Danny Glover

Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, producer, and political activist.

Biography
Glover was born in San Francisco, California, on July 22, 1946. His parents were Carrie and James Glover, postal workers and civil rights activists. He has a younger brother named Martin. In his adolescence and young adult years, Glover suffered from epilepsy but has not suffered a seizure since the age of 35. He attended George Washington High School and San Francisco State University in the late 1960s, but did not graduate from the latter (though SFSU would later award him with an honorary degree). He then trained at the Black Actors' Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater, a regional training program in San Francisco. At the time, he was working a job in city administration, specifically working on community development.

Glover started transitioning into theatre acting and trained with Jean Shelton at the Shelton Actors Lab in San Francisco. In an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Glover credited Shelton for much of his development as an actor. He eventually decided to resign from his job in city administration to pursue acting full-time. His Broadway debut in Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys brought him national attention and resulted in him being cast in his first leading role in Places in the Heart, which was nominated for Best Picture at the 1984 Academy Awards. Glover then starred in two additional Best Picture nominees: Witness and The Color Purple. In 1987, Glover partnered with Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon and went on to star in three of its sequels.

Glover also invested directing and producing talents in smaller, more personal projects, including the award-winning To Sleep With Anger, which he executive-produced, and for which he won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor; Bopha!; Manderlay; Missing in America; and a film adaptation of the play Boesman and Lena. On TV, Glover won an NAACP Image Award and a Cable ACE Award and nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the titular role of the HBO-produced movie Mandela. He also received Emmy nominations for his work in the critically-acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove and the made-for-TV film Freedom Song. As a director, he earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for the Showtime series Just a Dream. Glover costarred in the critically-acclaimed film Dreamgirls, and the films Po' Boy's Game, Shooter, Honeydripper, and Be Kind, Rewind.

Glover also became known for his community activism and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice, and better access to health care and education programs in the U.S. and Africa. For these efforts, Glover received a 2006 DGA Honor. Internationally, Glover served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998 to 2004. During this tenure, he focused on issues of poverty, disease, and economic development in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He also served as UNICEF Ambassador. In 2005, Glover co-founded Louverture Films, a studio dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value, and artistic integrity. The New York-based company has produced a slate of progressive feature films and documentaries, including Trouble the Water, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival; Africa Unite; and the award-winning feature film Bamako.

On Criminal Minds
Glover portrayed Hank Morgan as imagined by his son SSA Derek Morgan in the Season Eleven episode Derek.

Filmography
For a full filmography, see here.