Celebrity Birthdays, March 20: Spike Lee and Carl Reiner

Director Spike Lee and comedian Carl Reiner are celebrating their birthdays today, March 20.

Spike Lee, 58

Director, producer, writer and actor Spike Lee turns 58 today. Lee's production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, have produced over 35 films. In college, Lee's film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Head, was the first student film to be featured in Lincoln Center's New Directors New Films festival. His first feature film, She's Gotta Have It, was filmed in two weeks, had a budget of $175,000, and grossed over $7 million in the United States.

Lee's 1989 film, Do the Right Thing, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. His 1997 documentary on the killings of the 16th street Baptist church bombing in Alabama entitled 4 Little Girls, earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Feature Documentary. In his career, Lee has earned a San Francisco Film Society's Directing Award in 2007, a Wexner Prize in 2008 and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2013. Lee's most notable work as a director include Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, He Got Game, She Hate Me and Oldboy.

Lee has also directed commercials for Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry's. Le also directed the opening sequence for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC.

Lee is married to attorney Tonya Lewis, and they have 2 children together

image courtesy of INFphoto.com

Carl Reiner, 93

Stand-up comedian, actor, director, producer, writer and singer Carl Reiner turns 93 today. Reiner took art in a touring troupe of performers for the US Army during WWII. He continued his career in theater, starring in several Broadway musicals. In 1960, Reiner teamed up with fellow comedian Mel Brooks, to form a comedy duo on The Steve Allen Show.

Reiner created and wrote The Dick Van Dyke Show which starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. Reiner transitioned into film directing and made his debut with Enter Laughing in 1967. He went on to direct Where's Poppa?, Oh, God! and The Jerk.

Reiner became an author, writing his 2004 memoir My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir as well as NNNNN: A Novel, American Film and more.

In 2009, Reiner guest-starred as a television producer on Two and a Half Men, and reprised this role for two more episodes. He also guest starred in Hot in Cleveland and The Cleveland Show. Reiner is also the only person to have appeared on every incarnation of The Tonight Show.

Reiner and his late wife, singer Estelle Lebost, have three children; actor, director, producer, and activist Rob Reiner, poet, playwright and author Sylvia Anne Reiner and painter, actor, and director Lucas Reiner.

image courtesy of Tina Kaawaloa/INFevents.com