European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 31, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tune Lover catches on As lethal Box office draw by Gene Seymour new Day it is the morning after the Rodney King beating verdict and Danny Glover looks Haggard and drawn. Understandable since he worked till 2 . On the Saint of fort Washington a film he a co producing and co starring in with Matt Dillon As a homeless Man. He and Dillon were shooting take after take in the dark Chilly Manhattan streets. And yet Here he is arriving at 8 45 . Sharp at a Park Avenue office suite wearing leather sandals and a Light beige suit. Though the Whites in his Large expressive eyes seem stained with fatigue he is ready to Settle in for interviews connected with lethal weapon 3, the latest in a lucrative series of cop Chase carnivals pairing Glover As Veteran los Angeles police detective Roger Murtaugh with Mel Gibson As Murtaugh a gonzo partner Martin Riggs. Lots of things explode in All three movies a cars buildings Riggs and More infrequently Murtaugh a temper. Somewhere Between working on the new movie and promoting the other new one the real los Angeles has exploded. Glover Only shakes his head when asked about the King verdict and its aftermath. He can to talk about it. But a few Days later in a phone Call from the set of the film Glover says he has been undergoing a collision of emotion from a great disbelief Over the verdict to a feeling depressed Over the subsequent rioting. A you can to expect people confronted with a Clear injustice not to react with rage a he says. A after All this country reacted violently to injustice by going to War in the persian Gulf. So Why  we expect Blacks to feel justified in doing the same i hate to make the correlation but there it  Glover also refers to the rioting when the conversation drifts to his last film grand Canyon in which he played a garage Mechanic who saves Kevin Kline from a Street gang in a ravaged Black neighbourhood. A people who saw the movie told me they did no to appreciate being beaten Over the head with its message a Glover says. A and yet you look at the Laker game last night and they re showing fires on the screen there and telling people at the game How to avoid that when they re going Home. Well Larry Kasdan Canyon s director co writer wrote that that was All from that movie. You know the whole thing of a How do you avoid the shark How do you stay out of its Way a Kevin a thing was How he got lost in it and got  Glover beams. A i want to Call Larry today and hug him for  just As the Kline character in Canyon was buoyed by Glover a arrival at a perilous moment audiences have found Glover a Welcome and assuring presence. At 6 feet 4 inches and 220 pounds give or take he evokes steely physical Force. Yet he also conveys a vulnerability that does Little to shortchange his strength. He can accommodate without compromising ease pain through the assertion of his will. These Are just part of a matrix of balances that Glover who turns 45 on july 22, has maintained through More than a decade of film theater and to work. His first film credit came in 1979 with escape from Alcatraz. But it was after writer director Robert Benton saw Glover playing a South african waiter in the 1982 Broadway production of Athol fun Gard a master Harold. And the boys that ins ascension began. Benton offered Glover a major role in places in the of cart As Moze the quietly courageous Black sharecropper who comes to Sally Fields endangered farm a and almost loses his life because of it. The film released in 1984, Drew major awards and boosted Glover a professional profile. The following year he played bad Guys in witness and the color purple and a Good Guy in Silverado. But it was in the first lethal weapon 1986 that he showed he could not Only hold his own with a charismatic Box office draw like Gibson but also had More than a Little Charisma of his own. Despite the stature he has achieved As a film actor he has not received an Oscar nomination. Nor has he matched his hero Sidney Poitier in scoring an unconditional Box office Victory As a sole leading Man. He was the swashbuckling Star of predator 2. The 1991 sequel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sci i thriller. The weekend it opened predator 2 made $13 million a but dropped to $4 million the next weekend and $1.5 million the next. A everybody turned out the first weekend and then stayed away when they found out Arnold Wasny to in it a laughs Glover who has no regrets Over the outcome. And Why should he he still gets All the work he Sable to handle whether its a made for Cable movie like Mandela or dead Man out or Reading Black Folk tales for the Windham Hill series of children a recordings. He is asked at one Point whether he takes on so much work because he thinks he has something More to prove As an actor. The answer comes quickly a none. Absolutely none a proving myself is not even a part of my vocabulary. I be never Felt that need. I think what a happened in my career is this transformation that manifests itself in Well what i think is a sense of Awe with what a happened to me in the Brief period in my life. Its very humbling and i think its the humility that takes the place of having to you know a prove  a a a humility is a word that raises red flags for african americans who believe that showing humility in any Way is commensurate with Compromise at Best submission at worst. And yet no one Black or White would Ever mistake Glover for a compromised Given his tireless Devotion to social causes from sickle cell anaemia to South african Reform to cultural and educational projects like the one that takes him to Public schools All Over the country to talk about the value of 1 Itig. A the takes planes the Way most people take the subway a says a longtime Friend. All this wandering is balanced by a firm attachment to his roots. He lives in his native san Francisco with his wife of 17 years Sake Bomani and their 16-Ycar-old daughter Mantissa in the same Haight Ashbury neighbourhood where he grew up and where he is known less As a movie Star and More As a local kid who made Good. From his Home he is Able to take the local bus to the offices of Carrie productions named for his Mother his company which co produced the award winning 7b sleep with anger an independently made film in which Glover departed from his Good Guy Persona to play the enigmatic vaguely sinister Harry mention who quietly disrupts the stability of a working class Black family in los Angeles. The prestige and attention that Glover a name and aids draw for a Small film like anger is More enriching for him than All the big Bucks he draws for the action pictures. True lethal weapon 2 grossed $150 million domestically in 1989, the year it opened while anger s return in the first couple months of 1991 was a relatively piddling $1.15 million. Yet Glover says if it weren to for his take from lethal 2, he  have been Able to finance a risky Quirky venture like anger. In similar fashion lethal 3 is helping to pay for projects like Saint of fort Washington. While acknowledging that the lethal weapon movies Are a wonderful films in terms of that genre a Glover says he a feels a whole lot better about doing Saint because ultimately when people look at my career they re going to look at the body of work not How much Money i made or How Many blockbusters i  Mes says Lothal weapon 3 will opon on its circuit Juno 6. Womer Bros Danny Glover left stars with Joe Pesci Center and Mel Gibson in lethal weapon 3.may 31, 1992 sunday a Page 11