Danny Glover makes authority look unforced and gives flashier actors someone steady to work alongside. We value that reliability, but the charm and menace of To Sleep with Anger make the familiar paternal casting seem unnecessarily narrow.
Fi1m perspective
Danny Glover is often the steady presence beside a flashier lead. His naturalistic, physically detailed acting suits fathers and men in charge, though that casting can make him too easy to take for granted. His early supporting work includes McFee in Peter Weir’s Witness (1985), a film we recommend for its affecting romance despite the more conventional crime story. Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis make the attraction matter, even when the screenplay reaches for familiar solutions. It is a good place to see Glover among other actors, though not our first choice for seeing what he can do.
Lethal Weapon (1987) made his partnership with Mel Gibson the main attraction, with Glover playing Roger Murtaugh across four films through 1998. The chemistry works, and we understand why the part has done so much to define him. We are less happy with the narrow expectations that can follow such a familiar role. In To Sleep with Anger (1990), his Harry Mention combines charm and menace, a more unsettling use of an actor so often asked to look authoritative. That performance is reason enough to look beyond the franchise.
In The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), he plays Henry Sherman for Wes Anderson. We were moved more than we expected by this family comedy, because Gene Hackman’s bad manners give Anderson’s careful eccentricity something recognisably human. Glover’s presence fits the broader pattern of his work: a dependable supporting actor in a film with a more flamboyant lead. We rate the film highly, but a few supporting characters deserve more space amid the decoration.
We would like to see him asked for that mixture of charm and menace more often, rather than dependable authority alone. His supporting work is worth appreciating, but it need not be the only thing a director asks of him. Try To Sleep with Anger before settling for the reassuring version.
Biography
Danny Glover is an American actor, producer and political activist. Born Danny Lebern Glover on 22 July 1946 in San Francisco, California, he trained at the Black Actors' Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater and began his career on stage, including a Broadway appearance in Athol Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys.
He made his film debut in Escape from Alcatraz (1979) and rose to prominence with roles in Places in the Heart (1984), Witness (1985) and The Color Purple (1985). Glover is best known for playing Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon series, beginning in 1987. He portrayed Henry Sherman in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
Other credits include To Sleep with Anger (1990), for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, Predator 2 (1990), Saw (2004), Dreamgirls (2006), Shooter (2007) and 2012 (2009). In 1994 he made his directorial debut with the television short Override and co-founded the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles.
