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This article was prepared for the

April 11, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.

Spike Lee’s World: Star on the Side

Since his 1986 debut, the independently produced comedy

"She’s Gotta Have It," Spike Lee has established himself as

one of Hollywood’s most important and influential filmmakers.

His most recent features include "The Original Kings of

Comedy"

and "Summer of Sam" starring John Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino.

Other recent entries include "He Got Game," starring Denzel

Washington and Ray Allen, "Girl 6" and "Get on the

Bus."

Add to this lineup some of Lee’s most critically-acclaimed films —

"Malcolm X," "Clockers" and "Do The Right

Thing"

— and you’ve got yourself a Hollywood myth in the making.

And success came early. Lee’s "She’s Gotta Have It" earned

him the Prix de Jeunesse (Youth Prize) Award at the Cannes Film

festival

and set him at the forefront of the Black New Wave in American cinema.

"School Daze," Lee’s second feature, was not only highly

profitable,

but it also helped advance the careers of black actors including

Laurence

Fishburne and Samuel Jackson.

In 1989 Lee’s third film, "Do The Right Thing," brought him

into the ranks of top moviemakers and garnered an Academy Award

nomination

for Best Original Screenplay. Lee’s "Jungle Fever" and

"Mo’

Better Blues" were also critical hits. His seventh film

"Crooklyn,"

about the struggles of a black family in Brooklyn in the 1970s, is

based on his own family experience.

Contrary to popular notions, Lee is the product of a stable home.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1957, and raised in the Fort Greene

section

of Brooklyn, Spike is the son of an accomplished jazz bassist, Bill

Lee (who scores many of his films) and an art teacher. He returned

South to attend Morehouse College, Atlanta (where he is a

third-generation

alumnus), and majored in mass communications. After graduation, he

returned home to Brooklyn to continue his education at New York

University’s

Tisch School of the Arts where he received his MFA in film production.

Lee then founded 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks based in Brooklyn,

where he still lives. He is married to corporate attorney Tonya Lewis

and they are parents of a daughter, named Satchel, and a son named

Jackson.

A skillful entrepreneur, Lee has consistently come up with inventive

ways to retain financial and creative control over his projects. This

includes moving outside the realm of film. Lee’s commercial work began

in 1988 with his Nike Air Jordan campaign, a collaboration with

basketball

great Michael Jordan. He has also completed a PSA for UNCF which also

features Michael Jordan called, "Two Michaels." Lee is also

well-known for his Levi’s, AT&T, and ESPN television commercials.

He has produced and directed numerous music videos for such diverse

artists as Miles Davis, Chaka Khan, Tracy Chapman, Anita Baker, Public

Enemy, Bruce Hornsby, and Michael Jackson. His other music videos

include work for the late Phyllis Hyman, Naughty by Nature, and

Arrested

Development.

Lee is also diversely involved in documentaries and sports programs.

His documentary feature, "4 Little Girls," about the 1963

Ku Klux Klan bombing of a church in Birmingham, won an Oscar

nomination.

He won an Emmy Award for his piece on Georgetown basketball coach

John Thompson for HBO/Real Sports.

Lee has also written six books on the making of his films, the most

recent, "Five For Five," a pictorial reflection on his first

five feature films. His latest book is "Best Seat In The House:

A Basketball Memoir," co-authored with former Sports Illustrated

writer Ralph Wiley (Crown Publishers, 1997). The following excerpt

from "Best Seat" show that Lee’s artistic sensibilities were

working at an early age:

If your sneakers slip and slide,

Get the one with the star on the side

Ask your moms to empty her purse

To get the ones that say Converse.