Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as
Roger Murtaugh in the ''
Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films included ''
The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. '', ''
To Sleep with Anger'', ''
Predator 2'', ''
Angels in the Outfield'', and ''
Operation Dumbo Drop''. Glover has prominent supporting roles in ''
Silverado'', ''
Witness'', ''
A Rage in Harlem
''A Rage in Harlem'' is a 1991 American crime film directed by Bill Duke and loosely based on Chester Himes' novel ''A Rage in Harlem''. The film stars Forest Whitaker, Danny Glover, Badja Djola, Robin Givens and Gregory Hines. Producer Stephen W ...
'', ''
Dreamgirls'', ''
Shooter'', ''
Death at a Funeral'', ''
Beyond the Lights'', ''
Saw'', ''
Sorry to Bother You'', ''
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' is a 2019 American drama film directed and produced by Joe Talbot in his directorial debut. He wrote the screenplay with Rob Richert and the story with Jimmie Fails, on whose life it is partly based. It s ...
'', ''
The Dead Don't Die'', ''
Lonesome Dove'' and ''
Jumanji: The Next Level''. He is also an active supporter of various political causes.
In 2022, the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...
honored Glover with the
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Additionally, Glover has received numerous
accolades, including the
NAACP's
President's Award and the Cuban National
Medal of Friendship by the
Cuban Council of State
The Council of State () of Cuba is a 31-member body of the government of Cuba, elected by the National Assembly of People's Power. It has the authority to exercise most legislative power between sessions of the National Assembly of People's Power ...
. He has also received nominations for four
Primetime Emmy Awards, four
Grammy Awards, and a
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...
. ''
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
'' named him one of the best actors never to have received an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nomination.
Early life
Danny Lebern Glover was born in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, California, the son of Carrie (Hunley) and James Glover. Both of his parents were postal workers, and were active in the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.& ...
(NAACP), working to advance equal rights. Glover's mother, daughter of a
midwife
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; ...
, was born in
Louisville, Georgia and graduated from
Paine College in
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Geor ...
. His father was a World War II veteran. He graduated from
George Washington High School in San Francisco.
As an adolescent and a young adult, Glover had
epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrica ...
but has not had a
seizure
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with lo ...
since age 35. He attended
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
(SFSU) in the late 1960s but did not graduate. SFSU later awarded him the Presidential Medal of San Francisco State University for his service to education. Glover trained at the Black Actors' Workshop of the
American Conservatory Theater.
Career
upGlover in 1997
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 ndwould 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 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 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
Robey Theatre Company is a Los Angeles-based non-profit theatre company.
History
Robey Theatre Company was founded in 1994 by Danny Glover and Ben Guillory. It takes its name from the pioneering Black actor and activist, Paul Robeson. Rob ...
with actor
Ben Guillory
Ben Guillory (born Bennet Guillory on November 7, 1949 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is an American actor, theatre producer and director.
Biography
Raised in San Francisco, California, Guillory co-founded the Robey Theatre Company in honor of a ...
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, starring alongside
Mel Gibson
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apoca ...
, and
Joe Pesci. Later he once again starred with
Gary Busey in the blockbuster ''
Predator 2''. He also starred as the husband to
Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in the celebrated literary adaptation ''
The Color Purple
''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. '', 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
Ben Guillory (born Bennet Guillory on November 7, 1949 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is an American actor, theatre producer and director.
Biography
Raised in San Francisco, California, Guillory co-founded the Robey Theatre Company in honor of a ...
founded the
Robey Theatre Company
Robey Theatre Company is a Los Angeles-based non-profit theatre company.
History
Robey Theatre Company was founded in 1994 by Danny Glover and Ben Guillory. It takes its name from the pioneering Black actor and activist, Paul Robeson. Rob ...
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
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...
video "
Liberian Girl" of 1987. Glover earned top billing for the first time in ''
Predator 2'', the sequel to the
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
action film ''
Predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...
''. 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
Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
, 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 ''
The Royal Tenenbaums
''The Royal Tenenbaums'' is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson. It stars Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wi ...
'', also starring
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston ( ; born July 8, 1951) is an American actress and director. Known for often portraying eccentric and distinctive characters, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nom ...
,
Ben Stiller, and
Owen Wilson
Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor. He has had a long association with filmmaker Wes Anderson with whom he shared writing and acting credits for ''Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), and '' The Royal ...
.
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 film about Dr.
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is an American former senior policy analyst for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Beginning in 1996, she filed complaints alleging that a company from the United States was mining vanadium in South Afri ...
'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 the passage of the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (
No-FEAR Act
The Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that seeks to discourage federal managers and supervisors from engaging in unlawful discrimination and retaliation. It is popular ...
). 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.
Glover portrayed David Keaton in the film ''
The Exonerated''—a real-life story of Keaton's experience of being arrested, jailed, and then freed from death row.
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
'' A People's History of the United States'' is a 1980 nonfiction book by American historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn presented what he considered to be a different side of history from the more traditional "fund ...
''.
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
''I Want to Be a Soldier'' is a drama film released in Spain and at the Rome Film Festival in 2010. It is the fourth feature film of director Christian Molina.
Plot
Alex, a 10-year-old child, develops an unhealthy obsession with morbid image ...
''. In 2012, he starred in the film ''
Donovan's Echo''.
Glover co-starred in the science fiction comedy film ''
Sorry to Bother You'', which was released in theaters on July 6, 2018.
Planned directorial debut
Glover sought to make a film biography of
Toussaint Louverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, 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 Poland, 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 was 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. In April 2008, the Venezuelan National Assembly authorized an additional $9,840,505 for Glover's film, which is still in planning. In 2015, Glover gave an update on the Toussaint project, stating, "The film that we always missed is a movie on the Haitian revolution and Toussaint Louverture. The company is fortuitously named after him and that was the movie that I wanted to do. We’ve developed a script. We thought we were going to get it done four years ago. We thought we were going to be making it right now. But also there are other kinds of things that intrigue me."
Public appearances
Glover appeared at
London Film and Comic Con 2013 at Earls Court 2 over 2.5 days during Friday 5th to Sunday, July 7. He participated in a panel discussion in McComb, Mississippi on July 16, 2015. The event, co-sponsored by The Gloster Project and Jubilee Performing Arts Center, included noted authors
Terry McMillan and Quincy Troupe.
On January 30, 2015, Glover was the Keynote Speaker and 2015 Honoree for the MLK Celebration Series at the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI). Glover used his career and personal story to speak on the topic "Creativity and Democracy: Social Change through the Arts". At the University of the Virgin Islands, Glover gave a speech that encouraged the graduates in their upcoming journey.
It was announced in July 2018 that Glover will be the featured guest at the Port Townsend Film Festival in Washington State.
Personal life
Glover married Asake Bomani in 1975 and they have a daughter, Mandisa, born in 1976. Glover and Bomani divorced in 2000. Glover married Eliane Cavalleiro in 2009.
Glover purchased a house in
Dunthorpe, Oregon
Dunthorpe is an affluent unincorporated suburb of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located just south of the Portland city limits and north of the Multnomah County line on the west side of the Willamette River. Lewis & Clark College, Tryon ...
, in 1999. As of 2011, he no longer lives in Oregon.
On April 16, 2010, Glover was arrested in Maryland during a protest by
SEIU workers for
Sodexo's alleged 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, officers arrested them."
Activism
Civil rights activism
While attending
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
(SFSU), Glover was a member of the Black Students' Union, which, along with the
Third World Liberation Front
In 1968, the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), a coalition of the Black Students Union, the Latin American Students Organization, the Filipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) the Filipino-American Students Organization, the Asian American ...
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 United States.
Hari Dillon, current president of the
Vanguard Public Foundation
Vanguard Public Foundation was an American social justice foundation focused on providing grants to social justice nonprofits. One of the first of the "rich kid foundations," Vanguard was a model for a new generation's philanthropy. Vanguard rose a ...
, was a fellow striker at SFSU. Glover later co-chaired Vanguard's board. He is also a board member of the
Algebra Project
The Algebra Project is a national U.S. mathematics literacy program aimed at helping low-income students and students of color achieve the mathematical skills in high school that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence. ...
, 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.
In 1999, he used his leverage as a former San Francisco cab driver to raise awareness about African Americans being passed over for white passengers. In response, Rudolph Giuliani launched Operation Refusal, which suspended the licenses of cab drivers who favored white passengers over black ones.
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.
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.
Political activism
Glover was an early supporter of former
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...
Senator
John Edwards in the
2008 Democratic presidential primaries until Edwards' withdrawal, although some news reports indicated that he had endorsed
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
Congressman
Dennis Kucinich, whom he had endorsed in
2004. After Edwards dropped out, Glover then endorsed
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
. In February 2016, Glover endorsed
Vermont
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...
Senator
Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination. In February 2019, Glover again endorsed Sanders for US president in 2020.
In 2017, he co-authored a petition along with
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
,
Mark Ruffalo,
Nancy Fraser,
Oliver Stone and
Eve Ensler, urging French citizens to vote for candidate
Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the
2017 presidential election.
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 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
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
, it would happen to be a woman.... But what choices do they have within the structure?"
Glover wrote the foreword to Phyllis Bennis' book, ''Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power.'' Glover is also a member of the board of directors of the
Center for Economic and Policy Research, a
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-govern ...
led by economist
Dean Baker.
International
Africa
Glover is an active board member of the
TransAfrica Forum. On April 6, 2009, Glover was given a
chieftaincy
A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.
Tribe
The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia.
Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as ...
title in
Imo State, Nigeria. His title, "Enyioma of
Nkwerre", means ''A Good Friend'' in the language of the
Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.
Brazil
In 2018, Glover, as the UN Goodwill Ambassador, met with
Lula to express solidarity and support for his presidential candidacy. During a trip to
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, he also met with the family of
Marielle Franco, the City Council member and
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
activist murdered in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
.
Caribbean and Haiti
On January 13, 2010, Glover compared the scale and devastation of the
2010 Haiti earthquake
A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's ca ...
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.
Iraq War
Danny Glover had 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
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
,
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."
Venezuela
In January 2006,
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an internati ...
led a delegation of activists, including Glover, activist/professor
Cornel West, and activist/Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos Founder and Executive Director Daniel NANE Alejandrez in a meeting with
President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez. In 2006, Glover had begun working on a film about
Toussaint Louverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
, who led the 18th century revolt in Haiti and, it was reported, that Chavez supported the film, "hoping the historical epic will sprinkle Hollywood stardust on his effort to mobilise world public opinion against imperialism and western oppression."
In 2007, Glover agreed with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez that the Touissant Louverture film would be financed by Venezuela. On May 19, 2007, the National Assembly of Venezuela approved giving Glover $18,000,000 for the film. The following year, on April 9, 2008, the National Assembly of Venezuela, at the request of the Chávez, approved another $9,000,000 to be handed to Glover in order to "continue" the filming of the film about Touissant. Surprisingly, in an interview dated January 5, 2015, published in ''Filmmaker'' magazine, Glover says, "The film that we always missed is a movie on the Haitian revolution and Toussaint Louverture. The company is fortuitously named after him and that was the movie that I wanted to do. We’ve developed a script. We thought we were going to get it done four years ago. We thought we were going to be making it right now. But also there are other kinds of things that intrigue me". , the film had not been made.
Glover was also a board member of
TeleSUR, a media network primarily funded by the Venezuelan government.
During the beginning of the
2014 Venezuela Protests, Glover shared his support to Chávez's successor, President
Nicolás Maduro, calling members of his government "the stewards" of Venezuela's democracy. Glover also told Venezuelan government supporters to go fight for the sovereignty of Maduro's government.
Through the
crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela, Glover continued to show his support for the Bolivarian government and President Maduro's administration.
Israel
On September 2, 2009, Glover signed an open letter of objection to the inclusion of a series of films intended to showcase Tel Aviv—without the participation of
Palestinian filmmakers, at the
Toronto International Film Festival.
Music
Glover has become an active member of board of directors of The
Jazz Foundation of America.
[looktothestars.org. 2009-13-10]
Jazz Foundation of America
Accessed: January 19, 2010. He became involved with The Jazz Foundation in 2005, and has been a featured host for their annual benefit ''A Great Night in Harlem''
PR Newswire, April 17, 2006 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 Tiata Fahodzi (ti∙a∙ta fa∙hoon∙zi) – meaning "theatre of the emancipated" – is a British African theatre company founded in 1997 by Femi Elufowoju Jr. It receives funding as a National Portfolio Organisation of the Arts Council England. ...
appointed Glover as one of its three Patrons, joining
Chiwetel Ejiofor and
Jocelyn Jee Esien
Jocelyn Jee Esien (born 2 March 1979) is a British comedian, actress and writer of Nigerian origin. She stars in the hidden-camera show '' 3 Non-Blondes'', and her own comedy sketch show, '' Little Miss Jocelyn''.Laura Barnett"Jocelyn Jee Esien ...
opening the organization's tenth-anniversary celebrations (February 2, 2008) at the
Theatre Royal Stratford East
The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose ...
, London.
Filmography
Awards and honours
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 a Doctorate of Humane Letters in absentia. He was awarded the doctorate specifically for his long history of 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.
He was also the recipient of a tribute paid by the Deauville American Film Festival in France on September 7, 2011.
Glover was awarded the Cuban National
Medal of Friendship by the
Cuban Council of State
The Council of State () of Cuba is a 31-member body of the government of Cuba, elected by the National Assembly of People's Power. It has the authority to exercise most legislative power between sessions of the National Assembly of People's Power ...
on December 29, 2016, in a ceremony in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. for his solidarity with the
Cuban 5 during their time of incarceration in the United States.
On March 25, 2022, the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...
(AMPAS) presented Glover with the
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the
Governors Awards ceremony.
See also
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List of peace activists
This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work wi ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Glover, Danny
1946 births
Living people
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