Spike Lee is an influential American filmmaker known for his thought-provoking explorations of race relations, social justice, and political issues within the Black community. His films often tackle urban crime, poverty, and the impact of media on contemporary society. Throughout his career, Lee has received numerous prestigious awards, including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Emmy Awards and Peabody Awards. He has also received nominations for Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, solidifying his status as a prominent figure in the entertainment industry and a powerful voice for social change.
On March 20, 1957, Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee was born. He is an American filmmaker known for exploring race relations and political issues.
In 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing occurred in Birmingham, Alabama. Spike Lee's 1997 documentary, 4 Little Girls, is about this event.
February 21, 1965, was the date of Malcolm X's assassination, an event depicted in Spike Lee's 1992 film Malcolm X.
In 1979, Spike Lee graduated with a B.A. in mass communication from Morehouse College.
In 1982, Spike Lee earned a Master of Fine Arts in film and television from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
In 1983, Spike Lee directed his student film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, which won a Student Academy Award.
In 1983, Spike Lee premiered his independent short film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, which won a Student Academy Award.
In 1985, Spike Lee began work on his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It.
In 1986, Spike Lee made his directorial debut with the comedy She's Gotta Have It.
In 1986, Spike Lee's film She's Gotta Have It was released, grossing over $7 million at the U.S. box office.
In 1988, Spike Lee followed She's Gotta Have It with the musical drama School Daze.
In 1989, Spike Lee made his seminal film, Do the Right Thing, focusing on racial tension in a Brooklyn neighborhood. The film received critical acclaim.
In 1989, Spike Lee received widespread critical acclaim for the drama Do the Right Thing, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
In 1990, Spike Lee released Mo' Better Blues and faced accusations of antisemitism from the Anti-Defamation League and film critics.
In 1990, Spike Lee wrote and directed the film Mo' Better Blues.
In mid-1990, Levi's hired Spike Lee to direct TV commercials for their 501 button-fly jeans. Nike also offered Lee a job directing commercials pairing his character, Mars Blackmon, with Michael Jordan for the Air Jordan line.
In 1991, Spike Lee released Jungle Fever, which garnered Samuel L. Jackson acclaim for his performance.
In 1991, Spike Lee taught a filmmaking course at Harvard University.
In 1992, Spike Lee directed the historical epic Malcolm X, earning the Berlin International Film Festival's Golden Bear.
In 1992, Spike Lee met his future wife, attorney Tonya Lewis Lee.
In 1992, Spike Lee released his biographical epic film Malcolm X, based on the Autobiography of Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington. The film received widespread critical acclaim.
In 1993, Spike Lee began teaching at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in the Graduate Film Program, where he also earned his master of fine arts degree.
In 1994, Spike Lee released the film Crooklyn.
In 1995, Spike Lee released the film Clockers.
In 1996, Spike Lee released the films Girl 6 and Get on the Bus.
In 1997, Spike Lee's documentary 4 Little Girls was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
In 1997, Spike Lee's documentary 4 Little Girls, about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.
In 1998, Spike Lee had his third collaboration with Denzel Washington on the sports drama He Got Game.
In May 1999, the New York Post reported that Spike Lee made an inflammatory comment about Charlton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), at the Cannes Film Festival, leading to criticism and controversy.
In 1999, Spike Lee released Summer of Sam, based on the Son of Sam murders.
In 2000, Spike Lee directed Bamboozled, a satire about a modern televised minstrel show.
In 2002, Spike Lee directed 25th Hour starring Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman, which opened to positive reviews.
In 2002, Spike Lee received the Honorary BAFTA Award.
In 2002, Spike Lee was appointed as the artistic director of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
In June 2003, Spike Lee sought an injunction against Spike TV to prevent them from using his nickname, claiming viewers would think he was associated with the channel.
In 2003, Spike Lee received an Honorary César.
In 2004, Spike Lee released She Hate Me, which received negative reviews.
In October 2005, Spike Lee responded to a CNN anchor by saying he wouldn't rule out that the United States government intentionally ignored the plight of black Americans during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe.
In an April 7, 2006, interview with New York magazine, Spike Lee discussed the Academy Awards snub of his film Do the Right Thing and the success of Driving Miss Daisy.
In 2006, Spike Lee directed Inside Man, starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer. The film was a critical and financial success.
In 2006, Spike Lee directed the HBO series When the Levees Broke, which won two Primetime Emmy Awards.
On May 2, 2007, Spike Lee was honored with the San Francisco Film Society's Directing Award at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival.
At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Spike Lee criticized director Clint Eastwood for not depicting black Marines in *Flags of Our Fathers*, leading to a public disagreement between the two directors.
In 2008, Spike Lee received the Wexner Prize and directed the World War II drama Miracle at St. Anna.
On December 16, 2009, film critic Roger Ebert added Spike Lee's film 25th Hour to his "Great Movies" list.
In 2010, Spike Lee directed the HBO documentary If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise.
In March 2012, after the killing of Trayvon Martin, Spike Lee circulated a message on Twitter that claimed to give the home address of George Zimmerman, which turned out to be incorrect and led to death threats for the real occupants of the home.
In 2012, Spike Lee directed *Red Hook Summer*, where he reprised his role as Mookie from *Do the Right Thing*.
In November 2013, the McClains filed a negligence lawsuit, valued at $1.2 million, accusing Spike Lee of "encouraging a dangerous mob mentality among his Twitter followers, as well as the public-at-large".
Before 2013, David Lee, Spike's younger brother, served as a still photographer for all of Spike's feature films with the exception of Get on the Bus and He Got Game.
In 2013, Spike Lee won The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, a prestigious American arts award worth $300,000.
In 2013, Spike Lee's film, *Oldboy*, used the credit "A Spike Lee Film" after producers had it re-edited, a departure from his usual "A Spike Lee Joint" credit.
In 2014, Spike Lee directed *Da Sweet Blood of Jesus*, which was primarily funded on Kickstarter.
In 2015, Spike Lee directed, wrote, and produced the MyCareer story mode in the video game NBA 2K16.
In 2015, Spike Lee received an Academy Honorary Award for his contributions to film. The award was presented by Wesley Snipes, Denzel Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson at the Governors Awards ceremony.
In 2015, Spike Lee released *Chi-Raq*, a musical drama film and a modern adaptation of Aristophanes' *Lysistrata*. The film explores race, sex, and violence in America and received generally positive reviews.
In 2015, at the age of 58, Spike Lee received an Honorary Academy Award, making him the youngest person ever to receive it. The award recognized him as "a champion of independent film and an inspiration to young filmmakers". Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and Wesley Snipes presented the award at the Governors Awards.
On May 18, 2016, Spike Lee delivered the Commencement address for The Johns Hopkins University Class of 2016.
In 2017, the film 4 Little Girls was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
In 2018, Spike Lee won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Award for the biographical crime dramedy BlacKkKlansman.
In 2018, Spike Lee's film *BlacKkKlansman*, a true crime drama, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. The film, which is about a black police officer infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, received near universal praise upon its release.
In 2018, Spike Lee's film BlacKkKlansman won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2018, during an interview with GQ, Spike Lee cited *On the Waterfront* (1954), *A Face in the Crowd* (1957), and *Mean Streets* (1973) as some of his favorite films. He also befriended Martin Scorsese after attending a screening of *After Hours* at NYU.
In 2019, Spike Lee was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director for *BlacKkKlansman* and won his first competitive Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He expressed his feelings about *Green Book* winning Best Picture by saying it was "not my cup of tea".
In 2019, Spike Lee's film BlacKkKlansman received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Lee himself. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, marking his first Academy Award.
In March 2020, Spike Lee had a disagreement with the security team at Madison Square Garden over which entrance to use, leading him to state he would not attend the rest of the games for the season.
In May 2020, Spike Lee published a three-minute short film, *NEW YORK NEW YORK*, on Instagram, which was later featured on the city's official website.
On June 12, 2020, Spike Lee's Vietnam war film *Da 5 Bloods*, starring Delroy Lindo and Chadwick Boseman, was released on Netflix to widespread critical acclaim. The plot follows a group of aging Vietnam War veterans who return to Vietnam.
In 2020, Spike Lee directed Da 5 Bloods and the David Byrne concert film American Utopia.
In 2023, Spike Lee received the National Medal of Arts.
In 2023, Spike Lee was named as the recipient of the Ebert Director Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards for the Toronto International Film Festival.
In February 2024, Spike Lee was confirmed as the director of *Highest 2 Lowest*, a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's *High and Low* (1963), starring Denzel Washington. Lee will also make the Netflix three-part documentary series *Katrina: Come Hell and High Water*.
In March 2024, Spike Lee received a Board of Governor's Award from the American Society of Cinematographers.
On October 24, 2024, Spike Lee endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election and spoke at one of her campaign rallies.
In 2024, Spike Lee has been frequenting New York Liberty games at Barclays Center, sitting courtside during the WNBA playoffs in a Sabrina Ionescu jersey.
In June 2025, Spike Lee featured as the narrator in a promotional video for the Italian soccer team Inter Milan.
In 2025, Spike Lee is expected to release the film Highest 2 Lowest.
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