Danny GloverThe child of two active NAACP members, Danny Glover is no stranger to advocacy. As early as junior high school, he started a group to combat the prejudice against marginalized populations in his San Francisco neighborhood. Glover continues to hold social justice issues close to his heart.

He began his film career with Escape from Alcatraz in 1979. Subsequent roles in Places in the Heart (1984), Witness, (1985), The Color Purple (1984), Mandela (1987) and Lonesome Dove (1989) highlight his versatility, as he played both hero and villain, criminal and savior.

Although he plays a wide range of parts, he is careful not to sacrifice his values of nonviolence and social justice. When asked whether his most famous movie, Lethal Weapon 1,2,3 and 4, was a departure from his activism, he stated that the movie financiers agreed to fund half of the budget for his television or film ventures that are non-violent, such as Buffalo Soldiers (1997) and Beloved (1998).

Such dedication to human rights earned him many awards, including the Amnesty International USA Lifetime Achievement Award for his role in Namibia’s civil rights movement. In 1998, Glover was appointed the first Global Goodwill Ambassador to UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Now in his fourth year as a Goodwill Ambassador, Glover travels all over the world visiting projects and publicizing the fight against AIDS. His most recent trip was to Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean to visit the Cyril Ross Nursery for children with HIV/AIDS.

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