"Jake" - Danny Glover

DANNY GLOVER plays the lead role of "Jake" in Missing In America. A commanding lead of film, stage, and television, Glover began his acting career on the stage at the age of 30, had his first small film role in Escape from Alcatraz in 1979, and soon was starring in some of the biggest films of the 1980s and 1990s. His early stage career was quite
successful as well, and was highlighted by his acclaimed role in the 1982 award-winning Broadway play "Master Harold"... and the Boys, which first brought the actor national attention. Glover's performance won him a Theatre World Award as one of the most promising new talents of 1982. It was after seeing his performance in Master Harold that film director Robert Benton cast him in Places in the Heart, which was nominated for Best Picture, as was Glover's next film, 1985's Witness. In 2003, Glover returned to Broadway in a revival of Master Harold to rave reviews.

Glover is perhaps best known as the long-suffering partner of cop Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series, which earned him an NAACP Image Award and an MTV Movie Award. The success of such commercial blockbusters has enabled him to participate in more intimate, personal projects like the award-winning To Sleep With Anger (which he co-produced) and Bopha!

Glover's many film credits include The Color Purple, Silverado, Grand Canyon, The Saint of Fort Washington, Angels in the Outfield, Maverick, and The Royal Tenenbaums. Glover also starred in the film version of Athol Fugard's play, Boesman and Lena, co-starring Angela Bassett, and opposite Oprah Winfrey in the film Beloved, based on a novel by Toni Morrison. Glover has lent his voice to animated films as well, serving as the voice of a grizzled soldier ant in the highly acclaimed animated film Antz, and the voice of Jethro in The Prince of Egypt.

Glover has also made frequent appearances on television. He received his second NAACP Image Award and a Cable ACE Award for his performance as Mandela on HBO. He went on to star in the PBS production of the classic A Raisin in The Sun, and also starred in Lonesome Dove, one of the highest-rated and most acclaimed miniseries in television history, which earned Glover an Emmy Award nomination.

TNT's Freedom Song also earned him an Emmy Nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and another Image Award. In 1996, he won a Cable Ace Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Special/Series for America's Dream. He also costarred in the TV miniseries Alex Haley's Queen, and in TNT's Buffalo Soldiers. For Showtime, he starred in 3 A.M. and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for directing Showtime's Just a Dream.

The talented actor has displayed great diversity in the roles he has tackled. Whether playing a lovable hero or contemptible villain, he is regularly noted for his empathetic treatment of the characters he has portrayed.

In 1998, Glover was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. He served as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998-2004. In 2004, Glover was appointed as the UNICEF Ambassador, a position he still holds. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of TransAfrica Forum, the African-American lobby organization on Africa and the Caribbean, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Black AIDS Institute and the Algebra Project, a math empowerment program.

Born in rural Georgia and raised in California, Glover had early ambitions to become an economist, but was exposed to acting while a politically active student at San Francisco State University in the late 1960s. He trained at the Black Actor's Workshop of the American Conservatory, and holds an honorary doctorate degree from Paine College.