(Photo by Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection. Thumbnail: Buena Vista Pictures, Columbia/Courtesy Everett Collection)

All Danny Glover Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer

The journey to fame and employment for every movie star is different, but Danny Glover‘s background of working in the public sector with a side theater hobby stands unique among his peers. His work for the city drove Glover’s strong political and social activism, which translated into his major movie debut, 1984’s Places in the Sun. More critically acclaimed films he starred in the years following that ran along the same lines, including prominent Black stories, among them The Color Purple, To Sleep With Anger, Bopha!, Beloved, and Grand Canyon.

But because he broke through in the ’80s, buddy-cop action flicks were what the people demanded, and Glover delivered. His Roger Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon is the best example of the buttoned-down family man foil to a loose-cannon partner, and together Murtaugh and Riggs rode through three more sequels. In fact, Glover’s mainstream bread-and-butter was playing these sympathetic yet strong authority figures or trustworthy officers, in films like Witness, Predator 2, Shooter, Operation Dumbo Drop, and even the original Saw. And he even eventually reached the highest office in the land when he became President of the United States in disaster movie 2012.

Glover has continually worked since getting that big break in 1984, all the more impressive that he was 40 when it happened. Recently, he’s been making appearances in vital contemporary Certified Fresh movies, including Dreamgirls, Beyond the Lights, and Sorry To Bother You. In 2019 alone, he was in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, The Dead Don’t Die, and Jumanji: The Next Level. And now we’re taking those and more as we rank all Danny Glover movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo