Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
To be a fan of Black movies in the early to mid-1990s means Delroy Lindo was a face you recognized. While his roles in cinema (and television and theatre) are long and varied, some of his most iconic roles happened in the early years during a run of three straight Spike Lee Joints in the 90s: “Malcolm X,” “Crooklyn,” and “Clockers.” His roles in those three movies— “West Indian Archie,” “Woody Carmichael,” and “Rodney Little” — made him a name we’d know forever and a face we’d never forget.
But Lindo’s footprint in the world of storytelling goes far beyond those three iconic roles; the actor born in London and trained in America has a storied career with roles as varied as the day is long, his roles etching out a nuanced and complex view of a Blackness. From street corner hustler to a struggling musician father to a military veteran (another Spike Lee joint in “Da 5 Bloods”), Lindo has shown us so many ways to live out our experiences, and with his latest role as “Delta Slim” in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” the train for Lindo keeps on rolling.
Lindo was born in 1952 in London to Jamaican parents, which explains his accent, used intentionally when necessary (think “West Indian Archie”) and muted when not. He moved to California with his family at age 16, settling in the San Francisco area. His love for acting was developed early and after living in America for a few years, he began taking classes at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, graduating from his program there at age 27 in 1979. In the late 1970s, Lindo took roles in two films, “Find The Lady” and “More American Graffiti,” but filmwise his career was dormant until 1990.
However, during the 1980s, Lindo found his star on stages, hitting the theater circuit in productions ranging from “Of Mice and Men” to “A Raisin in the Sun,” for theaters around the nation. In 1992, Lindo made his debut in a Spike Lee film, playing the character “West Indian Archie,” a no-nonsense numbers kingpin in Harlem who takes a young, pre-Nation of Islam, Malcolm X (then known as Detroit Red played by Denzel Washington) under his wing and teaches him the game on the streets. Lee, at that time, was on a tear, having ripped off a five-film lineup that rivals any director: “She’s Gotta Have It,” “School Daze,” “Do The Right Thing,” “Mo’ Betta Blues” and “Jungle Fever.”
By the time “Malcolm X” comes around, Lee is white hot as a director and everybody in the film, saw increased visibility, especially in the Black community. Lindo, in particular, played his role with such ease and finesse that the role itself is unforgettable, going from being a kingpin to later scenes where he’s broke, strung out, and a shell of the powerful man he once was.
The role of “Woody Carmichael” in Lee’s “Crooklyn” is similarly an enduring picture. Lindo’s character was a loving father, but a struggling musician whose ambitions at times put his family in harm’s way. The role is a far cry from “Archie” but displayed the acting chops of Lindo. His follow-up role, in Lee’s “Clockers” mixed the two. As “Rodney Little,” Lindo was a drug dealer who ran his operation out of his shop in Brooklyn while also being a mentor to young neighborhood kids he groomed for the drug game.
He was both beloved and hated by the community, a character who seemed as unpredictable as he was focused. Lindo’s ability to imbue humanity into the various roles, especially with the depth allowed by Lee, made him an actor to watch. Unfortunately, it would be another 25 years before we saw him in another Spike Lee film, not because they fell out but because after Lindo turned down a few of Lee’s films, Lee stopped asking, which lead to a down season for Lindo.
It’s not to say that Lindo wasn’t still acting—he booked television shows and films—but nothing as iconic as the deep, fully realized characters available to him in Spike Lee vehicles. According to Lindo in a GQ profile from 2021, he acknowledged that some of that lack of visibility was due to his own choices.
“That period had to do with these various missteps that I made, which resulted in perhaps being seen as less viable as a film actor, less desirable. You know: ‘We’re not going to go with that guy. We’ll go with this guy.’ And was that frustrating and painful? Absolutely. I was playing catch-up.”
Be clear, Lindo wasn’t missing from the big screen; his role as “Bo Catlett” in “Get Shorty” is up there with his other famous roles, and he famously played the role of “Isaak O’Day” as Aaliyah’s father in “Rome Must Die,” in what would be the singer’s last film released while she was alive; Aaliyah tragically died in a plane crash after shooting a music video for her single “Rock The Boat” while trying to leave the Bahamas in August 2001. Similarly, in 2007, Lindo starred as “Joe Black,” the kinda-sorta live-in boyfriend of Loretta DeVine’s character in “This Christmas,” a now Black classic family film starring a slew of notable actors in 2007: Idris Elba, Chris Brown, Lauren London, Columbus Short, Regina King, Sharon Leal, Mekhi Phifer, David Banner and Laz Alonso.
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Over the next decade, Lindo had roles in several films and television shows, but in 2017, he booked a role as high powered lawyer in “The Good Fight,” playing “Adrian Boseman,” a partner at a Black run firm in Chicago, a role he embodied for four seasons through 2021.
In 2020, on Netflix, Lindo returned back to the Spike Lee Universe as “Paul” in “Da 5 Bloods,” a Vietnam veteran part of a group of “Bloods” in search of a lost treasure. In a culture that lives on memes and viral videos, a hilarious scene of Lindo walking into a club dancing is the enduring image of the film, ensuring that Lindo will live on in social media infamy forever. As a film, “Da 5 Bloods” was critically acclaimed and Lindo’s performance was especially lauded, a reminder of just how good Lindo was in Spike Lee’s films.
In 2021, Lindo also played the famous lawman, Bass Reeves, in the award-winning Black western, “The Harder They Fall,” another ensemble cast film starring Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield, DeWanda Wise and Zazie Beatz, another film that received solid reviews; Lindo was again, lauded for his performance, a role he viewed as a corrective to the historical record of Black people in the frontier west.
Lindo’s latest role in a stellar and award-winning career is “Delta Slim,” in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” a film that has stirred up non-stop conversation about what it is and what it isn’t among both legacy media and social media. The performance by Lindo is the subject of articles and much online chatter. That seems fitting for a man who always plays nuanced characters that stick with you long past the credits. In a career that spans nearly 50 years, it’s a testament to his skill and dedication to craft that Lindo is able to take on roles that engender discourse. And it’s a testament to the man himself who has given so much of himself to ensure that we see ourselves in various ways.
Blackness is not a monolith—we all know that, speak that, and share that as every experience is worthy of its own story. Lindo’s career spans decades of putting those various experiences on screen and stage and Black cinema is all the better for it.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
