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DANNY GLOVER |
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Glover, Danny (b. July 22, 1947, San Francisco, Calif.), African American actor whose career has spanned television, theater, and film.Danny Glover was born in San Francisco to politically active parents, and as a youth participated in the student activism of the Haight-Ashbury district, a center of 1960s counterculture activity. He studied economics at San Francisco State University and, after graduating, took a job as an economic planner for the city of San Francisco. While in his twenties he began participating in the American Conservatory Theater's Black Actors' Workshop but kept his job in the mayor's office until 1975. When he was nearly thirty years old, Glover began acting professionally, landing television roles on "Gimme A Break," "Chiefs," "Lou Grant," and "Palmerstown, USA," an Alex Haley production.Glover distinguished himself as an actor of great promise in the early 1980s when he appeared in two plays by South African playwright Athol Fugard in New York: with The Blood Knot (1980) Glover made his off-Broadway debut and for his performance in Master Harold...and the Boys (1982) he garnered high acclaim. He also appeared in The Island, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, Macbeth, and Suicide in B Flat. Impressed by Glover's performance in Master Harold, Hollywood director Robert Benson cast him as the sharecropper in Places in the Heart (1984), Glover's first leading role in a big-budget production. Glover's watershed came in 1985, however, when he appeared in three of the year's most successful movies: Silverado, Witness, and The Color Purple. Thereafter, lead roles in numerous top-grossing films, including Lethal Weapon (1987), its two sequels, and other action films, indicated Glover's mainstream acceptance. Glover continued to appear on television, most notably in Mandela (1987), and Queen (1993), another Alex Haley project. Although Glover has at times been attacked for role choices, especially his clichéd character in Lethal Weapon 3, he considers acting a political vocation. His serious dramatic work — such as The Color Purple and Mandela — as well as awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the TransAfrica Forum, reflect his interest in race and politics.Contributed By: Eric Bennett |
| Reference: Microsoft Africana |
| Constructed by: Alaina Turner |
