Bill Nunn gives supporting characters weight without trying to outtalk everyone around him. We rate his Radio Raheem highest, and wish more of the later parts had given him as much to do.
Fi1m perspective
Radio Raheem carries a boombox playing Public Enemy, but Bill Nunn does not have to compete with it. In Do the Right Thing (1989), he holds our attention without trying to outtalk the rest of Spike Lee's emphatic ensemble. We were unsettled by Raheem, because Nunn gives him a weight that the noisy boombox alone could not supply. Giancarlo Esposito makes Buggin Out's insistence funny; Lee's Mookie is less outwardly forceful. Nunn finds his own place among them, and the film gives us time to notice what he brings.
School Daze (1988) was his film debut and his first collaboration with Lee; Raheem was the breakthrough the following year. He returned as jazz musician Bottom Hammer in Mo' Better Blues (1990), another of their four films together. The subsequent work took him into smaller supporting parts and a recurring line in authority figures. In Sister Act (1992), he played Lieutenant Eddie Souther; Sam Raimi would later cast him as a newspaper editor.
His Robbie Robertson in Spider-Man (2002) is the voice of reason at the Daily Bugle, a sensible use of an actor whose authority does not feel laboured. He stayed with the role across Raimi's trilogy, from 2002 to 2007. We recommend the first film for its warmth, humour and Tobey Maguire's uncertainty, with a caveat about digital action that makes the danger feel remote. It is a good film with Nunn in it, though it gives us less reason than Lee's film to watch specifically for him.
We would not choose every film in his credits just for him. The reservation about the later parts is their size, not some need for Nunn to act more insistently. Even Do the Right Thing lets a few conversations run long, but its actors make their neighbours worth spending time with. Start there for Nunn; Robbie Robertson can wait.
Biography
Bill Nunn (1953–2016) was an American actor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Morehouse College in 1976. He made his credited film debut in Spike Lee's School Daze (1988).
Nunn appeared in several of Lee's films, including as Radio Raheem in Do the Right Thing (1989). He played Joseph 'Robbie' Robertson in the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). Other film credits include Sister Act (1992), The Legend of 1900 (1998), Runaway Jury (2003) and Glory (1989).
He also worked in television and on stage, including a production of August Wilson's Fences.
