Ava DuVernay honors Glynn Turman at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony

Variety

Transcript

00:00I see so many people here today who have worked, wow, just landed on a legend here,

00:05who have worked closely with Glenn and loved Glenn.

00:08I don't call him Glenn, I call him Mr. Turman because I just can't.

00:12Because there are artists and then there are architects.

00:15Creative human beings who don't only perform but who build, who shape, who carve paths,

00:22who create structures that others walk through and dwell in

00:25long after the curtain is lowered and the cameras stop rolling.

00:30On this gorgeous summertime day we gather to celebrate such an architect,

00:34a master builder of culture, a man whose name alone conjures not only memories of performances

00:40but entire eras of the nation's history, its beauty, its bruises, its pain, its poetry.

00:48Glenn Turman is an American institution.

00:54His career begins in New York City as a kid on Broadway, it's no big deal,

00:59in A Raisin in the Sun, the first great black American play,

01:04a child on that stage soaking in those words, that story.

01:08Most kids are playing stickball.

01:10Mr. Turman is embodying the undeferred dreams of the great Lorraine Hansberry.

01:15And from that time forward, he became one of those artists who slipped through time,

01:21not bound by trend or fashion or decade.

01:25He became Preach in Cooley High, that funny, tender, streetwise dreamer whose laugh and heartbreak

01:33live in every brother who's ever wanted more than his block could offer.

01:36He became Clarence Royce, and he knows I don't like it when he plays mean people,

01:42but I'm going to skip straw because I have to turn it off because I just, I can't.

01:48He became Clarence Royce in The Wire, navigating politics and all its ugly, sharp edges.

01:55One of my favorites, Colonel Bradford Taylor, a mathematics professor at Hillman College in a different world,

02:02showing generations of young black men what it looks like to be brilliant.

02:07And then he became Ernest Bordelon, the patriarch of Queen Sugar,

02:11the heart of the Bordelon family,

02:13a man whose absence shapes every moment of that story and every beat of the show.

02:19When I was writing Queen Sugar, I knew that there was only one name I hoped for for Ernest,

02:23only one man I believed could embody the gravity of that father,

02:27the kind of father I knew, the kind of father I'd lost,

02:30a man who worked hard and loved his children and carried them with grace,

02:34and I only wanted Glenn Turman, and when he said yes,

02:38child, you should have seen me run and jump.

02:40He didn't just play Ernest Bordelon, he made him live and linger,

02:44even after he was gone from the screen.

02:46That's what an institution does, shapes everything around it,

02:51defines the space, commands reverence,

02:54not because it shouts, but because it stands,

02:56and Glenn Turman has stood for us for more than 60 years.

02:59Not only on stages and screens, but in the arena of life.

03:04A cowboy, a horseman, an educator, a mentor,

03:08this is an American institution,

03:10because he is a man who's done what institutions are meant to do,

03:14preserve what is sacred,

03:15pass down what is vital,

03:17protect what is beautiful and black.

03:20And today, we not only thank him for his roles,

03:25we thank him for the roads he paved,

03:27we thank him for the weight he carried,

03:30we thank him for reminding us every time he appears

03:32that we're not just watching entertainment,

03:34we're witnessing legacy.

03:36Today, I'd like to congratulate this street

03:39for having the honor of bearing his name.

03:42Congratulations to the street.

03:43Because he doesn't really need anything else,

03:48but we'll take all the opportunities we can

03:50to lift him up and celebrate the great Glenn Turman.

03:54Thank you for everything.

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