John Glover ( born August 7, 1944) is an American actor who has played a range of quirky and villainous roles in films and television, such as Lionel Luthor in Smallville, Dr. Jason Woodrue in Batman & Robin and the voice of Riddler in the DC Animated Universe. He also played the role of Daniel Clamp in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990).
Early life
Glover was born in Kingston, New York, and raised in Salisbury, Maryland. His father was a television salesman. Glover attended Wicomico High School and acted at Towson University.
Glover began his career at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, and later studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse under Milton Katselas.
Career
Glover began his career in television, playing a mentally disturbed man who kidnapped Joanne, the lead character in Search for Tomorrow. One of his early film performances was a role as a U.S. diplomat in White Nights. His other roles include Alan Raimy in 52 Pick-Up, Bryce Cummings in Scrooged, Tony Gateworth in Masquerade, Daniel Clamp in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, a mobster in Payback, an advertising spokesman in RoboCop 2, Derek Mills in Night of the Running Man, the Riddler in Batman: The Animated Series, Doctor Jason Woodrue in Batman & Robin, Verad in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Invasive Procedures", the Devil in the series Brimstone, and a recurring role in The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd as Cousin Jerry, from Bal'mer, a relative whom no one actually seemed to know.
In 1987, Glover appeared in the Miami Vice episode "Lend Me an Ear" as Steve Duddy. He also appeared in two episodes of Murder, She Wrote, "One White Rose for Death" and "When Thieves Fall Out". He appeared in the television film An Early Frost in 1985, the first TV film to confront the issue of AIDS, and received an Emmy nomination for his performance as a gay AIDS patient. In 1986, he appeared in the TV film Apology with Lesley Ann Warren.
thumb|Glover at the 1991 Emmy Awards
Glover appeared in the role of Max Brodsky, an inmate in concentration camps and later a fighter for Israel's independence, in Ian Sharp's 1989 TV miniseries Twist of Fate (also known as Pursuit). That same year, he played a hard-driving immoral district sales manager in HBO's Traveling Man. He also received a 1994 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his appearance in Frasier.
Glover had a small role in the Woody Allen film Annie Hall (1977) in a flashback in which he tells the title character, "Touch my heart. With your foot." He had a recurring role in Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Declan Gage, an old friend and mentor to Detective Robert Goren. On ABC's Brothers & Sisters Glover played Henry, the boyfriend of Saul Holden, in 2009. In Heroes he had a brief appearance as Samson Gray, the father of Sylar.
Glover had made notable appearances on stage, winning a Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Play for his dual roles in the Broadway play Love! Valour! Compassion!, which he reprised in the film version. In 2004, he performed with the Philadelphia Theatre Company staging of Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Glover also appeared as "man in the chair/narrator" in The Drowsy Chaperone on Broadway during the summer of 2007. He played the role of Lucky in a Broadway production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, for which he earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. In 2014, he appeared as Leonato in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing.
Glover played Telemachus in Yuri Rasovsky's Peabody Award-winning radio dramatization of The Odyssey of Homer and has acted in several radio plays of the LA Theatre Works. Glover has also narrated audiobooks. In 2011, he performed the audiobook version of Ghost Story, the thirteenth novel in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series. In October and November 2011, he performed in David Bar Katz's drama The Atmosphere of Memory at the Bank Street Theatre in New York City, co-starring with Ellen Burstyn in a LAByrinth production. He played the role of Uncle Ben in the 2012 Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, directed by Mike Nichols. Glover rehearsed the role of John Kreese in behind-the-scenes pre-production footage from The Karate Kid, indicating he may have been considered for that role. In 2013, Glover starred in the horror anthology Sanitarium. He also guest-starred in an episode of Agent Carter. Glover has done various voice-over work for several projects related to Tron: Legacy: the villain Abraxas in Tron: Evolution, and Dyson in Tron: Uprising. In 2014, he guest-starred on The Blacklist in the episode titled "Berlin".
Personal life
Glover is gay. He married sculptor Adam Kurtzman in 2016, whom he had been dating since 1993.
Glover returns to Towson annually to work with theater students. The theater department awards a scholarship in his name.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable" summary="List of films and roles"
|+List of films and roles
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
! class="unsortable" | Reference(s)
|-
| 1973
| Shamus
| Johnnie
|
| rowspan="14" |
|-
| 1977
| Annie Hall
| Actor Boy Friend
|
|-
| 1977
| Julia
| Sammy
|
|-
| 1978
| Somebody Killed Her Husband
| Herbert Little
|
|-
| 1979
| Last Embrace
|Richard Peabody
|
|-
| 1980
| data-sort-value="American Success Company, The"|The American Success Company
| Ernst
|
|-
| 1980
| data-sort-value="Mountain Men, The" | The Mountain Men
| Nathan Wyeth
|
|-
| 1980
| Melvin and Howard
| Freese, Attorney #2
|
|-
| 1981
| data-sort-value="Incredible Shrinking Woman, The"|The Incredible Shrinking Woman
| Tom Keller
|
|-
| 1982
| data-sort-value="Little Sex, A"|A Little Sex
| Walter
|
|-
| 1984
| data-sort-value="Evil That Men Do, The" | The Evil That Men Do
| Briggs
|
|-
| 1985
| White Nights
| Wynn Scott
|
|-
| 1986
| data-sort-value="Killing Affair, A"|A Killing Affair
| Sheb Sheppard
|
|-
| 1986
| 52 Pick-Up
| Alan Raimy
|
|-
| 1986
| Willy/Milly
| Fred Niceman
|
|
|-
| 2022
| Fatal Influence: Like. Follow. Survive
| The Grand Zel
|
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
| Verad
| Episode: "Invasive Procedures"
| rowspan="2" |
|}
Theatre
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+List of theatre roles
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
! class="unsortable" | Reference(s)
|-
| 1977
| The Importance of Being Earnest
| Algernon Moncrieff
|
| rowspan="6" |
|-
| 1981
| Frankenstein
| Henry Clerval
|
|-
| 1984
| Design for Living
| Leo
|
|-
| 2012
| Death of a Salesman
| Ben Loman
|
|-
| 2013–2014
| Macbeth
| Witch, Porter, Third Murderer
|
|-
| 2018
| Saint Joan
| The Archbishop of Rheims, A Gentleman
|
|-
| 2025
| Life, Death, and Other Opportunities
|
|
|
|}
Video games
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+List of video game voice roles
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
! class="unsortable" | Reference(s)
|-
| 1994
| The Adventures of Batman & Robin
| Edward Nygma / Riddler
|
|
|-
| 2003
| Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo
| Help Points
|
|