It's been 20 years since Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing' exploded into movie theaters like the trash can hurled through a pizzeria window in the film's climactic scene. 'This is not a dangerous movie,' Lee told the Daily News at the time. 'But what frightens people is that what's in the movie is reality.' And while in 2009, the United States has an African American president, the film still resonates too well. The News looks back at what's happened to the cast and who is still fighting the power.  It's been 20 years since Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing' exploded into movie theaters like the trash can hurled through a pizzeria window in the film's climactic scene. 'This is not a dangerous movie,' Lee told the Daily News at the time. 'But what frightens people is that what's in the movie is reality.' And while in 2009, the United States has an African American president, the film still resonates too well. The News looks back at what's happened to the cast and who is still fighting the power.  Back then Lee - who pulled triple duty as writer, director and the film's star, Mookie - was an angry 32-year-old filmmaker thumbing his nose at both Hollywood and the racial climate of the United States. The only thing that's changed is he's now 52. 'White people still ask me why Mookie threw the can through the window,' Lee recently told the Associated Press. "Twenty years later, they're still asking me that....In 20 years, no person of color has ever asked me why.'  Though 'Do the Right Thing' was Rosie Perez's first movie, no one would forget the former 'Soul Train' dancer by the end of her sexually-charged dance to Public Enemy's 'Fight the Power' during the opening credits. Twenty years later, Brooklyn-born Perez, now 44, has cobbled together a prolific career. Most recently, she's starred as a corrupt cop in 'Pineapple Express' and in a recurring role in the TV series, 'Lipstick Jungle.'  At the time he was cast in 'Do the Right Thing' as Italian-American pizzeria owner, Sal - who has successfully navigated the neighborhood's racial divide for 25 years up until that fateful day - Danny Aiello was a big name headlining a mostly-unknown cast. The New York product was a respected character actor before from his work stretching as far back as 1974's 'Godfather II'. And the now 76-year-old is still a respected character actor, continuing to crank out movies like 2006's 'Lucky Number Seven.'  It's hard to believe given his A-list status 20 years later, but when he was cast as the voice of the neighborhood's radio disc jockey, Mr. Senior Love Daddy, actor Samuel L. Jackson was struggling actor best known as the 'hold-up man' in one scene from 1988's 'Coming to America.' And that's the double truth, Ruth. Best known as hitman Jules from 1994's 'Pulp Fiction', Jackson is now signed to play Marvel Comics hero Nick Fury in nine more movies.  As Sal's hate-filled, racist son, Vito, Brooklyn-born John Turturro showed just part of his incredible versatility. Since then he's played manic cartoonish sociopaths ('The Transformers' movies, 'The Big Lebowski', 'Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?'), a beleaguered playwright ('Barton Fink'), and a beleaguered and manic gameshow contestant ('Quiz Show').  Ossie Davis wasn't just an old-school Hollywood legend when he was cast to play Da Mayor in Spike Lee's movie - he was a bridge to African-American history off the set, too. Davis, who died at the age of 87 in 2005, wasn't just an acclaimed Broadway, Hollywood and television actor, and screenwriter. He was also a civil rights icon who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Davis also spoke at both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King's funerals in the '60s.  Credit: Universal Pictures; Barket/ Getty  Davis' real life wife, Ruby Dee, starred alongside him in 'Do the Right Thing,' playing the block's matriarch, Mother Sister. Dee is still acting four years after the death of her husband, playing the mother of Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas in 'American Gangster.' It's a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination in 2008.  Before he was 'Martin' or one of the 'Bad Boys', Martin Lawrence was a struggling actor who got his big break as wise-cracking Cee in 'Do the Right Thing.' Now 44, he proved to be a bankable comedic star - especially in drag - in the 'Big Momma's House' movies.  Playing the tragic Radio Raheem in 'Do the Right Thing' drew Hollywood's attention to physically imposing actor Bill Nunn. Parlaying his success into a number of high profile movies in the early '90s - including 'Sister Act' and 'New Jack City' - Nunn is best known now as newspaper editor 'Robbie' Robertson in the 'Spider-Man' movies.  Giancarlo Esposito may have railed against Italian Americans as the fiery Buggin' Out in 'Do the Right Thing', but the veteran actor is the son of an Italian stagehand in real life. Now 51, Esposito has notched some high-profile roles, starring as Agent Mike Giardello on the critically-acclaimed NBC series, 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' and as Cassius Clay Sr. in Michael Mann's 'Ali.'  Actress Joie Lee, who played Mookie's wise sister, Jade, in 'Do the Right Thing', didn't have to do much method acting for the role - she's Spike Lee's wise sister in real life, too. She is a screenplay writer who co-wrote Spike Lee's 1994 semi-autobiographical comedy, 'Crooklyn', and 2005's 'Jesus Children of America.'  Danny Aiello's real-life son, Rick, didn't play one of Sal's sons in the movie, but he did have a role as the brawny NYPD cop, Officer Long, with a few choice words for Bed-Stuy's Hispanic population. He's worked steadily since in bit parts on the big screen and guest-starring roles on the small screen. Aiello reprised his role as Long in Lee's 1991 sequel of sorts, 'Jungle Fever'.  The younger Aiello's partner, Officer Ponte, in both those films was played by actor Miguel Sandoval. Though he's played a number of thugs and drug dealers in countless movies and TV series guest appearances, Sandoval stars as one of the good guys as D.A. Manuel Devalos, the boss of the title psychic in the TV series, 'Medium'.  Frank Vincent, who played Charlie, an angry racist driver who gets soaked as he tries to drive through Bed-Stuy, is a made man in Hollywood. Most TV viewers recognize him as the sociopathic Phil Leotardo from 'The Sopranos,' while younger punks know his voice well as a mobster from the 'Grand Theft Auto' video game series.  At the age of 14, Richard Habersham played young Eddie, who is saved from a collision from a car by the quick reflexes of Da Mayor. Habersham left movies for a career on the stage - most notably in August Wilson's 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone' on Broadway. At the age of 35, the newly-married Habersham now works for a New York City education non-profit organization.  Eddie's enraged mother was played by actress Gwen McGee, who's worked steadily in the business ever since. On her Web site,  , she takes pride in being 'in the top 20% of the Screen Actors Guild membership who actually make a living at their craft.'  Actor Roger Guenveur Smith - who played the stuttering Smiley - must have made a good impression on Spike Lee. The director cast the Yale Drama School grad in 1992's 'Malcolm X', 1998's 'He Got Game' and 1999's 'Summer of Sam.'  As Coconut Sid, a foul-mouthed, bellyacher who kept a critical eye on the block, in 'Do the Right Thing,' actor Frankie Faison kept an eye on the neighborhood. But he also stayed in the public's eyes with a number of other small, but memorable roles in high-profile movies - including turns as a psychiatric nurse in 1991's 'The Silence of the Lambs', its 2001 sequel, 'Hannibal,' and its 2002 prequel, 'Red Dragon.' But his biggest gig to date has been on the critically acclaimed TV series, 'The Wire,' as Commissioner Ervin Burrell.  Long Island native John Savage, now 60, had been working steadily in the business as a character actor for two decades before getting cast as a bike-riding yuppie, Clifton, in 'Do the Right Thing.' And he's kept plugging along since, starring in more than a hundred movies and TV shows since - most notably as 'Hack' on HBO's Carnivale from 2003-2005.  Sal's slow-witted younger son, Vito, the frequent object of his older brother Pino's torments, was played by actor Richard Edson, who had come off roles in some of the biggest classics of the '80s - movies like 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' and 'Platoon'. But his biggest claim to fame remains as the original drummer for the seminal post-punk band, Sonic Youth.  Public Enemy's fist-pumping anthem, 'Fight the Power', blaring throughout the movie from Radio Raheem's massive boombox, is as important to the film as any of the characters. To the hard-core rap group, 'Elvis was a hero to most/But he never meant s--- to me you see.' Twenty years, Public Enemy is still defiant; Chuck D is still waxing poetic on racism in America; Professor Griff is still trying to overcome an anti-Semitic reputation; Flavor Flav is still clowning around - albeit now on reality television.  Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Turner/WireImage  The old block in Bedford-Stuyvesant where the movie was both filmed and set has changed a lot too in 20 years, a neighborhood in the process of gentrification...  ...although the site that housed Sal's Pizzeria in the film is now an empty lot, according to the Associated Press.  Just two months after 'Do the Right Thing' was released, a Brooklyn teen named Yusef Hawkins was murdered in the Italian neighborhood of Bensonhurst by a white teenage gang. Life imitating art or vice versa? Like the film's cast, New York City has matured a little in the past two decades - though periodically a racially charged incident, like the police shooting of Sean Bell in Nov. 2006, reignites racial tensions in the city. In the wake of those incidents, Spike Lee's classic seems as timely as ever.  Credit: Ziths/AP; (cc) Tasslehoff Burrfoot  (From l. to r.) Actor John Turturro, actress Joie Lee, Bill Lee, actor Danny Aiello, actress Ruby Dee, actor Samuel L. Jackson, director Spike Lee, and actor Luis Antonio Ramos attend the 20th Anniversary Screening of 'Do The Right Thing' at Directors Guild of America Theater in New York on June 29.
Actor John Savage arrives to the 11th Annual Method Fest Independent Film Festival Opening Night held at Regency Agoura Hills 8 Theaters on March 26, 2009 in Agoura Hills, California.Original Filename: GAL_DTRT_John-Savage.jpg