Happy 61st Birthday, Lee Daniels! Born today in 1959 as Lee Louis Daniels, this African-American film and television writer, producer and director's calling card was dark, visceral, often violent material that offered a surprising flicker of hope in even the most hopeless of circumstances.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Daniels was the older brother to his sister Leah. Years later, she became a casting director.
Daniels' father, Philadelphia police officer William L. Daniels, was "killed in the line of duty" when his son was a teenager in 1975.
Daniels has been very open about his father being physically abusive towards him, even trying "to beat it [being gay] out of me."
Years later, Daniels graduated from Radnor High School in 1978, and then Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.
Post-graduation, Daniels couldn't afford film school, so he started at a liberal arts college in Missouri but realized it wasn't for him.
He then moved to Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, eventually working as a receptionist in a nursing agency.
Realizing that he could do it on his own, Daniels quit the job and started his own agency. He later sold the company and went to work casting actors using his skills from "casting" nurses.
Daniels began his career in entertainment as a casting director and manager after a chance meeting with a Hollywood producer.
Daniels got to work on projects such as the 1984 American rock musical drama film 'Purple Rain' (starring Prince) and the 1986 American black and white musical/romance film 'Under the Cherry Moon' (directed by Prince). Afterwards, Daniels continued managing talent.
In the late 2000s, Daniels co-produced and directed the film of which he is best known: This was the 2009 American drama/independent film 'Precious'. It was also co-produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, amongst others.
'Precious' was based off of African-American author and performance poet Ramona Lofton's (better known by her pen name Sapphire) debut 1996 urban domestic fiction novel Push. The film is also known as 'Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire'.
The film tells the story of Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), an obese, illiterate, sixteen-year-old girl who lives in a Section 8 tenement in Harlem.
She has been impregnated twice by her father, Carl (Rodney "Bear" Jackson) and suffers long-term physical, sexual, and emotional abuse from her unemployed and needy mother, Mary Lee Johnston (Mo'Nique).
Mariah Carey (almost unrecognizable) is featured as social worker Mrs. Weiss, and African-American actress Paula Patton as the patient but firm alternative-school teacher Ms. Rain, who serves as a guide to Precious.
The film also features Lenny Kravitz (in his feature film acting debut) as the kind male nurse John McFadden.
'Precious' was screened at the 31st Sundance Film Festival in January and then afterwards went on to garner widespread acclaim.
'Precious' was a financial success, and grossed $63.6 million worldwide against a budget of $10 million.
Later that same year, the 2009 American documentary film 'My Big Break' featured Daniels early in his career when he was managing American actor Wes Bentley.
Bentley had played the character of Ricky Fitts in British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter Sam Mendes' ('Skyfall') 1999 American romance/drama film 'American Beauty'.
In the documentary, Daniels comments on Bentley's reluctance to capitalize on his newfound celebrity status.
The following year, 'Precious' received an Oscar for Best Picture nomination. However, it lost to Kathryn Bigelow's ('Strange Days') 2008 American war drama/thriller film 'The Hurt Locker'. This occurred at the 82nd Academy Awards in early March 2010.
Three years later, Daniels directed the 2013 American historical fiction drama film 'The Butler'. It starred Forest Whitaker, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Mariah Carey, Terrence Howard, Alan Rickman, and Oprah Winfrey.
Upon release, the film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $176.6 million in the United States against a budget of $30 million.
'The Butler' was based off of African-American journalist and author Wil Haygood's 2008 article "A Butler Well Served By This Election" in The Washington Post. It told about African-American waiter and butler Eugene Allen.
Two years later, Daniels, along with American actor, film and television writer, director, and producer Danny Strong, co-created for American musical drama family television series Empire (2015–present) for Fox.
Daniels had directed the first episode and co-wrote it along with Strong, the screenwriter of 'The Butler'.
The series stars African-American actor, rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer Terrence Howard and African-American actress and author Taraji P. Henson and tells about a family's music empire.
In 2015, Daniels clarified his sexuality by stating that despite being gay men, both he and Empire star, African-American actor and singer Jussie Smollett, are sexually fluid.
"Jussie and I both share the same feeling that, yes, even though we are gay, we’re sexual human beings...And we do occasionally want to sleep with a woman. [Laughs] Maybe once every 10 or 15 years, but it happens!
And there are a lot of people who don’t want to hear about that. It’s such a complicated conversation. It's not necessarily the body one is attracted to.
You can be sexually attracted to the spirit, the energy, the life force in another person. We're showing life on Empire, and I won't apologize for it."
On September 16, 2015, Daniels was asked about Howard, saying that his first wife "was talking to me real strong, and I lost my mind and slapped her in front of the kids" and that he got physical with his second wife too in a Rolling Stone interview.
Daniels excused the domestic violence and called Howard "that poor boy." Then he said that Howard hasn’t done anything that Sean Penn hasn’t done.
One week later, Daniels was sued by Penn in a $10 million defamation lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that "Daniels falsely equates Penn with Howard...Penn (unlike Howard) has never been arrested, much less convicted, for domestic violence, as his ex-wives (including Madonna) would confirm and attest."
However, Penn dropped the lawsuit in May 2016 after Daniels retracted his statement and apologized.
On December 2, 2016, Daniels received the 2,595th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the television industry. The star in the category of Television was dedicated at 6533 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Hudson Apartments.
According to Daniels' personal life, he currently resides in Manhattan, New York City, New York. He is gay.
Daniels and his then-partner, American actor and casting director Billy Hopkins, adopted Daniels' biological niece and nephew, Clara and Liam. However, Hopkins and Daniels were later separated.
Daniels is the cousin of the American reality competition television series RuPaul's Drag Race (2009–present) S11E03 contestant. This was African-American drag performer, singer and activist James Heath-Clark (known professionally as Honey Davenport).
Daniels is quoted saying his favorite current band is the Canadian post-punk band Ought.
In his career as a casting agent, talent manager, film producer and director, Daniels has been an ongoing champion of the "underdog," who expanded opportunities for actors of color and brought controversial stories of societal outcasts to the big screen.
Daniels has been active from 1986–present.
