Spike Lee Biography

Spike Lee is known for his controversial films, political beliefs, and constant presence at New York Knicks games. Many of his films are semi-autobiographical and involve African-American or racial themes, as these were things he witnessed growing up as a child in Brooklyn.Lee was born as Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957 in Atlanta to a jazz musician and a teacher. It was his mother Mary who nicknamed him Spike, because he was a tough, scrappy kid. While very young, the Lee family moved from Atlanta to Brooklyn, which has become the setting for many of his movies. As a teen, he lived in the Fort Greene area of the city, and it was this time that had the greatest impact on his autobiographical films. He nearly died at one time due to the injuries he received from a beating at the hands of his father, and often felt like an outsider.The first films created by Lee were made while he was a student at Morehouse College and New York University's School of the Arts. He received a B.A. from Morehouse and a Master of Fine Arts from New York University, with his thesis film being Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. It went on to be the first student film entered in the Lincoln Center's New Directors New Film Festival, and also won a Student Academy Award. This thesis film also featured Lee's classmate, Ang Lee, as assistant director, who himself has gone on to win regular Academy Awards.Lee's first film outside of school was She's Gotta Have It, in which he cast himself as one of the three guys having a sexual relationship with a young Brooklyn woman, played by Tracy Camilla Johns. Although he made the movie for just $175,000, it went on to make $7 million to allow Lee that first experience at success. He followed this with School Daze, a movie about fraternity life in a historic black college, starring himself once again, along with Laurence Fishburn, Tisha Campbell, Giancarlo Esposito, and Ossie Davis.The next Lee film, Do the Right Thing, once again starred Lee, Esposito, and Davis, along with Danny Aiello, who received an Academy Award nomination for this part. This movie was perhaps the most autobiographical yet, about the neighborhood that Lee grew up in and the racial tensions that existed then. It also earned Lee an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay. Mo Better Blues followed shortly thereafter, again with a starring role for Lee and Esposito, and this time also including Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes. This film featured some of Lee's father's jazz music. Again we find Lee, Snipes, and Davis, this time in the film about an interracial couple, Jungle Fever. Joining them this time were Samuel L. Jackson and Annabella Sciorra.One of Lee's biggest successes was Malcolm X. He once again penned a role for himself, along with one of his favorite actors to work with, Denzel Washington. Also appearing in the film are Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, and Albert Hall. Washington earned an Academy Award nomination for the title role. After such a serious movie, Lee returned once again to the comical autobiographical films with Crooklyn. He cast Lindo and Alfre Woodard as parents with the same occupations as his own parents. Lee followed this with He Got Game, starring once again Washington, and this time joined by Milla Jovovich and Rosario Dawson.Along the way, Lee filmed a few documentaries, such as Michael Jackson: HIStory on Film Volume II, two Luciano Pavarotti TV specials, Jim Brown: All American, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts about the Hurricane Katrina tragedy, and The Original Kings of Comedy, featuring Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac. Lee also directed the TV docu-drama A Huey P. Newton Story, about the founder of the Black Panther party.