with San Francisco State University's Black Students Union; evaluator of social programs, City of Berkeley, California; researcher, Office of the Mayor, San Francisco, California, 1971–75; recorded books on tape for children and adults, including Long Walk to Freedom (reading of Nelson Mandela's autobiography), Time Warner Audio Books, 1996; appeared on TV series Hollywood Squares , 1998. Awards: NAACP Image Award, for Mandela , 1988; Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor, for To Sleep with Anger , 1990; inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, 1990; Phoenix Award, Black American Cinema Society, 1990; honorary D.H.L., Paine College, 1990; Cable Ace Award, for America's Dream , 1996; star on the Walk of Fame, 1996; honorary D.F.A., San Francisco State University, 1997; appointed Goodwill Ambassador, United Nations Development Program, 1998; NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture, for Beloved , 1999. Office: Carrie Productions, 4444 West Riverside Dr., Burbank, CA 91505. Agent: William Morris Agency, 151 El Camino, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

Films as Actor:

1979

Escape from Alcatraz (Siegel) (as Inmate)

1981

Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (Rich) (as Morgan); Oscar Micheaux, Film Pioneer (as Oscar Micheaux)

1982

Out ( Deadly Drifter ) (Hollander)

1983

Memorial Day (Sargent—for TV) (as Willie Monroe); "Chiefs" (London—mini, for TV) (as Marshall Peters); The Face of Rage (Wrye—for TV) (as Gary)

1984

Iceman (Schepisi) (as Loomis); Places in the Heart (Benton) (as Moze)

1985

And the Children Shall Lead (Pressman—for TV); Silverado (Kasdan) (as Mal); The Color Purple (Spielberg) (as Albert); Witness (Weir) (as McFee)

1987

Mandela (Saville—for TV) (as Nelson Mandela); Lethal Weapon (Donner) (as Roger Murtaugh)

1988

Bat*21 (Markle) (as Captain Bartholomew Clark)

1989

Lethal Weapon 2 (Donner) (as Roger Murtaugh); Dead Man Out ( Dead Man Walking ) (Pearce—for TV) (as Alex); Lonesome Dove (Wincer—mini, for TV) (as Joshua Deets); A Raisin in the Sun (Duke—for TV) (as Walter Lee)

1990

Flight of the Intruder (Milius) (as CDR Frank "Dooke" Camparelli); To Sleep with Anger (Burnett) (as Harry Mention) (+ exec pr); Predator 2 (Hopkins) (as Lt. Mike Harrigan)

1991

Grand Canyon (Kasdan) (as Simon); Pure Luck (Tass) (as Raymond Campanella); A Rage in Harlem (Duke) (as Easy Money)

1992

The Talking Eggs (Sporn) (as Narrator); Lethal Weapon 3 (Donner) (as Roger Murtaugh)

1993

Bopha! (Freeman) (as Micah Mangena); The Saint of Fort Washington (Hunter) (as Jerry); Queen (Erman—mini, for TV) (as Alec Haley)

1994

Maverick (Donner) (as Bank Robber [uncredited]); Angels in the Outfield (Dear) (as George Knox)

1995

Operation Dumbo Drop (Wincer) (as Capt. Sam Cahill)

1996

America's Dream (Barclay, Duke, Sullivan) (as Silas) (+ exec pr)

1997

Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? The Life & Music of Robert Johnson (doc) (Meyer) (as Narrator); Buffalo Soldiers (Haid—for TV) (as Sergeant Wyatt) (+ exec pr); The Rainmaker (Coppola) (as Judge Tyrone Kipler [uncredited]); Switchback (Stuart) (as Bob Goodall); Wild America (Dear) (as Mountain Man [uncredited]); Gone Fishin' (Cain) (as Gus Green)

1998

The Prince of Egypt (Chapman, Hickner, Wells) (as voice of Jethro); Beloved (Demme) (as Paul D); Antz (Darnell, Johnson, Guterman) (as voice of Barbatus); Lethal Weapon 4 (Donner) (as Roger Murtaugh)

1999

The Monster (as Henry Johnson); Our Friend, Martin (Smiley, Trippetti) (as voice of Train Conductor); Wings Against the Wind (Palcy); Scared Straight! 20 Years Later (Shapiro—for TV) (as voice of Narrator)

2000

Freedom Song (Robinson—for TV) (as Will Walker) (+ exec pr); Boesman and Lena (John Berry) (as Boesman)

Other Films:

1994

Override (for TV) (d)

1996

Deadly Voyage (Mackenzie—for TV) (exec pr)

Publications

By GLOVER: articles—

McGregor, A., "Red Hot Glover," interview in Time Out (London), no. 1101, 25 September 1991.

"20 Questions: Danny Glover," in Playboy (Chicago), September 1991.

On GLOVER: articles—

Ebony (Chicago), March 1986.

GQ (New York), July 1989.

"Danny Glover," in People (New York), 10 February 1992.

Premiere (Boulder), 10 February 1992.

Powell, Kevin, "Danny Glover: What a Man!" in Essence (New York), July 1994.

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During the last two decades, American filmgoers have found great amusement in movies that, for humorous effect, contrast conventional

black and white styles. In the Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hours series, to take the best known examples, comedian Eddie Murphy runs his numbers on a succession of stolid and humorless ofay types, either middle-class cops and villains from the whitest of white suburbs or a not very classy (or clean) detective with no more wit or style than a can of pork and beans. The most memorable scenes in these films are the ones in which Murphy's ghetto moves and verbal jive help him negotiate what might be difficult, even dangerous moments. Confronted by suspicious smugglers, hassled by a bar full of racist rednecks, or confronted by an uppity hotel clerk, Murphy always slips through with verbal pyrotechnics or guile that would make Odysseus jealous.

The Lethal Weapon films offer similar enjoyments provided by the narrative excuse of a meaningless thriller plot, but with a twist. Here it is the white guy, self-destructive, impulsive Mel Gibson, who plays off the unruffled and very professional aplomb of his detective partner, a restrained Danny Glover who is constantly amazed by the zany antics of the unpredictable Gibson. It isn't just that Glover easily incarnates the conventional values of the black middle class—a strong desire for success, unwavering commitment to family, and a deeply felt respect for the ethical code of his profession. Glover also exudes a gentleness that makes him the perfect victim of such shenanigans. He never gets angry, only exasperated.

It is this gentleness that allows Glover to do well with roles that might seem more suited to Gene Wilder's brand of whimsical, unthreatening masculinity. In Angels in the Outfield , Glover plays an apparently hard-bitten baseball manager frustrated with his team's incompetent athletes; an unsuspected heavenly intervention, revealed at first to the children who are these losers' biggest fans, soon makes him a believer in undeserved benevolence, for which he becomes a passionate spokesman. Operation Dumbo Drop (a Walt Disney Vietnam film) succeeds because Glover's warmhearted officer, who is concerned for the Montagnard villagers who have lost their elephant, is able to convert career-officer Ray Liotta into an animal lover willing to jump out of an airplane to save an errant pachyderm. In The Saint of Fort Washington , he is a lovable derelict (shades of Wilder's Quakser Fortune has a Cousin Living in the Bronx ) who does an affecting and melodramatic turn with, of all people, Matt Dillon.

As a supporting actor, Glover regularly turns in a competent performance: as an almost sympathetic murdering cop in Witness ; as a bank robber in Maverick ; as a southern judge in The Rainmaker ; as a kind-hearted family man who rescues Kevin Kline in Grand Canyon ; as the complex Mr. B, wife-beater and love slave, in The Color Purple ; as a cowboy in Lonesome Dove ; and so on. He has proven somewhat inept at both comedy ( Gone Fishin' ) and darker featured roles (playing a serial killer he is chillingly friendly but not scarily charismatic in Switchback ).

He has been most impressive, however, in roles that enable him to make a statement about race. Dispossessed and rejected, he refuses to surrender to bitterness and comes to life as a cotton farmer in order to save the farm for Sally Field in Places in the Heart. His dedicated police officer in Bopha must abandon his unthinking cooperation with the system that oppresses his own people. In the Chester Himes adaptation, A Rage in Harlem , he is effective as a city slicker, the hustler Easy Money, providing depth and dramatic contrast in a well-directed ensemble cast. The surprisingly unpopular Beloved finds him as an ex-slave victimized by a white man, a dramatic foil to Oprah Winfrey's Sethe. He is excellent as Walter Lee in a TV production of A Raisin in the Sun , though less intense and more vulnerable than Sidney Poitier's defining interpretation of the character.

Though he has worked steadily and with competence throughout his long career, Danny Glover, however, has not yet found roles that could showcase his not inconsiderable acting talent. It is ironic, and revealing of the racial dynamics of the New Hollywood, that he has had his greatest popular success playing the straight man to Mel Gibson's berserker.

—R. Barton Palmer