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André Rieu
Rieu in Atlantic City, NJ, in 2007
Background information
Birth name	André Léon Marie Nicolas Rieu
Born	(1949-10-01) 1 October 1949 (age 62)
Origin	Maastricht, Netherlands
Genres	Waltz
Occupations	Conductor, violinist
Instruments	Violin
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Denon Records , Philips
Website	www.andrerieu.com
Notable instruments
Stradivarius violin (1667)[1]

André Léon Marie Nicolas Rieu (born 1 October 1949) is a Dutch violinist, conductor, and composer best known for creating the waltz-playing Johann Strauss Orchestra.

Early life and studies[link]

The name Rieu is of French Huguenot origin.^[1] He began studying violin at the age of five. His father, of the same name, was conductor of the Maastricht Symphony Orchestra. From a very young age he developed a fascination with orchestra. He studied violin at the Conservatoire Royal in Liège and at the Conservatorium Maastricht, (1968–1973). His teachers included Jo Juda and Herman Krebbers. From 1974 to 1977, he attended the Music Academy in Brussels, studying with André Gertler, getting his degree "Premier Prix" from the Brussels Royal Conservatory.^[2]

Career[link]

At University he performed the Gold And Silver Waltz by Franz Lehár. Encouraged by the audience reaction he decided to pursue the waltz form. Rieu formed the Maastricht Salon Orchestra and performed as a violinist with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra. In 1987, he created the Johann Strauss Orchestra and his own production company. Since then, his melodramatic stage performances and rock-star demeanor have for some been associated with a revival of the waltz music category. André Rieu plays a 1667 Stradivarius violin.^[1]

In April 2009 (Dublin)/June 2009 (UK), he made a cameo appearance as himself on "Ramsay Street" in the long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours.^[3]

Johann Strauss Orchestra[link]

The examples and perspective in this article or section might have an extensive bias or disproportional coverage towards one or more specific regions. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

The Orchestra began in 1998 with 21 members but now performs with between 80 and 150 musicians. At the time the Orchestra first toured Europe, there emerged a renewed interest in waltz music. The revival began in the Netherlands and was ignited by their recording of the Second Waltz from Shostakovich's Jazz Suites. As a result, Rieu became known as the waltz King.

Rieu and his orchestra have performed throughout Europe, in North America, and Japan. Winning a number of awards including two World Music Awards, their recordings have gone gold and platinum in many countries, including 8-times Platinum in the Netherlands. In September 2007 Rieu performed in Australia for the first time solo, without his Orchestra at the Eastland shopping centre in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood playing "My Way" and "Waltzing Matilda"—and the next day appeared at Sydney's Arena Cove, Warringah Mashopping with the same set. Rieu and orchestra returned to Australia in November as part of his world tour. Rieu and his orchestra played 3 concerts at Melbourne's Telstra Dome from 13–15 November and continued their tour throughout Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, through to December 2008. The concert theme is 'A Romantic Vienna Night' and the set comprises a life-size reproduction of the Viennese imperial Schönbrunn Palace, complete with 2 ice-skating rinks, 2 Fountains, and a ballroom dance floor situated above and behind the Orchestra. Rieu's largest concert attendance to date in Australia was 38,000 on Saturday 15 November in Melbourne. The Perth concert did not feature the replica of the Viennese Palace as it was stated in the press because it would not fit into the front doors of Subiaco Oval.

He records both DVD and CD repertoire at his own recording studios in Maastricht in a wide range of classical music as well as popular and folk music plus music from well-known soundtracks and musical theatre. His lively orchestral presentations, in tandem with incessant marketing, have attracted worldwide audiences to this subgenre of classical music.

Some of his orchestra's performances have been broadcast in the United Kingdom and the United States on the PBS television network^[4] such as the 2003 airing of Andre Rieu Live in Dublin, filmed in Dublin, Ireland, and 2005's André Rieu Live in Tuscany filmed in the Piazza Della Repubblica in the village of Cortona in Tuscany.

Reception[link]

Eamon Kelly writing in The Australian newspaper, in an article that discusses the controversy that Rieu engenders, said: "He depicts his critics as members of a stuffy musical elite with narrow aesthetic tastes, yet regularly demeans in interviews music that is not to his taste and classical musicians who choose not to perform in his manner."^[5]

Of Rieu's popularity and the debate in the media over criticism of him, Eamon Kelly says: "It is disappointing to see professional journalists indulging in cheap, inaccurate stereotypes to dismiss criticism of Rieu."^[5] But he goes on to add: "Equally misguided are those who cursorily dismiss Rieu. Rieu's live and recorded performances have brought joy to millions of people. Few in his audiences are regular classical music attendees and it could be seen as promising that, via Rieu, they are listening to standards of the classical canon. The fact that Rieu's focus is on highly accessible, enjoyable repertoire is not an argument against his musical credentials."^[5]

Eamon Kelly further adds, after hearing the orchestra perform, that there is "no cause" for Rieu's boast his orchestra was "superior to the many other orchestras that specialise in ... Viennese and popular classical repertoire." Additionally, he found that in musical terms "the performance did not surpass playing standards in Australia's major symphony orchestras". He did add that the "oboist, Arthur Cordewener, provided the most impressive musical performance with a sublime introduction to an otherwise unremarkable performance of [Ravel's] Boléro."^[5]

David Templeton, writing in the magazine All Things Strings says:

Ironically, it is Rieu’s own success that has earned him a horse-drawn carriage full of criticism, a pot-shot laden backlash aimed chiefly at the calculated emotionalism and theatrical flourishes of his performances, which, according to many, only cheapen the classical-music experience. Classical radio stations avoid his music as they might avoid a leper in the mall, though—let’s just say it plain and clear—Rieu is a superb violinist.^[6]

Chris Boyd, a critic writing for Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper, finds that he could not give a general criticism of the playing of Rieu, as, except for "a clean and lyrical solo in Waltzing Matilda", his main stage function was apparently "blarney and delegation". However, Boyd also comments that the quality of the artists that Rieu works with is "extraordinary". Boyd assesses the low points of the concert as the "Three Tenors-style" rendition of "Nessun dorma" which he finds was an "abomination", while saying the concert's highlights included "a sugar-shock sweet rendition" of "O mio babbino caro" as well as Strauss's Emperor Waltz and Blue Danube, Clarke's Trumpet Voluntary and the Boléro.^[7]

Personal life[link]

He is married to Marjorie, who works with him full-time as production manager, and has two sons, Marc and Pierre. He speaks (in order of fluency) Dutch, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

Honours[link]

• Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion (Netherlands, 2002)
• Honorary Medal of the Province of Limburg (Netherlands, 2009)
• Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2009)

Selected discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• André Rieu (official website)
• Official André Rieu Facebook page
• André Rieu on Twitter
• Official André Rieu YouTube Channel
• André Rieu's Official Australian website
• André Rieu (C Music TV Biography)
• André Rieu at Allmusic
• The Magic of Andre Rieu

Rich Hall
Hall performing at the Tower Theatre in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania in 1986
Birth name	Richard Hall
Born	(1954-06-10) 10 June 1954 (age 58) Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Medium	Stand-up, television
Nationality	American
Years active	1979—present
Genres	Observational comedy, Deadpan, Political satire
Subject(s)	American culture, British culture, United States politics, British politics
Spouse	Karen Hall
Notable works and roles	QI, Saturday Night Live, Fridays, Late Show with David Letterman
Website	http://www.offthekerb.co.uk/rich-hall/

Richard "Rich" Hall (born 10 June 1954) is an American comedian, writer and musician.

Early life and career[link]

Hall was born in Alexandria, Virginia and grew up in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He is part Cherokee Indian and his mother's Christian name is Doris.^[1] Early in his career, he performed as a street comedian with a suitcase and stand, traveling the college circuit, and performing impromptu skits for gathering crowds.

Hall's first professional work was as a writer and performer on the American sketch comedy TV series Fridays from 1980 until 1982. After the end of Fridays, Hall co-wrote and starred in the satirical comedy series Not Necessarily the News from 1983 until 1990 where he coined the term "sniglet" and collected and published several volumes of books of them. Matt Groening has described him as the inspiration for Moe Szyslak from The Simpsons.^[2] He was also a regular on Saturday Night Live. In 1986, he had his own Showtime channel special, Vanishing America, which was turned into a book with the same title. He hosted a talk show during The Comedy Channel's 1990-91 season, titled Rich Hall's Onion World.

In the United States, he has appeared several times on American talk shows such as Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Appearances and work in the United Kingdom[link]

Outside his homeland, Hall has also achieved popularity in the United Kingdom, where he has lived on-and-off for 23 years. He spends part of his time during the off-seasons writing plays in the United States where he has a small ranch just outside Livingston, Montana. The rest of the time is spent in London, where he owns a flat. Hall is a guest on popular BBC panel quiz shows, most notably as a regular guest on QI,^[3] for which he has received much critical acclaim and is known as the game's most frequently victorious guest panellist with seven victories (only permanent panellist Alan Davies has won more shows), and also with appearances in 8 Out of 10 Cats, Have I Got News for You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.^[4][5] He has also appeared on the British stand-up comedy series Jack Dee's Live at the Apollo. His appearances achieved some cult status due to his line of jokes on Live at the Apollo about Tom Cruise, and the perceivable similarities between many of his roles. In 2000, he won the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, in the guise of his own grizzled uncle, Otis Lee Crenshaw, the much-convicted country music singer. He has released several albums and a concert movie as this character. In 2004, he published a book of the man's memoirs, entitled Otis Lee Crenshaw: I Blame Society, and in 2007 he finished a screenplay for a film based on the book, written for the director Mel Smith.^[6] In 2006, Hall also wrote and acted in the play Levelland at the Edinburgh Festival.

Hall has had four BBC TV series of his own: Rich Hall's Badly Funded Think Tank, Rich Hall's Fishing Show in 2003, Rich Hall's Cattle Drive in 2006, as well as a one-off programme about the 2004 American Presidential Elections, Rich Hall's Election Special. He also appeared on the BBC Two programme Top Gear, where he successfully managed to make a song about a Rover 25 car, much to the enjoyment of host Jeremy Clarkson and the audience. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Hall was entrusted with the task of responding to the tragedy on the first subsequent edition of Have I Got News for You.

Hall has written and presented three 90-minute documentaries about film genres, broadcast on BBC Four. Rich Hall's How the West Was Lost (first broadcast June 2008)^[7] discusses Westerns, Rich Hall's The Dirty South (October 2010) challenges stereotypical Hollywood presentations of the Southern United States,^[8][9] and Rich Hall's Continental Drifters (November 2011) examines the American road movie.^[10]

In 2007, he returned to the Fringe with his second play, Best Western, which he wrote and directed. In 2008, Hall toured two stand-up shows around the UK: Rich Hall Autumn Tour 2008 played around 45 dates and he also went on the road as his alter-ego in a show entitled Otis Lee Crenshaw and Band that listed Rich Hall as a "special guest." He subsequently toured a version of this show throughout the UK and Ireland in 2009, with long time sidekick Myron T. Buttram (guitarist and pedal steel player, Rob Childs) and Lonesome Dave (banjoist and guitarist, David Lindsay) appearing at the 2009 Adelaide Fringe festival, the Sydney Opera House, and the 2009 Melbourne Comedy festival. With the band renamed as "The Honky Tonk A**holes" and joined by Horst Furst II (bassist, Nigel Portman Smith) and drummer Mark Hewitt, his autumn 2009 tour included a performance at London's Hammersmith Apollo, which was recorded and released in November 2009 as a live DVD.

In 2009, he performed at the Edinburgh Festival in two shows, his solo stand up and also with long time collaborator Mike Wilmot and Montana-based actor Tim Williams in a new play entitled "Campfire Stories".

On April 5, 2010, Hall appeared as one of the stand-up acts on Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show organised by Channel 4 to raise money for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Hall is now a regular performer on Channel 4's Stand Up for the Week, which began in June 2010.^[11]

Other appearances[link]

Hall also made an Irish TV appearance as a guest on the fifth series of RTÉ's topical news comedy programme, Don't Feed the Gondolas, and has appeared at the Kilkenny Cat Laughs comedy festival on 15 occasions. He has also performed at the West Belfast Festival/Feile an Phobail, one of the largest community festivals in Ireland, to a sell-out audience where he received widespread critical acclaim.

Hall appeared in several Pizza Hut commercials in the 1980s, mainly promoting Pizza Hut's guarantee of serving each customer within five minutes.

He has also achieved some popularity in Australia, regularly appearing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Adelaide Fringe Festival, and also on Australian comedy panel shows, such as The Glass House and Spicks and Specks.

Rich Hall also made a guest appearance on Top Gear (British TV series) in 2003.

Hall has also appeared in France at the Altitude Comedy Festival 2008 in the ski resort of Meribel. He also appeared — albeit briefly — in the 2006 Cheap Seats (ESPNCL) episode titled "Steve Garvey Celebrity Skiing". He was also at the Garvey 1989 Celebrity Ski Classic.

[edit] List of celebrities impersonated on SNL

• Doug Henning
• Doug Flutie
• Bernhard Goetz
• Caspar Weinberger
• Paul Harvey
• David Byrne
• Mark Goodman
• Vince McMahon

Musical and literary career[link]

Discography[link]

1. London Not Tennessee (with The Black Liars) (2001)
2. How Do We Do It? Volume! (2003)

Bibliography[link]

1. 1984: Sniglets (Snig'Lit: Any Word That Doesn't Appear in the Dictionary, but Should), ISBN 0-02-012530-5
2. 1985: More Sniglets: Any Word That Doesn't Appear in the Dictionary, but Should
3. 1986: Unexplained Sniglets of the Universe
4. 1986: Rich Hall's Vanishing America, ISBN 0-02-547480-4
5. 1987: Angry Young Sniglets (1987)
6. 1989: When Sniglets Ruled the Earth (1989)
7. 1994: Self Help for the Bleak: Attaboy Therapy, ISBN 0-8431-3669-3
8. 2002: Things Snowball, ISBN 0-349-11576-1
9. 2003: Top Gear, (2003)
10. 2004: Otis Lee Crenshaw: I Blame Society, ISBN 0-349-11818-3
11. 2009: Magnificent Bastards, ISBN 0-349-11965-1

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rich Hall at the Internet Movie Database
• Rich Hall reading from "Magnificent Bastards" at writLOUD, London

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)

The Isaacs are a country and bluegrass gospel music group consisting of mother Lily Isaacs, and daughters Becky and Sonya Isaacs and son Ben Isaacs, along with John Bowman (husband of Becky Isaacs) as an instrumentalist and songwriter. Joe Isaacs, formerly a singer and banjo player in the group, has left since his 1998 divorce from Lily Isaacs. He now does solo work on a far more localized level.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Video[link]

• 2001 Live: Mountain Praise (Horizon)
• 2001 Pieces of Our Past (Horizon)
• 2002 Stand Still (Horizon)
• 2004 The Best of the Isaacs: Favorites from the Homecoming Series (Gaither Music Group)
• 2008 Live From Norway (Gaither Music Group)

Gaither Homecoming Video Performances[link]

• 1998: All Day Singin' At The Dome "Satisfied" (Sonya)
• 1998: Down By The Tabernacle "The Tabernacle" (Sonya), "The Least I Can Do"
• 1999: I'll Meet You On The Mountain "I'll Meet You On The Mountain" (Sonya)
• 2002: Let Freedom Ring "The Star-Spangled Banner", "It Is Well (Elisha's Song)"
• 2002: New Orleans Homecoming "He Understands My Tears"
• 2003: Going Home "The Prettiest Flowers Will Be Blooming"
• 2003: Gospel Bluegrass Homecoming Vol 1 "Is Not This The Land Of Beulah?"
• 2003: Gospel Bluegrass Homecoming Vol 2 "Another Soldier Down", "He Ain't Ever Done Me Nothin' But Good"
• 2003: Heaven "O Come Angel Band"
• 2003: Mountain Homecoming "Did You Ever Go Sailin'", "Go Rest High On That Mountain" (Sonya)
• 2003: Red Rocks Homecoming "When The Rains Come" (Sonya)
• 2003: Rocky Mountain Homecoming "Sweet Holy Spirit"
• 2004: Atlanta Homecoming "Daddy Sang Bass" (Sonya), "That's All That Matters To Me"
• 2004: Passin' The Faith Along "I Wanna Be Ready" (Sonya & Becky), "Stand Still"
• 2004: We Will Stand "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross" (Sonya & Becky), "Hebrew Lullaby", "If That Don't Make You Wanna Go"
• 2005: Hymns "Wayfaring Stranger"
• 2005: Israel Homecoming "Halleluyah"
• 2005: Jerusalem Homecoming "Shalom Ya'll", "Moses, Take Your Shoes Off" (Sonya), "Walkin' In Jerusalem", "Heroes"
• 2005: Mark Lowry Goes To Hollywood "Ha Ha Hollywood", "Friend 'Til The End", "Peace Like A River"
• 2006: Canadian Homecoming "It Is Well With My Soul", "More Than Ever"
• 2006: Live From Toronto "Great Is Thy Reward/Orange Blossom Special"
• 2006: Singin' With The Saints "I'm Gonna Move"
• 2006: This Is My Story "Look What God Gave Me"
• 2006: Christmas In South Africa "The Savior Of The World Has Come"
• 2007: Amazing Grace "I Need Thee Every Hour", "I Surrender All"
• 2007: Love Can Turn The World "Everything Is Going To Turn Out Right", "Hear My Song, Lord" (Sonya)
• 2007: South African Homecoming "Umbrella"
• 2007: Sweet, Sweet Spirit "Reaping In The Spirit"
• 2008: Country Bluegrass Homecoming Vol. 1 "There Is Power In The Blood", "Walk On", "I Know Somebody Who Does", "All Prayed Up"
• 2008: Country Bluegrass Homecoming Vol. 2 "Barbie Bandaids"
• 2008: Homecoming Picnic "Sally Goodin/Wildwood Flower", "The Sweetest Song I Know" (Becky), "Mama's Teaching Angels How To Sing"
• 2009: Campfire Homecoming "I Have Found A Way", "Orange Blossom Special"
• 2009: Nashville Homecoming "The One I'm Dying For"
• 2010: Better Day "Mama's Teaching Angels How To Sing"
• 2010: Count Your Blessings "No Shortage"
• 2011: Alaskan Homecoming "I’ve Got Joy"
• 2011: Majesty "Little Bit Of Heaven", "When I Lift Up My Head", "Healing Stream"

External links[link]

• Official website of the Isaacs
• Interview with Lily Isaacs

Danny Glover
Danny Glover, January 2008
Born	Danny Lebern Glover (1946-07-22) July 22, 1946 (age 65) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, activist
Years active	1979–present
Height	6'3" now (Peak Height: 6'4")
Spouse	Asake Bomani (1975–99?; divorced; 1 child)

Danny Lebern Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist.^[1] Glover is well known for his roles as Mr. Albert Johnson in The Color Purple, as Michael Harrigan in Predator 2, as corrupt cop James McFee in Witness, as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise, as Detective David Tapp in Saw as George Knox in Angels in the Outfield, and for his catch phrase "I'm too old for this shit." He has also appeared in many other movies, television shows, and theatrical productions. He is an active supporter of various humanitarian and political causes. He currently stars as Professor Arthur Teller in the Fox television series Touch.

Early life[link]

Glover was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Carrie (née Hunley) and James Glover. His parents, postal workers, were active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working to advance equal rights.^[2] Glover's mother, daughter of a midwife, was born in Louisville, Georgia and graduated from Paine College in Augusta, Georgia.^[3] Glover grew up with a love for sports, like his father. Glover suffered from epilepsy in his teens and as a young adult. 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 has not suffered a seizure since age 34.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Glover at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

Glover originally worked in city administration working on community development^{[citation needed]} before transitioning to theater. On the transition, he said:

"I didn't think it was a difficult transition. Acting is a platform that can become a conveyer for ideas. Art is a way of understanding, of confronting issues and confronting your own feelings—all within that realm of the capacity it represents. It may have been a leap of faith for me, given not only my learning disability (dyslexia) but also the fact that I felt awkward. I felt all the things that someone that's 6'3" or 6'4" feels and with my own diminished expectations of who I could be [and] would feel. Whether it's art, acting or theater that I've devoted myself to I put more passion and more energy into it."^[4]

His first theater involvement was with Conservatory Theater, a regional training program in San Francisco^{[citation needed]}. Glover also trained with Jean Shelton at the Shelton Actors Lab in San Francisco. In an interview on Inside the Actor's Studio, Glover credited Jean 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. Glover then moved to Los Angeles for more opportunities in acting, where he would later go on to co-found the Robey Theatre Company with actor Ben Guillory in honor of the actor, radical activist, and concert singer Paul Robeson in Los Angeles in 1994^{[citation needed]}.

Glover has had a variety of film, stage, and television roles, and is best known for playing Los Angeles police Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon series of action films. During his career, he has made many cameo appearances. For example, he appeared in the Michael Jackson video Liberian Girl of 1987. He has also appeared as the husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in The Color Purple, and as Lieutenant James McFee in the film Witness. In 1994 he made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film Override. Also in 1994, Glover and actor Ben Guillory formed the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, focusing on theatre by and about Black people.

Glover earned top billing for the first time in Predator 2, the sequel to the sci-fi action film Predator. That same year he starred in Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

In common with Humphrey Bogart, Elliott Gould and Robert Mitchum, who have played Raymond Chandler's private eye detective Philip Marlowe, Glover played the role in the episode "Red Wind" of the Showtime network's 1995 series Fallen Angels.

In 1997, under his former production company banner Carrie Films, Glover executive produced numerous films of first time directors including Pamm Malveaux’s neo-noir short film Final Act starring Joe Morton which aired on the Independent Film Channel.

In addition, Glover has been a voice actor in many children's movies. Glover was featured in the popular 2001 film Royal Tenenbaums, also starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

In 2004, he appeared in the low-budget horror film Saw as Detective David Tapp. In 2005, Glover and Joslyn Barnes announced plans to make No FEAR, a movie about Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo's experience. Coleman-Adebayo won a 2000 jury trial against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The jury found the EPA guilty of violating the civil rights of Coleman-Adebayo on the basis of race, sex, color and a hostile work environment, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Coleman-Adebayo was terminated shortly after she revealed the environmental and human disaster taking place in the Brits, South Africa, vanadium mines. Her experience inspired passage of the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act).

In 2009, Glover performed in The People Speak a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States�.^[5]

Glover played President Wilson, the President of the United States in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released in theaters November 13, 2009.

In 2010, Glover participated in a Spanish film called "I Want to Be a Soldier".^[6][7]

Planned directorial debut[link]

Glover sought to make a film biography of Toussaint Louverture for his directorial debut. In May 2006, the film had included cast members Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Roger Guenveur Smith, Mos Def, Isaach De Bankolé, and Richard Bohringer. Production, estimated to cost $30 million, was planned to begin in South Africa, filming from late 2006 into early 2007.^[8] In May 2007, President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez contributed $18 million to fund the production of Toussaint for Glover, who is a prominent U.S. supporter of Chávez. The contribution annoyed some Venezuelan filmmakers, who said the money could have funded other homegrown films and that Glover's film was not even about Venezuela.^[9][10] The following June, some Venezuelan filmmakers petitioned for Glover to reconsider using the funds provided by their president while the actor was scouting locations outside the Venezuelan capital Caracas.^[11] The petition resulted in the local film guilds Anac and Caveprol being outlawed by Venezuela; the country's state-backed film institute Cnac was also instructed to sever ties with the guild.^[12] In April 2008, the Venezuelan National Assembly authorized an additional $9,840,505 for Glover's film, which is still in planning.^[13]

Personal life[link]

On September 2, 2009, Glover signed an open letter of objection to the inclusion of a series of films intended to showcase Tel Aviv at the Toronto International Film Festival.^[14]

On April 16, 2010, Glover was arrested in Maryland during a protest by SEIU workers for Sodexo's unfair and illegal treatment of workers.^[15] He was given a citation and later released. The Associated Press reports "Glover and others stepped past yellow police tape and were asked to step back three times at Sodexo headquarters. When they refused, Starks says officers arrested them."^[16]

Activism[link]

Glover speaks at a March for Immigrants Rights in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2007.

While attending San Francisco State University, Glover was a member of the Black Students Union which,^[17] along with the Third World Liberation Front and the American Federation of Teachers, collaborated in a five-month student-led strike to establish a Department of Black Studies. The strike was the longest student walkout in U.S. history.^[18] It helped create not only the first Department of Black Studies but also the first School of Ethnic Studies in the U.S.

Hari Dillon, current president of the Vanguard Public Foundation, was a fellow striker at SFSU. Glover now sits on Vanguard's advisory board. Glover is also a board member of The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, Walden House, and Cheryl Byron's Something Positive Dance Group. He was charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly after being arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington during a protest over Sudan's humanitarian crisis in Darfur.^[19]

Glover's long history of union activism includes support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, and numerous service unions.^[20] In March 2010, Danny Glover supported 375 Union workers in Ohio by calling upon all actors at the 2010 Academy Awards to boycott Hugo Boss suits due to Hugo Boss announcement to close a manufacturing plant in Ohio after a proposed pay decrease from $13 to $8.30 an hour was rejected by the Workers United Union.^[21]

In January 2006, Harry Belafonte led a delegation of activists, including Glover and activist/professor Cornel West, in a meeting with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez.

Glover was an early supporter of former North Carolina Senator John Edwards in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries until Edwards' withdrawal,^[22] although some news reports indicated that he had endorsed Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich,^[23] whom he had endorsed in 2004.^[24] After Edwards dropped out, Glover then endorsed Barack Obama.^[25]

Glover was an outspoken critic of George W. Bush, calling him a known racist. "Yes, he's racist. We all knew that. As Texas's governor, Bush led a penitentiary system that executed more people than all the other U.S. states together. And most of the people who died were Afro-Americans or Hispanics."^[26]

Glover's support of California Proposition 7 (2008) led him to use his voice in an automated phone call to generate support for the measure before the election.^[27]

On April 6, 2009, Glover was given a chieftancy title in Imo State, Nigeria.^[28] Glover was given the title Enyioma of Nkwerre, which means A Good Friend in the language of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.

Glover has become an active member of Board of Directors of The Jazz Foundation of America.^[29] Danny became involved with The Jazz Foundation in 2005, and has been a featured host for their annual benefit A Great Night in Harlem^[30] for several years, as well appearing as a celebrity MC at other events for the foundation. In 2006, Britain’s leading African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi appointed Danny Glover as one of its three Patrons, joining Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jocelyn Jee Esien opening the organization’s tenth anniversary celebrations (Sunday 2 February 2008) at Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.

Glover is also an active board member of the TransAfrica Forum.^[31]

On January 13, 2010, Glover compared the scale and devastation of the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the predicament other island nations may face as a result of the failed Copenhagen summit the previous year. Glover said "...the threat of what happens to Haiti is a threat that can happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations... they're all in peril because of global warming... because of climate change... when we did what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens..."^[32] In the same statement, he called for a new form of international partnership with Haiti and other Caribbean nations and praised Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba, for already accepting this partnership.

On November 1, 2011 Glover spoke to the crowd at Occupy Oakland on the day before the Oakland General Strike where thousands of protestors shut down the Port of Oakland.^[33]

Glover is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank led by economist Dean Baker.

Activism against Iraq war and invasion[link]

Danny Glover has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war before the war began in March 2003. In February 2003, he was one of the featured speakers at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco where other notable speakers included names such as author Alice Walker, singer Joan Baez, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. Glover was a signatory to the April 2003 anti-war letter "To the Conscience of the World" that criticized the unilateral American invasion of Iraq that led to "massive loss of civilian life" and "devastation of one of the cultural patrimonies of humanity".^[34] During an anti-war demonstration in Downtown Oakland in March 2003, Danny Glover praised the community leaders for their anti-war efforts saying that "They're on the front lines because they are trying to make a better America... The world has come together and said 'no' to this war – and we must stand with them."

On Obama administration[link]

On the foreign policy of Obama administration, Glover said, "I think the Obama administration has followed the same playbook, to a large extent, almost verbatim, as the Bush administration. I don’t see anything different... On the domestic side, look here: What’s so clear is that this country from the outset is projecting the interests of wealth and property. Look at the bailout of Wall Street. Why not the bailout of Main Street? He may be just a different face, and that face may happen to be black, and if it were Hillary Clinton, it would happen to be a woman... But what choices do they have within the structure?".^[35]

Honors and awards[link]

In 2010, Glover delivered the Commencement Address and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Utah State University.^[36] He was also the recipient of a tribute paid by the Deauville American Film Festival in France on September 7, 2011. May 15th is officially National Danny Glover & Mel Gibson Day.

Credits in film, television and theatre[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Danny Glover

• Danny Glover at the Internet Movie Database
• Danny Glover at the Internet Broadway Database
• Danny Glover at the TCM Movie Database
• Al Jazeera English's Riz Khan interview with Danny Glover on YouTube
• Screening Identities - Danny Glover in conversation with Manthia Diawara Walls and Bridges
• A free video excerpt of a lecture by Glover^{[dead link]}
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Danny Glover (TV Interview)
• The TransAfrica Forum
• Interview on Democracy Now! (audio)
• Danny Glover at Emmys.com
• "Danny Glover: The Fire Within". AARP Magazine. May & June 2004. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/Articles/a2004-03-17-mag-dglover.html. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
• Interview in The Progressive^{[dead link]}
• mariannef (2007-04-04). "Africa On Fire! Interview with Danny Glover". KBOO. http://www.kboo.fm/node/3064. Retrieved 2009-12-01. 
• Danny Glover in the news supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Danny Glover on Democracy Now! February 26 2007 discussing the Oscars and the Panafrican Film and Television Festival in Burkina Faso
• Danny Glover talks about Bamako on YouTube
• The ongoing effort to draft Danny Glover into the San Francisco Mayoral race
• Cheryl Byron and Something Positive
• Danny Glover Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
• At The End of Slavery, a film created by International Justice Mission and narrated by Danny Glover
• The People Speak at the Internet Movie Database
• http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/12/entertainment/la-et-people-speak12-2009dec12