Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee is one of the most inventive filmmakers and directors in history. He is a copious movie director who owns a film production company named 40 Acres and a Mule and has successfully produced more than 35 films and counting.
Lee has become an inspiration to young filmmakers to this age and was constantly getting a lot of prestige. He is known for his critically acclaimed and meritorious films touching the hearts of his audiences.
His accomplished and revolutionary films made their way to the National Film Registry for being historically significant and honest examples of what the society is facing.
He continues to work on political issues, race, media, the black community, and other subjects concerning culture, dispute, and peace.
If you want to know more about Lee’s praiseworthy beginning and ventures as a film director, producer, professor then keep reading as we will show you more about him.
Personal Details
Full Name: Shelton Jackson Lee
Gender: Male
Birthday: March 20, 1957
Place of Origin: Atlanta, Georgia
Age: 63
Height: 5’6” ft
Weight: Kg
Nationality: American
Ethnicity: Black
Sexual Orientation: Straight
Status: Married
Wife: Tonya Lewis Lee
Profession: Director Producer Writer Actor Professor
Total Net Worth: $50 million
Early Life
Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee was born to Jackqueline Carroll, an educator of arts and black literature, and jazz musician and composer, William James Edward Lee III in Atlanta, Georgia ON March 20, 1957.
His family moved to Brooklyn, New York where he attended John Dewey High School. Lee graduated with B.A in Mass Communications from a historically black college in Atlanta, the Morehouse College where he created his first student film, the Last Hustle in Brooklyn.
Soon after, Lee took his Masters of Fine Arts in film and television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts
Filmmaker Career
Before discovering his talent for filmmaking, he used to be active in screenwriting jobs along with acting in several films way back his college years. By 1985, he started working on his first feature film entitled She’s Gotta Have It with a budget of $175,000 for only two weeks.
A year later, the film made it to the viewers and grossed up to 50 times the film’s budget totaling to more than $8 Million at the U.S Box Office. Lee made another film titled Do the Right Thing which was critically acclaimed and was nominated for an Academy Award as the Best Original Screenplay.
Since Lee’s college years he has been working at his production company 40 Acres and a Mule and has successfully produced over 35 films in total, some of which received high recognition and reviews from different audiences all over the world.
However, although Lee was known over the years as one of the highly prolific and respected filmmakers and producers, he also has been through controversies and critics about his films like Mo’ Better Blues in 1990 over its antisemitic undertones.
Lee calls his films as Spike Lee Joints with an ending frame of phrases like “By Any Means Necessary,” “Ya Dig,” and “Sho Nuff”.
Lee’s film depicts races, the black community, struggles of black people against exploitation, the part of the media in present times, the rise in poverty, and other political matters.
Recently, his film Da 5 Bloods was released on Netflix that follows a plot of Vietnam War veterans in search of their fallen squadron leader. This has yet been Lee’s most impactful and remembered film as it also the last movie of the late Chadwick Boseman.
Personal Life
Lee is happily married to Attorney Tonya Lewis in 1992 with one daughter, Satchel, and a son named Jackson.
He is much interested and fond of sports like the New York Yankees, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, and the English football team Arsenal.
Aside from filming, Lee was also a professor. He taught a course on filmmaking in 1991 at Harvard University and soon transferred to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts graduate film program.
Spike Lee Achievement and Awards
Lee’s films garnered awards and recognition over the years, some of which received high admiration for being historically significant to be preserved in the National Film Registry like the films Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 4 Little Girls and She’s Gotta Have It.
In 2004, he was awarded the American Black Film Festival with the Time Warner Innovator Award. Soon after in 2015, Lee became the honorable recipient for the Academy Honorary Award in recognition of his notable contributions to the film industry.
His 2018 film BlacKkKlansman received the Grand Prix at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated twice for the Academy Award as the Best Picture and Best Director. The film also made his first Academy Award with the Best Adapted Screenplay.
Spike Lee Total Net Worth
Spike Lee’s net worth is currently estimated to be around $50 million which is expected to escalate in years time as he is not yet thinking about retirement. His wealth and fame speak for his excellence in filmmaking and he is someone that truly deserves the spotlight.
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