After many years of being an actor, Danny Glover has been in some critical movies in contemporary cinema history. Glover was born in San Francisco and became an actor after a brief stint working with the city’s community development. He made his start in the acting world at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, quitting his job with the city, and decided he was going to be a full-time actor. After packing up his bags and moving to Los Angeles in search of more work, Glover initially began on the stage for theatrical pieces. During the early stages of his film career, he was in Lethal Weapon and The Color Purple — which will return soon as a musical — and he began to make a name for himself.
In addition to his acting career, Glover has remained an avid advocate for civil rights throughout his lifetime, recently receiving accolades for his work as an activist. The recipient of awards from the NAACP and the Cuban State Council, as well as, per NY Times, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, Glover also has nominations from the Grammy Awards, Primetime Emmy Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. That said, these are Danny Glover’s best movies ranked.
6 Places in the Heart
Released in 1984, Places in the Heart won its leading actress, Sally Field, an Academy Award for Best Actress. During the Great Depression, a young woman named Edna Spalding (Field) discovers her husband is now dead. Now a widow with a farm and young children to take care of, she meets a young man (Glover) asking for work at her doorstep. While he originally tries to steal from her, the two strike a mode of kinship in a difficult world and era in American history. Places in the Heart can be too broad in its scope at times, but it is still an emotional journey worth going on.
5 The Color Purple
Whoopi Goldberg stars in the 1985 movie adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel of the same name. Directed by Steven Spielberg, The Color Purple drops viewers directly into the world of the American South during the late-1800s and early-1900s. Goldberg is Celie Harris, a young girl coming-of-age during a time when history was not too kind towards Black women in the United States. As Celie, a girl who faces dangerous patriarchal conditions as a teenager navigates through a cruel world, she discovers beacons of light and hope from the women around her. The Color Purple is a powerful movie and was one of the best releases in the 1980s.
4 To Sleep With Anger
To Sleep With Anger is an underrated treasure in African-American cinema, and it is no surprise that the film was selected by the National Film Registry for preservation in 2017. Glover stars as Harry, a man from the South coming to visit his friends who now live in Los Angeles. When he arrives, everything seems to be all bright and cheery, but a particular kind of tension simmers to the forefront of the family’s minds as his presence stirs up old and new wounds. Generational gaps and the widening canyon between traditional and modern values shake these characters to the core, exposing how African-Americans are affected on a micro-level via an outsider, once a friend, entering the home.
3 The Old Man & The Gun
Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, and Danny Glover star in The Old Man & The Gun, a biographical crime movie about Forrest Tucker, as outlined by TIME. Tucker made an entire career out of crime before he was caught and put behind bars permanently, and even managed to escape from prison 18 times. Redford, in one of his last roles before officially retiring from acting, stars as Tucker during his later years, fresh out of another escape from prison. Even at his age, part of the charm is that he still keeps going after all these years, dedicated to breaking the law, even when he has been put in prison multiple times.
2 The Last Black Man in San Francisco
2019’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a narrative work of poetry, one of the most hyped films to come out of Sundance Film Festival that year. A semi-autobiographical movie based on the life of Jimmie Fails, he stars in the titular role. He lives in San Francisco and likes to wander the city with his best friend and roommate, but as they move through the city, they see the drastic changes and gentrification that are impacting many citizens. One day, he returns to the home his grandfather built that is now owned by a white couple, and when he finds out the woman’s father died and the house is under an estate fight, Jimmie seizes the opportunity to live inside the house, albeit briefly.
1 Sorry to Bother You
Sorry To Bother You is Boots Riley’s directorial debut, and it was a powerhouse of a movie despite being a debut. Lakeith Stanfield stars as a telemarketer adapting to his job by adorning a white voice, thus drawing in more customers. As he delves deeper into the corporate world and moves up the food chain, the film spirals into a discussion about selling one’s authentic self, adopting a false consciousness and code-switching, and the impacts of capitalism. Although the comedy aspects of the movie may not land at times, its satirical moments and thought-provoking story make up for it by the end.