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The Cider House Rules
Background:
“One can never anticipate how audiences will respond. One of the lessons that I’ve learned over the years is to that no matter what my feeling or opinion might be about a given film, once you give it to the audience, they own it.” Delroy Lindo
Although born in London, Delroy Lindo proved his acting skills on the American stage and in screen productions such as the Broadway staging of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” (1988, earned a Tony nomination for playing Harold Loomis) and the play “A Raisin in the Sun” (1983), as well as the Hollywood movies Malcolm X (1992), Ransom (1996, played Lonnie Hawkins), Soul of the Game (1996, TV), Glory & Honor (1998, TV, portrayed explorer Mathew Henson), The Cider House Rules (1999, was featured as the mysterious Mr. Rose) and Domino (2005). The Screen Actors Guild nominee returned to England to film the comedy drama Wondrous Oblivion (2003).
Lindo is married to Neshormeh Lindo and is the father of a son. He lives in Northern California, Los Angeles, and said, “I never could get my head around Los Angeles. I’m better off being outside of L.A.”
English Man
Childhood and Family:
Delroy Lindo was born to Jamaican parents in London, England, on November 18, 1952. He grew up in Lewisham, England, and later moved with his mother to Toronto, Canada. Delroy, who at age five took part in a Nativity play, settled in the United States to pursue his dreams of acting.
After finishing his training at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, California, Delroy launched an acting career on stage and screen. His huge break came when director Spike Lee picked him to work in his movies.
Up to now, Delroy still considers himself British although he has lived in America since his late teens. The actor has one son named Damiri (born in 2001), from his marriage with Neshormeh Lindo.
Malcolm X
Career:
Delroy Lindo’s first professional acting performance was in the comedy movie Find the Lady (1976), playing Sam. He was then involved in the short drama Voice of the Fugitive (1978) and the sequel More American Graffiti (1979).
Lindo also stepped on stage as a company member of the Actors Theatre of Louisville and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. In 1982, he debuted on Broadway in Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold and the Boys” and then reprised the role in a seven-month tour. Lindo also carried out the turn of Walter Lee in a New Haven production of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” (1983).
After recreating his role of Walter Lee in the Kennedy Center staging of “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lindo presented an engaging performance as the ascetic Harold Loomis in August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” (1988), performed on Broadway. For his fine acting, the actor received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. A year earlier, he had a TV debut with the guest role of Issac Stubbs in the cult series “Beauty and the Beast.”
Also, Lindo tried TV movies by acting with Aidan Quinn and Stockard Channing in Perfect Witness (1989, as Berger). Following minor roles in Mountains of the Moon (1990) and The Hard Way (1991), the actor began to earn notice with his supporting role in Spike Lee’s acclaimed biographical drama Malcolm X (1992), as manic-depressive numbers boss West Indian Archie, alongside Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett. Performing at an Off-Broadway theater, Lindo became ragtime composer Scott Joplin in the play “The Heliotrope Bouquet” (1993).
Lindo, who re-teamed with Spike Lee for Crooklyn (1994, played jazz artist Woody Carmichael) and Clockers (1995), delivered a fine portrayal of Agent Lonnie Hawkins in Mel Gibson’s vehicle Ransom (1996) and was nominated for an Image award. Another Image award nomination came after the actor starred as baseball star Satchel Paige in the HBO movie Soul of the Game (1996). Detouring to the romantic comedy genre, he played an angel named Jackson in A Life Less Ordinary (1997).
Lindo further established his status with the role of North Pole explorer Mathew Henson in the TNT biographical movie Glory & Honor (1998), which won him a Golden Satellite award for Best Actor. He also gave a multi-layered portrayal of a migrant apple picker with a dark secret named Mr. Rose in The Cider House Rules (1999) and earned nominations for a Screen Actors Guild, a Las Vegas Film Critics Society award and a Black Reel award. The same year, he could be seen as Clarence Thomas in the fact-based TV drama Strange Justice (received a Golden Satellite and a Black Reel nomination).
Next up for Lindo, he took part in such box office movies as Romeo Must Die (2000), Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), The Last Castle (2001, played Gen. Wheeler), “The Simpsons” (2002, voiced Gabriel) and The Core (2003). Returning to England, the actor was cast as Dennis the Jamaican in the comedy drama Wondrous Oblivion (2003).
“To hear the director [Paul Morrison] tell it, it was kind of a fluke. He happened to be speaking with the casting director [Joan McCann] who I guess had seen my work in Malcolm X and knew that I had an authentic Jamaican accent. And then she happened to be looking on the web and saw that I was from England. I think that’s how it came about.” Delroy Lindo on Wondrous Oblivion (2003)
In 2005, Lindo worked with actors Matthew McConaughey (in Sahara) and Keira Knightley (in Tony Scott’s Domino). The same year, he was again nominated for a Black Reel award, this time for playing Delbert in The Exonerated (2005, TV). He recently took the role of FBI agent Latimer King in the NBC drama “Kidnapped” (2006), which has since been cancelled.
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