Winsome Sinclair, the veteran casting director who was a longtime collaborator of Spike Lee, has died at the age of 58 after a long battle with colon cancer, according to her publicist Clorissa Wright-Thomas.
Born in Jamaica before emigrating with her family to Long Island as a child, Sinclair was a graduate of Florida A&M and got her start in casting as an intern on Lee’s 1990 film “Mo’ Better Blues.” She continued to work with Lee on subsequent films like “Malcolm X,” “Crooklyn,” “Get on the Bus” and “He Got Game” before starting her own casting agency, Winsome Sinclair and Associates, in 1996. Two years later, she got her casting director credit on Hype Williams’ 1998 crime drama “Belly” starring Nas and DMX.
Sinclair continued to work with Lee through 2012 with his film “Red Hook Summer,” casting a total of 12 Spike Lee joints. She also worked with directors like John Singleton on “Higher Learning” and “2 Fast 2 Furious” and Malcolm D. Lee on “The Best Man” and “Barbershop: The Next Cut,” casting extras for those films along with Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” and Lee Daniels’ “Precious.”
“Winsome’s life was a testament to radical faith, and she lived each day with a heart full of love and gratitude,” Sinclair’s family shared in a statement.
“Beyond her professional achievements, she was a devoted mother to her two children, Micah and Kairo, whom she loved with all her heart,” they continued. “As we grieve this unimaginable loss, we find solace in the respected body of work and legacy she leaves behind. We love her and will miss her dearly.”
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