Delroy Lindo Biography

Delroy George Lindo (born November 18, 1952) is a British-American actor and theatre director. Lindo has been nominated for the Tony and Screen Actors Guild awards and has won a Satellite Award. He is perhaps best known for his roles in a trio of Spike Lee films, especially as West Indian Archie in Lee's Malcolm X (1992) and Woody Carmichael in Crooklyn (1994), Catlett in Get Shorty, Arthur Rose in The Cider House Rules, and Detective Castlebeck in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). Lindo starred as Alderman Ronin Gibbons in the TV series The Chicago Code (2011) and as Winter on the series Believe, which premiered in 2014.

Early life

Delroy Lindo was born in 1952 in Eltham, south-east London, the son of Jamaican parents who had emigrated to Britain. He was brought up in nearby Lewisham and got interested in acting as a child in a Nativity play. His mother was a nurse and his father worked in various jobs. As a teenager, he and his mother moved to Toronto, Canada. When he was sixteen, they moved to San Francisco. At the age of 24, Lindo started acting studies at the American Conservatory Theater, graduating in 1979.

Career

Lindo's film debut came in 1976 with the British comedy Find the Lady, followed by two other roles in films, including an Army Sergeant in More American Graffiti (1979).

He quit film for 10 years to concentrate on theatre acting. In 1982 he debuted on Broadway in "Master Harold"...and the Boys, directed by the play's South African author Athol Fugard. By 1988 Lindo had earned a Tony nomination for his portrayal of Herald Loomis in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

Lindo returned to film in the 1990s, acting alongside Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen in the cult science fiction film Salute of the Jugger (1990), which has become a cult classic. Although he had turned down Spike Lee for a role in his debut Do the Right Thing, Lee cast him as Woody Carmichael in the drama Crooklyn (1994), which brought him notice. Together with his other roles with Lee - as the West Indian Archie, a psychotic gangster, in Malcolm X, and a starring role as a neighbourhood drug dealer in Clockers - he became established in his film career.

Other films in which he has starring roles are Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty (1995), Ron Howard's Ransom (1996) and Soul of the Game (1996), as the baseball player Satchel Paige. As a character actor, Lindo has readily taken on roles as treacherous bad guys as well as those of trustworthy professionals.

In 1998 Lindo co-starred as African-American explorer Matthew Henson, in the TV film Glory & Honor, directed by Kevin Hooks. It portrayed his nearly 20-year partnership with Commander Robert Peary in Arctic exploration and their effort to find the Geographic North Pole in 1909. He received a Satellite Award as best actor. Lindo continues to work in television and was most recently seen on the short-lived NBC drama Kidnapped.

Lindo played an angel in the comedy film A Life Less Ordinary (1997), in which Dan Hedaya played the angel Gabriel, and Lindo's boss. He guest-starred on The Simpsons in the episode "Brawl in the Family", playing a similar character named Gabriel.

Lindo had a small role in the 1995 science fiction/action film Congo, playing the corrupt Captain Wanta. Lindo was not credited for the role, but one of his lines in the film, "Stop eating my sesame cake!", has become an internet meme.

In the British film, Wondrous Oblivion (2003), directed by Paul Morrison, he starred as Dennis Samuels, the father of a Jamaican immigrant family in London in the 1950s; he coaches his children and the son of a neighbour Jewish family in cricket, earning their admiration in a time of strained social relations. Lindo said he made the film in honour of his parents, who had similarly moved to London in those years.

In 2007, Lindo began an association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California, when he directed Tanya Barfield's play The Blue Door. In the autumn of 2008, Lindo revisited August Wilson's play, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, directing a production at the Berkeley Rep. In 2010, he played the role of elderly seer Bynum in David Lan's production of Joe Turner at the Young Vic Theatre in London.

Lindo is poised to play Marcus Garvey in an upcoming biopic of the black nationalist historical figure.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	Find the Lady	Sam
1979	More American Graffiti	Army Sergeant
1990	The Blood of Heroes	Mbulu
1990	Mountains of the Moon	Mabruki
1990	Bright Angel	Harley
1991	The Hard Way	Captain Brix, NYPD
1992	Malcolm X	West Indian Archie	Nominated"?NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Nominated"?National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
1993	Blood In Blood Out	Bonafide
1993	Mr. Jones	Howard
1994	Crooklyn	Woody Carmichael
1995	Clockers	Rodney Little	Nominated"?Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated"?National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
1995	Congo	Captain Wanta	Uncredited
1995	Get Shorty	Bo Catlett	Nominated"?National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1996	Ransom	Agent Lonnie Hawkins	Nominated"?NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
1996	Broken Arrow	Colonel Max Wilkins
1996	Soul of the Game	Satchel Paige	Television film Nominated"?NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
1996	Feeling Minnesota	Red
1997	First Time Felon	Calhoun	Television film
1997	A Life Less Ordinary	Jackson
1997	The Devil's Advocate	Phillipe Moyez	Uncredited
1998	Glory & Honor	Mathew Henson	Television film Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film
1999	Pros & Cons	Kyle
1999	The Cider House Rules	Arthur Rose	Nominated"?Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2000	The Book of Stars	Professor
2000	Gone in 60 Seconds	Det. Roland Castlebeck
2000	Romeo Must Die	Isaak O'Day
2001	The One	MVA Agent Harry Roedecker
2001	Heist	Bobby "Bob" Blane
2001	The Last Castle	Gen. Wheeler
2003	The Core	Dr. Ed 'Braz' Brazzleton
2003	Profoundly Normal	Ricardo Thornton	Television film
2003	Wondrous Oblivion	Dennis Samuel
2005	Domino	Claremont Williams
2005	Lackawanna Blues	Mr. Lucious	Television film
2005	Sahara	Carl
2007	This Christmas	Joseph 'Joe' Black
2009	Up	Beta
2011	The Big Bang	Skeres
2015	Cymbeline	Belarius
2015	Do You Believe?	Street preacher with Cross
2015	Point Break	FBI Instructor
2017	Marcus Garvey Biopic	Marcus Garvey

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Beauty and the Beast	Isaac Stubbs	2 episodes
1989	A Man Called Hawk	Mark Slater	Episode: "Vendetta"
1991	Against the Law	Ben	Episode: "Hoops"
2002	The Simpsons	Gabriel	Episode: "Brawl in the Family"
2006-2007	Kidnapped	Latimer King	13 episodes
2009	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Detective Victor Moran	Episode: "Baggage" NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
2009	Mercy	Dr. Alfred Parks	Episode: "Can We Get That Drink Now?"
2011	The Chicago Code	Alderman Ronin Gibbons	11 episodes
2013	Robot Chicken	Dopey Smurf/Scorpion Cashier	Episode: "Papercut to Aorta"
2014	Believe	Dr. Milton Winter	13 episodes
2015	Blood & Oil	Tip Harrison	Series regular
2016	Marvel's Most Wanted	Dominic Fortune	Series regular

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982-1983	"Master Harold"...and the Boys	Willie
1983-1986	A Raisin in the Sun	Walter Lee Younger	Yale Repertory (1983) and Roundabout Theatre in New York (1986)
1988	Joe Turner's Come and Gone	Herald Loomis	Nominated"?Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play Nominated"?Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play
1993	The Heliotrope Bouqet	Joplin
2009	Things of Dry Hours	Tice Hogan
2012	The Exonerated	Delbert Tibbs