“It was a phone call that came completely out of the blue.”
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Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American filmmaker and actor. Cited by various publications as one of the most important filmmakers of the late 20th century, his work explores issues including race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty. Lee has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Aw…
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entertainment · American filmmaker and actor (born 1957) · film director · actor · screenwriter · film producer · film editor · film actor · television actor · television producer · director · also Spike Lee, Sheldon Lee, Shelton J. Lee, Mars Blackmon, Lee
Born 20 March 1957 · Q51566
71 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 15 entries
“First of all, the man is not my father and we”
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“s Cannes Film Festival, film-maker Lee challenged reporters to ask Eastwood why there were no black actors in either of his films about the Battle of Iwo Jima.”
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“Yes. I have faith that there is a higher being. All this cannot be an accident.”
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AOL: Spike Lee's 'She's Gotta Have It' Turns 40: How It Launched His Iconic Career
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Time Out: Spike Lee and BAM are debuting a brand-new festival celebrating all things Brooklyn
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Forbes: Clara Wu Tsai and Spike Lee Team Up For New Festival
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Public attention spiked: 10,915 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.9× the usual 2,830, with 1 article edits. Coverage that week: “Spike Lee, Patron Saint of Brooklyn, Rushes Home from Texas to Throw the Ultimate Knicks Block Party” (Vanity Fair).
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Vanity Fair: Spike Lee, Patron Saint of Brooklyn, Rushes Home from Texas to Throw the Ultimate Knicks Block Party
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Public attention spiked: 50,608 Wikipedia readers in one day, 17.9× the usual 2,830, with 3 article edits. Editors noted: Awards and honors Added two tables
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Public attention spiked: 42,756 Wikipedia readers in one day, 15.1× the usual 2,830, with 4 article edits. Editors noted: Family, religion, and residence
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Public attention spiked: 12,289 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.3× the usual 2,830, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 11,830 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.2× the usual 2,830, with 2 article edits. Editors noted: added birth date to Early Life section
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Public attention spiked: 15,791 Wikipedia readers in one day, 5.6× the usual 2,830, with 0 article edits.
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The Guardian: Delroy Lindo: the Sinners Oscar nominee who could make Spike Lee’s secret British weapon rather less secret
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2025· 9 entries
Yahoo: Spike Lee has an easy answer to who's the greatest actor of all time
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The Guardian: Katrina: Come Hell and High Water review – Spike Lee gets straight to the defiant, joyous soul of New Orleans
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The Guardian: Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest rages against the new but leaves him looking too old
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AV Club: Nobody gives Delroy Lindo more than Spike Lee
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Artnet: Spike Lee’s New Film Turns His Art Collection Into a Cinematic Set Piece
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The Guardian: ESPN drops Spike Lee’s docuseries on Colin Kaepernick, network and filmmaker say
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The Guardian: Spike Lee, Adam McKay and over 2,000 writers decry Trump’s ‘un-American’ actions in open letter
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The Source Magazine: Spike Lee Praises A$AP Rocky And Denzel Washington On ‘The Tonight Show’ For Their Roles In ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Film
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Directed an episode of the Netflix three-part documentary series Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, for which he also served as executive producer
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2024· 1 entry
Awarded American Society of Cinematographers Awards (2024).
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2022· 1 entry
Lee was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of America (DGA)
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2021· 2 entries
Career landmark: President of the Jury at the Cannes Festival (2021).
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Was recognized by American Cinema Editors (ACE), receiving its ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award
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2020· 2 entries
Lee received the Chaplin Award at a New York City gala presented by Film at Lincoln Center
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Lee was linked to a movie musical about the origin story of Viagra, Pfizer's erectile dysfunction drug
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2019· 5 entries
Awarded BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (2019).
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Awarded Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman (2019).
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Lee's film BlacKkKlansman went on to receive six Academy Award nominations
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During the awards season leading up to the Academy Awards, Lee was invited to join a Directors Roundtable conversation run by The Hollywood Reporter
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Lee partnered with the Jackie Robinson Foundation and Budweiser to mark the 100th anniversary of Robinson's birth in 1919
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2018· 1 entry
During an interview with GQ, Lee cited some of his favorite films as Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954) and A Face in the Crowd (1957), as well as Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973)
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2017· 1 entry
The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"
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2016· 1 entry
Lee delivered the Commencement address for The Johns Hopkins University Class of 2016
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2015· 4 entries
Awarded Academy Honorary Award (2015).
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In October 2015, Spike Lee visited the National Basketball Association's Manhattan headquarters to discuss producing a commercial that would denounce gun violence in America.
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Lee received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his contributions to film
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At the age of 58, Lee became the youngest person ever to receive an Academy Honorary Award
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2013· 1 entry
Lee won The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the American arts worth $300,000
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2012· 1 entry
Lee directed Red Hook Summer, in which he reprised his role as Mookie from Do the Right Thing
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2007· 2 entries
The 50th San Francisco International Film Festival honored Spike Lee with the San Francisco Film Society's Directing Award
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Won two Emmy Awards, Outstanding Directing For Nonfiction Programming and Exceptional Merit In Nonfiction Filmmaking for When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts
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2006· 3 entries
Awarded George Polk Award (2006).
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Lee directed Inside Man starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer
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“s success, which he thought was based on safe stereotypes, hurt him more than if his film had not been nominated for an award. 1990–1999: Established director In 1990, Lee had his first collaboration with Denzel Washington in Mo”
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2005· 1 entry
“nothing to offer the debate on school violence except more violence and more hate”
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2003· 2 entries
Awarded Honorary César (2003).
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Awarded NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award (2003).
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2002· 2 entries
An Honorary César in 2003, the Academy Honorary Award in 2015, and the National Medal of Arts in 2023
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Was appointed as artistic director of the school
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2000· 2 entries
“Dirty Bastard can use it every other word, why can”
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Lee directed Bamboozled (2000), a satire about a modern televised minstrel show
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1997· 2 entries
“I know that it's painful at times, but we're not making this up. The depths of degradation in cartoons, movies, and television shows, the misrepresentation of a people - it's an American legacy. Not just in television or movies, but in all media.”
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“My film is supposed to reflect that; it is an indictment of the people who write and accept those shows, because we know that they exist today. It also has to do with the $1 million question: What is black? It is a never-ending quest for who we are, and some people are still in search of that.”
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1993· 1 entry
Began to teach at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in the Graduate Film Program
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1992· 2 entries
Spike released his biographical epic film Malcolm X based on the Autobiography of Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington as the famed civil rights leader
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And they were married a year later in New York
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1991· 1 entry
Lee taught a course at Harvard about filmmaking
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1990· 1 entry
Lee had his first collaboration with Denzel Washington in Mo' Better Blues
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1989· 1 entry
Lee made perhaps his most seminal film, Do the Right Thing, which focused on a Brooklyn neighborhood's simmering racial tension on a hot summer day
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1988· 1 entry
For Outstanding Non-Fiction Special for 4 Little Girls, and later nominated in 2021 for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) and Outstanding Directing For A Variety Special for David Byrne's American Utopia
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1985· 1 entry
Lee began work on his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It
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1983· 2 entries
Lee premiered his first independent short film, titled Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
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Lee won the Student Academy Award for his film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
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1963· 1 entry
Was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary
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1957· 2 entries
Born 1957-03-20.
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In Atlanta, Georgia, to Jacqueline Carroll (née Shelton), a teacher of arts and black literature, and William James Edwards Lee III, a jazz musician and composer
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