Danny Glover

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Danny Glover
Danny Glover speaks at a March for Immigrants Rights in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Birth name	Daniel Lebern Glover
Born	July 22, 1946 (age 60) San Francisco, California, United States
Notable roles	Malachi "Mal" Johnson in Silverado Mister in The Color Purple (1985) Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon films (1987-98)

Daniel Lebern Glover (b. July 22, 1946) is an American actor, and a film director.

1 Early life
2 Acting and directing career
3 Political and social activism
4 Filmography
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early life

Danny Glover was born in San Francisco, California. He graduated from George Washington High School (San Francisco) before he first attended City College of San Francisco and matriculating at San Francisco State University. At university, he also met his future wife Asake Bomani, whom he married in 1975. The couple has one child, Mandisa.

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 and credits 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, but, 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.^[1]

[edit] Acting and directing 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. In addition, Glover has been a live and 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.

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.

[edit] Political and social activism

While attending San Francisco State University, Glover was a member of the Black Students Union[1] who along with the Third World Liberation Front led the five month strike for Ethnic Studies. This created not only the first and to this day only school of Ethnic Studies in the U.S., but it was also the longest student strike in the history of the United States[2]. 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 currently serves as board 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." In March 1998, he was appointed ambassador to the United Nations Development Programme.

He also serves on the Advisory Council for TeleSUR, "Television of the South", a pan-Latin American television network based in Caracas, Venezuela. It began broadcasting on July 24, 2005. His role in this capacity and resulting interaction with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez have drawn criticism for Glover from the media,^[2] due to Mr. Chavez's frequent and vehement anti-Bush speeches.^[3] For instance, Glover introduced Chavez at an event in which Chavez reasserted his opinion of President Bush as a devil.

Glover is a supporter of the activist group A.N.S.W.E.R.

He has a cousin named Ray Glover; and wife Merle Glover. They have a daughter and son named Monique and Shannon. Monique married Curtis Spaulding and have 3 kids: Symone, Noah and Sydney.