Spike Lee net worth is $40 Million. Also know about Spike Lee bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship and more …

Spike Lee Wiki Biography

Shelton Jackson Lee, better known as Spike Lee, is an American screenwriter, actor, film director and producer, as well as a television director and producer. How rich is Spike Lee? The sources state that Spike Lee’s net worth is estimated to be $40 million. Spike Lee is a nominee and a winner of a number of awards, including Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, as well as Black Reel Awards. An inspiration to many, Lee accumulated most of his net worth due to his successful screenwriting career, and at the same time paved a path for a lot of upcoming African American filmmakers.

Spike Lee, who was born in 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia, attended a Morehouse College, took film courses at a Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from Morehouse College. A cousin of a film director and screenwriter Malcolm D. Lee, Spike Lee came out with his first independent film “Joe’s Bed-Stud Barbershop: We Cut Heads” in 1983. The movie, showcased at the New Directors New Films Festival, earned a Student Academy Award and turned out to be Lee’s first successful step in the screenwriting direction. In 1985, Spike Lee started to work on his first feature film “She’s Gotta Have It” that was shot in only two weeks. With an initial budget of $175 thousand, the movie grossed over $7 million in the United States, and was first major contribution to Spike Lee’s net worth. In 1989 Lee produced another film titled “Do the Right Thing”, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Danny Aiello, and several years later was paid $3 million to direct a movie about an African-American human rights activist Malcolm X by the name of “Malcolm X”. The movie where the main role is played by Denzel Washington has been awarded and nominated for several awards. Some of Spike Lee’s other notable movies include “Inside Man” with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen, “Love & Basketball” starring Omar Epps, and “25th Hour” with Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Anna Paquin. In 1986, Spike Lee created a production company named “40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks” that has released over 35 of his movies. Lee has also managed to increase his net worth by opening small clothing stores with 40 Acres emblem, and has done numerous collaborations with such clothing companies as “Nike” and “Brooklyn Denim”.

In 2007, Spike Lee was awarded with San Francisco Film Society’s Directing Award. Spike Lee, who not only directs movies and writes screenplays but also appears in cameo roles in some of them, has managed to increase his net worth to $40 million. Spike Lee currently resides in New York’s most expensive Upper East Side zip code with his wife Tonya Lewis and their daughter Satchel. A house that Lee purchased in 1998 for $4.75 million is now worth approximately $30 to $40 million. In addition to his luxurious property, Spike Lee also owns courtside seats of New York Knicks basketball club that are reported to cost a large sum of money.

IMDB Wikipedia $40 million 1957 25th Hour (2002) Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Actor African American American film directors Anna Paquin Arnold Lee Arts Atlanta Black Reel Awards Chris Lee Cinema of the United States Cinqué Lee Clark Atlanta University Clive Owen Danny Aiello David Lee Denzel Washington Directors Do the Right Thing Do the Right Thing (1989) Edward Norton Emmy Award Emmy Awards Entertainment Film Film director Film Editor Film producer Georgia Gish Prize (2013) honorary BAFTA Award Honorary César Hood films Independent films Inside Man (2006) Joie Lee Lee Love & Basketball (2000) Lumière and Company (1995) Malcolm D. Lee Malcolm X March 20 Morehouse College Omar Epps Peabody Awards Philip Seymour Hoffman Samuel L. Jackson Screenwriter She’s Gotta Have It Shelton J. Lee Shelton Jackson Lee Shelton Lee Spike Spike Lee Spike Lee Net Worth. Academy Award Student Academy Award Teacher Television Director Television in the United States Television Producer Tonya Lewis Lee Tonya Lewis Lee (m. 1993) United States United States of America

Spike Lee Quick Info

Spike Lee Trademarks

1. Frequently uses a technique he calls the “double dolly.” This is where the camera and the subject are placed on a dolly and pushed through the scene. This makes the subject look like they are floating or gliding.
2. Often casts Denzel Washington and Michael Imperioli.
3. Baseball: Every one of his narrative feature films makes reference to baseball teams and players.
4. His films often have the phrase “Wake Up!” as in an urging to the awakening of maturity and social conscience.
5. Frequently has characters directly address the camera. Frequently places actors on dollies to achieve a gliding or rotating effect against the background of the shot.
6. Films called “A Spike Lee Joint”
7. His films frequently involve African Americans and African-American themes
8. Frequently casts John Turturro,Samuel L. Jackson, Delroy Lindo, Kim Director and Roger Guenveur Smith
9. Frequently casts himself

Spike Lee Quotes

• One thing I hope “School Daze” does is knock all this goddam “Black Woody Allan” shit put the window. Peop;r say I should take it as a , compliment. F__k dat. So often black artists are compared to whiter artists, To me it’s saying that I’ve patterned myself after Woody, that my work is not original.
• I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated.
• [advice to young people considering a show-business career] You’ve got to have heart and you’ve got to have drive. And when you get knocked down you’ve got to pick yourself up – put your hands up on the ropes and pull yourself to your feet. Because, if you can’t take a hit, you’re not going to last long, that’s for sure.
• [his advice for aspiring filmmakers] I hope they’re doing it because they love it, not because they want to be rich or famous. Not that those things can’t happen, but the main reason, the focus is, “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life and I love it.” Not to say that you don’t want to make money, but the passion should be driven by your love for that particular thing that you’re doing. {2015]
• [on why other companies passed on Chi-Raq (2015) before Amazon Studios] They never give you a reason; they just say, “It’s not for us.” My co-writer Kevin Willmott and I wrote the script and went to Sundance and everybody was saying no, no, no, no, no. Amazon said yes. I tell my students, “All it takes is one yes. You get a bunch of motherf-ing nos, but all it takes is one yes.” [2015]
• [on how independent filmmaking changed since he started] That might as well have been a million years ago. Filmmakers like Jim [Jim Jarmusch] and I, the only reason we went to film school was because of the equipment. We didn’t care about the MFA. You went to film school to get the equipment. Now students look at the cost of going to schools and say, “I could use that money to buy my own camera and lighting kit.” It’s a new world. [2015]
• Black people can’t be racist. Racism is an institution.
• [re Oldboy (2013)] Rage doesn’t have to fester for years, but revenge? That stuff takes time. It’s the oldest staple of films, in stories. It goes back to the Bible.
• [on why he became a filmmaker] I had just finished my sophomore year, so I came back to New York trying to find a summer job. Couldn’t find one, so with a super-8 camera that I had gotten, I just spent the whole summer shooting stuff around New York City. That summer happened to the summer of ‘the blackout’ and that summer was also the first summer of disco, and there were always block-parties around everywhere, and people would just plug up their tables to the streetlights. That was the first summer that ‘the hustle’ came out, so I made a film called ‘Last Hustle Brooklyn’, which I inter-cut with the looting from the blackout and the block-party stuff. That’s when I really decided I wanted to become a filmmaker.
• Each artist should be allowed to pursue their artistic endeavors, but I still think there is a lot of stuff out today that is coonery and buffoonery. I know it’s making a lot of money and breaking records, but we can do better. … I am a huge basketball fan, and when I watch the games on TNT, I see these two ads for these two shows (Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (2009) and House of Payne (2006)), and I am scratching my head. We got a black president, and we going back to Mantan Moreland and Sleep ‘n’ Eat?”.
• You gotta make your own way. You gotta find a way. You gotta get it done. It’s hard. It’s tough. That’s what I tell my students every day in class. I’ve been very fortunate. Some people might call me a hardhead, but I’m not going to let other people dictate to me who I should be or the stories I should tell. That doesn’t register with me.
• [on the Academy Awards] What film won Best Picture in 1989? Driving Miss motherfucking Daisy! That’s why [Oscars] don’t matter. Because, 20 years later, who’s watching Driving Miss Daisy (1989).
• Racism is when you have laws set up, systematically put in the way to keep people from advancing, to stop the advancement of a people. Black people have never had the power to enforce racism, and so this is something that white America is going to have to work out themselves. If they decide they want to stop it, curtail it, or to do the right thing then it will be done, but not until then.
• It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody.
• “Before, I used to think that everything was based on race. Now class matters just as much. If you are a poor person: black, white, Latino, whatever, the Bush Administration does not have your best interests at heart. If the Government thought poor people mattered, the response [to Katrina’s disaster] would have been much quicker.” (March 2006)
• [Speaking out after the death of comedian Richard Pryor]: “He was an innovator and a trailblazer. It’s a great loss”.
• You have to do the research. If you don’t know about something, then you ask the right people who do. With She’s Gotta Have It (1986), I don’t think I got any revelation; it was just good to hear the women whom I interviewed confirm what I thought already.
• Amongst black people, you have always heard it said that once a black man reaches a certain level, especially if you are an entertainer, you get a white trophy woman. I didn’t make that up.
• But actresses are asked to compromise themselves, not just from the director but the producer too – ‘Are you going to show your tits or your ass?’ They say that shit all the time. It is men making decisions. And of course they would rather have heads explode on screen than show a penis.
• For me, a large part of Jungle Fever (1991) is about sexual mythology: the mythology of a white woman being on a pedestal, the universal standard of beauty, and the mythology about the black man as sexual stud with a ten-foot dick. Buying into the mythology is not a strong foundation for a relationship.
• You just have to be on good terms with the actors and talk stuff out beforehand. A perfect example is She Hate Me – I had many different discussions with many different women, and also with [the actor] Anthony Mackie, so they knew. And this was before they even agreed to do the film. But actors want to know – ‘Here, it says they make love. What type of acts are we talking about? What’s going to be seen?’ I have no problem with that. At the same time, I still want to allow myself some flexibility. But shooting a sex scene is very mechanical – ‘Will you move this way? That way? Raise your leg?’ And for the most part the crew isn’t allowed to be there – I close the set, make it as comfortable as possible.
• Agents aren’t going to get you anywhere if you aren’t established.
• “I respect the audience’s intelligence a lot, and that’s why I don’t try to go for the lowest common denominator.” — at the New York premiere of his media satire “Bamboozled”.
• Wim Wenders had better watch out ’cause I’m waiting for his ass. Somewhere deep in my closet I have a Louisville Slugger bat with Wenders’ name on it.
• Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind. Straight up and down, film work is hard shit.
• What’s the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real.
• I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don’t have access to power and the media. I have to take advantage of that while I’m still bankable.

Spike Lee Important Facts

• $3,000,000
• Friends with Bill Nunn.
• He is left-handed.
• Attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, New York. Director Larry Charles also went to Dewey, but graduated one year later.
• Endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election of the United States.
• Preparing to make a follow-up film to “When the Levees Broke” [January 2010]
• He’s good friends with Martin Scorsese.
• Mentioned in the song “Light My Candle” from Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent. He was also considered to direct the movie version of Rent before Chris Colubus was chosen.
• Has directed 2 actors to Oscar-nominated performances: Danny Aiello (Best Supporting Actor, Do the Right Thing (1989)), and Denzel Washington (Best Actor, Malcolm X (1992)).
• Nephew of Consuela Lee Morehead.
• His favorite movie is The Deer Hunter (1978). It is the movie that inspired him to be a director.
• Is a big fan of musicals from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
• Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 2004.
• The Lees bought their 9,800-sq.-ft. Italian palazzo-style home from Jasper Johns in 1998; it was originally built for a Vanderbilt.
• Made the introduction of the song “The Church” on De La Soul’s album “The Grind Date”.
• One of his classmate at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts was director Ang Lee. The Taiwan-born Lee worked on the crew of Spike’s thesis film, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983).
• When Norman Jewison was originally hired to direct Malcolm X (1992), Lee met with him and convinced him he needed to “sit this one out”. Feeling that only a black director was qualified and would bring the necessary perspective, Lee then stepped in as director with Jewison’s blessing.
• Is a huge Arsenal fan and personal friend of team captain Thierry Henry. Is often known to wear Arsenal jerseys while on set.
• Is a fan of Michael Moore’s films. Bowling for Columbine (2002) was his favorite film of 2002.
• Grandson of Zimmie Shelton, who helped finance his featurette, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). She received a producing credit on the film, which went on to win a Merit Award at the Student Academy Awards.
• Often casts real-life family members in his films. In Do the Right Thing (1989) , for example, he cast Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (real-life husband and wife), himself and Joie Lee (real-life siblings), and Danny Aiello and Rick Aiello (real-life father and son). Other films he does this in include School Daze (1988), Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991) and Malcolm X (1992).
• Was voted the 48th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• Has been trying for more than ten years to direct his dream project: a film about the life and times of Jackie Robinson. Says that he personally promised to Robinson’s widow, Rachel Isum, to make the film. Another as-of-yet (2003) project he has often spoke of but has yet to do is a film on the boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling.
• Vied for the director’s seat on Ali (2001). Says that he knew he wouldn’t get the job after speaking to the movie’s star, Will Smith (one of the many financiers on Lee’s Get on the Bus (1996)), who wanted Lee to make a film with “a broader appeal”.
• Is now (2002) the Artistic Director of the graduate division of the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The position gives Lee an advisory position, allowing him to teach and advise third year students, as well as aid with industry networking.
• Was featured in numerous Nike campaigns in the early ’90s
• Was a Visiting Lecturer in Afro-American Studies and Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University in the early 1990s.
• The name of his production company, “40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks”, came from an unfulfilled promise that many politicians made to freed slaves after the Civil War.
• Between the making of his award-winning student short, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), and his debut feature, She’s Gotta Have It (1986), Lee attempted to make a featured called “Messenger”. Over $100,000 was raised, but the film never materialized.
• He and producer/director Monty Ross are frequent collaborators and were classmates and graduates of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
• He has never learned how to drive an automobile.
• His grandmother, Zimmie Shelton, helped fund his first full-length feature film, She’s Gotta Have It (1986).
• His grandmother, Zimmie Shelton, an alumna of Spelman College (class of 1929), sent him to Morehouse College, the historically black all-male institution affiliated with the all-female Spelman College.
• Children, with Tonya Lewis Lee, Satchel (b. 1994) and Jackson (b. 1997).
• Graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1979.
• Graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1982.
• Serves as a master teacher of film at the Tisch School of the Arts and Harvard University.
• After the Columbine high school shootings Spike said that National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston should be shot. Heston replied that if Spike wanted to take a shot at him he should go ahead and try it. Lee later apologized for the comments.
• Friend of Soledad O’Brien.
• Brother of Joie Lee, Cinqué Lee and David Lee.
• Son of Bill Lee.
• His production company is 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks.
• Big New York Knicks fan: Has courtside seats for all games. Partially responsible for the “off colored” baseball caps, as he started wearing a red Yankees cap during the 1996 World Series.
• Cousin of Malcolm D. Lee.

Spike Lee Filmography

Spike Lee Awards