Narrating "For Gold & Glory" is acclaimed film actor Ossie Davis. A distinguished and highly respected performer, Mr. Davis is an influential and versatile actor, director, producer, screenwriter, playwright, and historian. The son of a railroad engineer, he was born in Cogdell, Georgia, in 1917 and earned his degree at Howard University in Washington, DC. After studying with Harlem's Rose McClendon Players, he made his Broadway debut in 1946, appearing in "Jeb Turner," where he met his future wife, Ruby Dee, with whom he would later host a radio and television show.

Mr. Davis began to appear in an increasing number of television programs during the 1960s, including the 1967 detective drama "The Outsider." As a playwright, he also won critical acclaim for his work on the Broadway musical "Purlie Victorious." By the 1970s, he was acting, writing and directing, as well as running his own production company, Third World Cinema, an organization dedicated to helping African-American and Puerto Rican filmmakers.

As an actor, Ossie Davis is most familiar for his frequent appearances on television miniseries, such as "Roots" (1977) and on weekly programs like "Evening Shade." He continues to collaborate on many film works with director Spike Lee on films such as "Do the Right Thing" (1989), "Jungle Fever" (1991), "Malcolm X" (1992), and "Get on the Bus" (1996). Throughout his life, Mr. Davis has been active in promoting civil rights and humanitarian causes. He and his wife have been inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame, and the Theater Hall of Fame. In the mid-1990s, he received the National Medal of Arts Award from President Bill Clinton.