[Update Mar 6, 2026] The 2026 Academy Awards are officially done, and Sinners walked away with some impressive wins. The githic horror film walked away with four Oscars. Those included best cinematography, best lead actor for Michael B Jordan, and best original screenplay for writer/director Ryan Coogler.
Delroy Lindo
Sadly, the biggest snub of the night was reserved for Sinners’ own Delroy Lindo. As discussed below, at the age of 73, Delroy has been giving Oscar worthy performances for decades, and this was his first ever nomination. While he may have walked away without a statue again, his body of work speaks for itself. Here is a list of every role that should have earned him an academy award.
Sinners
In Sinners, Delroy plays the wise old blues musician who is quick to put young upstarts in their place. His character is key to building the foundation of the world of Sinners, but this is far from the first time he’s played this part. If you’re new to Delroy Lindo, here are five of his other films that should have earned him an Oscar if the academy had been paying attention.
Ransom
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In the 1996 thriller Ransom, Delroy Lindo brings a calm and steady presence amid the chaos of the rest of the film. He plays a level-headed FBI agent trying to solve a high-stakes kidnapping and ransom demand. Lindo keeps his cool throughout this tense story, right up until the final moments.
Malcom X
One of Delroy Lindo’s earliest noted performances was in Spike Lee’s biopic of civil rights icon Malcom X. His character, a crime lord named West Indian Archie, was the real-life mentor of a young Malcom. His layered performance, noted for its unexpected warmth, led to many more collaborations with Spike Lee.
Crooklyn and Clockers
In 1994 and 1995, Delroy Lindo gave back-to-back performances that displayed his incredible range as an actor. In Crooklyn, he played the head of a working-class family struggling to get by in 1970s Brooklyn. Then, one year later, he appeared in Clockers as a brutal and intimidating drug lord.
The Cider House Rules
Probably his most well-known of Delroy Lindo’s films, other than Sinners, is The Cider House Rules. The film is a Southern Gothic epic that follows a young man’s turbulent path from orphan to sharecropper and beyond. The film earned seven Oscar nominations in total, and Delroy would surely have been one of them if not for Sir Michael Cain delivering one of the best performances of his career. Cain would go on to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year.
Da 5 Bloods
Just five years before the debut of Sinners, Delroy Lindo gave possibly the most impactful performances of his career, with Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. His portrayal of a Vietnam War veteran who is tortured by his past gave reason to think he might get an Oscar nod in the best actor category. Unfortunately, that nomination never came. According to Lindo, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, this was a “profound disappointment.”
This is far from a full list of Delroy Lindo’s incredible performances. From a semi-corrupt detective in Gone in 60 Seconds to the legendary Bass Reeves in the western The Harder They Fall, Lindo never disappoints. What is your favorite Delroy Lindo performance?
