2016Nominee
Best Performance
Gimme Danger
John Sinclair
Actor
Flint, Michigan, USA
October 2, 1941
Biography
As an emerging young poet in the mid-1960s, Sinclair took on the role of manager for the Detroit rock band MC5. The band's politically charged music and its Yippie core audience dovetailed with Sinclair's own radical development. In 1968, while still working with the band, he conspicuously served as a founding member of the White Panther Party, a militantly anti-racist socialist group and counterpart of the Black Panther Party. Arrested for distribution of marijuana in 1969, Sinclair was given ten years in prison. The sentence was criticized by many as unduly harsh, and it galvanized a noisy protest movement led by prominent figures of the 1960s counterculture. He was freed on March 9, 1972, by the Michigan Supreme Court when the possession of marijuana law was declared unconstitutional.
Photo
Representative Works
Awards and Honors
Critical Favorites
2025Nominee
Best Performance
One to One: John & Yoko
1985Nominee
Best Performance
John and Yoko: A Love Story
Career Highlights
2008Highlight
Best Performance
Motor City's Burning: Detroit from Motown to the Stooges
1971Highlight
Best Performance
Ten for Two: The John Sinclair Freedom Rally
Video
Gimme Danger
One to One: John & Yoko
John and Yoko: A Love Story