It was director Spike Lee who provided the boost Lindo's career needed, even though he had turned down a role in Do the Right Thing to act alongside Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen in the cult sci-fi movie Salute of the Jugger (1990), and cast him as Woody Carmichael in the comedy Crooklyn (1994). Among the films he has starred in have been Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty, Clockers, Feeling Minnesota, and as the baseball player Satchel Paige in Soul of the Game (1996). Much of the character actor's work alternates between playing treacherous bad guys or trustworthy professionals. He continues to work on screen, most recently on the short lived NBC drama Kidnapped.
He guest-starred on The Simpsons in the episode Brawl in the Family, playing a character named Gabriel that appears very similar to his character in A Life Less Ordinary (where Dan Hedaya played the angel Gabriel, and Lindo's boss). Homer believes Gabriel is an angel, which he repeatedly denies.