While some might know Cinqué Lee’s iconic and welcoming visage primarily from his appearances next to legends like Screamin’Jay Hawkins in Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train (1989) or his bizarre apparitions in older brother Spike Lee’s Oldboy (2013), we know him as a true polymath, putting his hand to many tasks up and down the cinematic pipeline, most notably as a co-screenwriter for the 1994 film Crooklyn.

 

He has also had small roles in School Daze (1988), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), and Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament (2014), among other independent films. Lee’s own films (as director, producer and writer) include Nowhere Fast (1997), Sink Like a Stone (2000, short film), UR4 Given (2004), Window on Your Present (2010), and Burn Out the Day (2010, co-directed with Sean Bohary).