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Spike LeeAdd to My CelebsAge 55 Birthday Mar. 20th, 1957 Born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA Height 5' 6" |
Spike Lee's Main TV Roles
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Main Movie Roles2005 - Through the Fire2005 - Street Fight 2000 - Michael Jordan to the Max 1999 - Summer of Sam 1997 - 4 Little Girls 1996 - When We Were Kings 1995 - Lumière et compagnie 1995 - Clockers 1994 - Hoop Dreams 1994 - Crooklyn 1992 - Malcolm X 1991 - Jungle Fever 1990 - Lonely in America 1990 - Mo' Better Blues 1989 - Do the Right Thing 1988 - School Daze 1986 - She's Gotta Have It |
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at IMDB
Spike Lee was born Shelton Lee in 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from a proud and intelligent background. His father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a school teacher. His mother dubbed him Spike, due to his tough nature. He attended school in Morehouse College in Atlanta and developed his film making skills at Clark Atlanta University. After graduating from Morehouse, to go to the Tisch School of Arts graduate film program. He made a controversial short, The Answer (1980), a reworking of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) -- a ten-minute film. Lee went on to produce a 45-minute film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), which won a student academy award. However, success did not mean money, and Lee's next film, "The Messenger," in 1984, was somewhat biographical.
In 1986, Spike Lee made the film, She's Gotta Have It (1986), a comedy about sexual relationships. The movie was made for 175,000 dollars, and made seven million. Since then, Lee has become a well-known, intelligent, and talented film maker. His next movie was School Daze (1988), which was set in a historically black school and focused mostly on the conflict between the school and the Fraternities, of which he was a strong critic, portraying them as materialistic, irresponsible, and uncaring. With School Daze (1988) in profit, Lee went on to do his landmark film, Do the Right Thing (1989), a movie specifically about his own town in Brooklyn, New York. The movie portrayed a neighborhood (Bed-Stuy, to be exact) on a very hot day, and the racial tensions that emerge. The movie garnered an Oscar nomination, for Danny Aiello, for supporting actor. It also sparked a debate on racial relations and exactly where Lee was taking the film.
Lee went on to produce the jazz biopic Mo' Better Blues (1990), which is often considered heavy handed, but still good, and did not seem to be as controversial as his previous efforts, but showed his talent for directing and acting, and was the first of many Spike Lee films to feature Denzel Washington. His next film, Jungle Fever (1991), was about interracial dating. Lee's handling of the subject proved yet again highly controversial although it did not quite arouse the debate that similar earlier films did, such as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). Lee's next film was the self-titled biography of Malcolm X (1992), which had Denzel Washington portraying the civil rights leader. The movie was a success, and resulted in an Oscar nomination for Washington.
His next films were the comparatively light, Crooklyn (1994), and the intense crime drama, Clockers (1995). In 1996, Lee directed two movies: the badly received comedy, Girl 6 (1996), and the politically pointed, Get on the Bus (1996), about a group of men going to the Million Man March. His next film, He Got Game (1998), proved to be another excursion into the collegiate world as he shows the darker side of recruiting college athletes. The movie, in limited release, yet again featured Denzel Washington. It was well received and well liked, if for nothing else than the fine quality of acting and directing the film showed its audience.
Bamboozled (2000), proved so over the top and too much for Hollywood. The movie made a near mockery out of television and the way African-Americans are perceived by white America and the way African-Americans perceive themselves. The movie, however, was a resounding critical success.
Lee also has produced films like New Jersey Drive (1995), Tales from the Hood (1995), and Drop Squad (1994). He also has produced and or directed movies about Huey P. Newton, Jim Brown (I), and has commented in many documentaries about varied subjects.
His personal life has become somewhat well known, too. He had a relationship with Halle Berry and started a family with Tonya Lewis Lee, with whom he has two children. Lee is also known to have an obsessive love of the New York Knicks.
With pointed political messages, insightful, different and intelligent films, Spike Lee has become a well known political presence. He looks likely to have further success in the film business.
TRIVIA:
- Was a Visiting Lecturer in Afro-American Studies and Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University in the early 1990s.
- Is a huge Arsenal fan and personal friend of team captain Thierry Henry. Is often known to wear Arsenal jerseys while on set.
- Was voted the 48th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
- When 'Norman Jewison' (qv) was originally hired to direct _Malcolm X (1992)_ (qv), Lee met with him and convinced him he needed to "sit this one out". Feeling that only a black director was qualified and would bring the necessary perspective, Lee then stepped in as director with Jewison's blessing.
- Has been trying for more than ten years to direct his dream project: a film about the life and times of 'Jackie Robinson (I)' (qv). Says that he personally promised to Robinson's widow, Rachel Isum, to make the film. Another as-of-yet (2003) project he has often spoke of but has yet to do is a film on the boxing match between 'Joe Louis' (qv) and 'Max Schmeling (I)' (qv).
- One of Lee's classmate at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts was director 'Ang Lee' (qv). The Taiwan-born Lee worked on the crew of Spike Lee's thesis film, _Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983)_ (qv).
- His production company is 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks.
- Graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1979.
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