CAREER: American film director, producer and actor

Spike Lee, originally known as Shelton Jackson was born to Jacqueline Carroll, a teacher of arts and black literature, and William James Edward Lee, a jazz musician and composer on March 20, 1957. His popular name “Spike Lee” comes from his nickname given by his mother.

He had developed interest in the field of media quite early in life. Staying true to his interests and passion, Lee was making amateur films by age 20. His first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn, was completed when he was an undergraduate at Morehouse College in United States. He went to pursue his career from New York University Film School in 1982. His thesis film, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, won a Student Academy Award.

Lee’s movies had influential themes of power black community and race. Lee has a long history of struggling to get funding for his projects. Lee has suggested that his inability to secure financing is due to the fact that the majority of his films deal with black characters and tell stories from a black perspective—the kind of subject matter Hollywood has often brushed off as “unmarketable.”

Even though the cause and his subject matter were quite extravagant and deep, considering the political scenario, he was unable to procure funds since markets were comparatively new.

 BUSINESS VALUE

Spike’s main residence is a 9000 square foot town home located in Manhattan’s most expensive Upper East Side zip code. This townhouse is actually made up of two separate three-story buildings that surround a private courtyard. The mansion has 9000 square feet of living space and was designated a New York City landmark. Spike purchased the house in 1998 for $4.75 million and today it is worth an estimated $30 – $40 million! The luxurious property wraps around an internal courtyard, which is home to a magnificent fountain as its centerpiece.

 Bagging his grand property which is set off in one of the most prime locations, just off the 18th hole of Farm Neck Golf Club, Spike had purchased it in 1989 for $400,000. He then built a four bedroom mansion which is worth an estimated $3-4 million today!

The $40 million value that Lee adorns is a result of his diligence during his mid twenties. In 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, She’s Gotta Have It. With a budget of $175,000, he shot the film in two weeks. When the film was released in 1986, its turnover rounded to over $7,000,000 at the U.S. box office. Today Spike owns a film production company ’Forty Acres and a Mule” is located in a three-story building in Brooklyn that was purchased in 1991 for $820,000.

 SPIKE’S CAREER TAKES SHAPE

In mid-1990, Levi’s began producing a series of TV commercials directed by Lee for their 501 button fly jeans. Marketing executives from Nike offered Lee a job directing commercials for the company… Through the marketing wing of 40 Acres and a Mule, Lee has directed commercials for Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry’s.

The previous year, in July 2013, Spike Lee became the latest celebrity to launch a Kickstarter in order to fund a personal project. Spike was aiming to raise $1.25 million to fund his very own bloody psychological vampire thriller. It’s astonishing to know that, within a week, nearly 2000 people around the world have donated $400,000 to his project. Clearly his fans have conviction that Spike has a long way to go!

Spike has been a successful director and a producer with movies like “Do the right thing and “four little girls”.

CAUGHT UP IN CONTROVERSIES..

 Spike has been a victim of some controversial remarks he made. In 1999, at Cannes festival, he made an inappropriate comment about the President of National Rifle Association, in 2005 again, he was insensitive to the Black Americans during the Katrina Hurricane Catastrophe. Some people even expressed their disapproval about him raising funds for his upcoming films through kickstarts.

LEE’S LIFESTYLE

Lee is married to attorney Tonya Lewis and has two children, a daughter and a son. Spike Lee is a fan of the American baseball team the New York Yankees, basketball team the New York Knicks, and the English football team Arsenal

 While Lee continues to maintain an office in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, he and his wife live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Being an American who is settled in Manhattan, he finds American cars stinky. He isn’t in a hurry to buy himself an exclusive car and he takes a walk from his apartment to the production office of his film company, Forty Acres and a Mule. He finds it a challenge only in harsh winter time when cabs don’t go from his office till his house. When he will invest his money in the same, he would not go for ant fancy car, contrary to what the public expects from him. He says he would buy one that would give good mileage and will be safe!

 Lee is quoted as saying that people have faults and that they are more interesting than people who are perfect. As for lee too, has seen success quite early in life but he insists on working on his faults

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