Winsome Sinclair, the casting director who helped bring in actors for Waiting to Exhale , Amistad , Precious , The Best Man and a dozen films directed by Spike Lee, has died. She was 58.
Kim Kahana, Stuntman Who Starred in 'Danger Island' and Doubled for Charles Bronson, Dies at 94
Sinclair died Monday in hospice care on Long Island after a long battle with colon cancer, publicist Clorissa Wright-Thomas told The Hollywood Reporter . Her family was at her bedside.
The New York native launched the global casting agency Winsome Sinclair and Associates in New York in 1996, then relocated the business to Atlanta in 2014 amid that city’s production boom.
Sinclair also cast extras for the John Singleton -directed features Higher Learning (1995), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Abduction (2011), for the Malcolm D. Lee-helmed The Best Man (1999) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016) and for the Dee Rees-directed Pariah (2011) and Bessie (2015).
She handled similar duties on the Hughes brothers’ Dead Presidents (1995), Forest Whitaker’s Waiting to Exhale (1995), Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997), Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan (2006) and Lee Daniels’ Precious (2009).
Sinclair served as a casting intern on Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues (1990), then worked with the director on Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), Get on the Bus (1996), He Got Game (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), 25th Hour (2002), She Hate Me (2004), Inside Man (2006), Miracle at St. Anna (2008) and Red Hook Summer (2012).
Winsome G.M. Sinclair was born in Jamaica on Oct. 27, 1965, and raised on Long Island. She graduated from Uniondale High School and Florida A&M University before getting into the business.
Sixties Model Peggy Moffitt Dead at 87
Her first casting director credit came on Hype Williams’ Belly (1998), starring Nas and DMX .
Sinclair’s casting résumé included the films Cadillac Records (2008), Sparkle (2012), the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me (2017) and Nappily Ever After (2018) and the BET series Being Mary Jane .
She also produced a handful of films, including Maynard , a 2017 documentary about Maynard Jackson Jr., the first Black mayor of Atlanta.
In 2017, Sinclair adopted blood brothers Micah, now 10, and Kairo, now 8, and they served as the inspiration for her 2020 book, You Are My SONshines . They survive her, as do her parents, Walter and Shirley; her brothers, Nick, Mark, Barry and Kirk; and a host of cousins, nieces and nephews.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help her kids.
Sinclair “brought light to everyone she encountered, with a unique ability to see more in people than they could see in themselves,” producer and publicist Cassandra Butcher wrote on Instagram. “A true fan of life and culture, her passion for the arts and her deep love for family and community will continue to inspire those who know her. Winsome’s legacy in the film industry and the lives she touched will live on, reminding us of her vibrant spirit and the stories she helped bring to life.”
Didi O'Hearn, Longtime A&E Television Networks Executive, Dies at 63
Most Popular
Comments / 0