Wesley Snipes - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

This page uses content from the Wesley Snipes biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962, in Orlando, Florida) is an American actor, martial artist and film producer. He may be best known for his role as the eponymous vampire hunter in the Blade trilogy of movies.

Snipes has starred in action-adventures, thrillers, comedies, and dramatic feature films opposite to such actors as Robert De Niro and Sean Connery.

In recent years, Snipes has moved behind the scenes in order to make his own films. To this end, he formed his own independent production company, Amen Ra Films, and its subsidiary Black Dot Media in 1991, to develop projects for film and television.

Snipes's last film to have a US theatrical release was 2004's Blade Trinity. Although the film was a box office success, Wesley has chosen to devote his time to making several direct-to-video films. He recently completed filming The Shooter in Bulgaria with Charles Dance, Lena Heady and Iain Robertson

On October 17 2006, a warrant was issued for Snipes' arrest in a case alleging that he filed fraudulent claims for tax refunds. He has not yet been arrested. On October 21, 2006 Reuters reported that Snipes is filming the movie Gallowwalker in Namibia.

Biography

Early Life and Career

Born in Orlando, Florida, Snipes moved to the South Bronx as an infant and attended Manhattan's School of Performing Arts. Much to his dismay, his mother decided to move the family back to Orlando, where he completed high school and teamed up with friends to form Struttin' Street Stuff, a traveling puppet troupe that performed in public parks and schools.

In 1980, Snipes graduated from Jones High School and returned to New York to attend Purchase College. He graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in 1985, although not from Purchase College, and subsequently landed roles on Broadway in such productions as Boys of Winter, Execution of Justice and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman.

Snipes was married from 1985 to 1990 to April Snipes; they had one son, Jelani, in 1988. He married a South Korean painter, Nikki Park, in 2003. They have two children; the first named Iset, born July, 2001. Snipes has referred to South Korea as his second home.

Acting career

In 1985, while working the audition circuit in New York in between installing public telephones, Snipes auditioned for a role in the Warner Bros. Pictures comedy Wildcats, starring Goldie Hawn. The distinct impression he made on the casting agent earned him a call back to fill the role in the film.

In 1987, Snipes appeared as Michael Jackson's rival gang leader in the Martin Scorsese-directed music video "Bad" (he is only seen in the long version of the video) and the feature film Streets of Gold, which brought him to the attention of director Spike Lee. He turned down a small role in Lee's Do the Right Thing for the larger part of Willie Mays Hays in Major League, beginning a succession of box-office hits for Snipes. Lee would later cast Snipes as the jazz saxophonist Shadow Handerson in Mo' Better Blues and as the lead in the interracial romance drama Jungle Fever. Another important role for Snipes was the drug lord Nino Brown in New Jack City, which was written specifically for him by Barry Michael Cooper.

Snipes often played tough characters in action movies, and has demonstrated considerable athletic and fighting ability. He is interested in martial arts, including Karate, Kung Fu, and Capoeira. This interest is reflected in the fact that many of his movies make reference to Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Snipes has featured in films as diverse as the comedy White Men Can't Jump, the critically acclaimed The Waterdance, and the action/adventure Passenger 57 (which featured his martial arts expertise), Rising Sun, Demolition Man, Sugar Hill, Drop Zone, Money Train and The Fan. In a departure from type, Snipes played a drag queen (alongside Patrick Swayze and John Leguizamo) in the 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

In 1997 he won the Best Actor Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in New Line Cinema's One Night Stand. Snipes was also lauded by critics worldwide for his performance in U.S. Marshals, a sequel of sorts to the box-office hit, The Fugitive.

1998 was especially rewarding for Snipes with the opening of the year's cult hit Blade, for New Line Cinema, which has grossed over $150 million worldwide. He was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, SUNY/Purchase, for his outstanding achievements in film.

Snipes produced The Big Hit, starring Mark Wahlberg and executive produced by John Woo and Terrence Chang, and the critically acclaimed feature Down in the Delta, which marked Maya Angelou's directorial debut and garnered several awards including a Christopher Prism and nominations in multiple categories for the Acapulco Black Film Festival, as well as an NAACP Image Award for Best Motion Picture.

Additionally, television projects distinguished Snipes as a creative force with ABC's Futuresport, in which he starred with Dean Cain and Vanessa L. Williams. Snipes also produced the highest rated cable special of all time, TNT's "The First Tribute to the Martial Arts Masters of the 20th Century," which showcased some of the greatest innovators of the martial arts.

Snipes also served as executive producer of a series of documentaries that he personally financed through now defunct Black Dot Media. The company showcased prominent thinkers from the African and Afro-Caribbean culture. The first in the series, John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk, chronicled the life of John Henrik Clarke, an authority on African and Afro-Caribbean studies. The film won critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Urbanworld Film Festival in New York.

In 1991, Snipes formed the independent production company Amen Ra Films. It co-produced the first two Blade films and other titles that Snipes has starred in. In 2004 Snipes went on to star in his third Blade movie Blade Trinity.

Snipes played a drug kingpin Nino Brown in New Jack City, which was a contrast to his role as a New York City Detective in King of New York a year earlier. Another film in which his character was involved in drugs was the somber movie Sugar Hill.

Legal problems

Domestic violence

In 2004, Christopher Williams was suspected of having beaten actress Halle Berry so badly that she became nearly deaf in one ear. Williams claimed that it was actually Snipes who physically abused Berry. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=News&id=1080346

Paternity dispute

In 2004, Snipes was named as the defendant in a paternity suit brought by an Indiana woman named Lanise Pettis. In 2000 and that Snipes had fathered a child with her. Snipes denied the allegations and reportedly twice refused to submit to a paternity test requested by Pettis. On July 25, 2004, a Manhattan Family Court judge issued an arrest warrant for Snipes' failure to submit to the paternity test. The judge also set bail at $250,000. Snipes subsequently sued New York City, charging that the City had no jurisdiction to arrest him as part of an Indiana paternity case. However, on January 27, 2005, Snipes' bid to have a federal judge cancel the arrest warrant was denied. It was eventually determined that, as Pettis claims to have many unlikely celebrity connections, Snipes was not the father and the case was dismissed accordingly.

Fake South African passport

In 2005, Snipes was detained at Johannesburg International Airport for allegedly trying to pass through the airport with a fake South African passport. Snipes later told South African officials that he had applied for the South African papers not only for himself but for his family. During the interview, it was established that Snipes did indeed have fraudulent South African documentation in his possession. Snipes and his attorney agreed to cooperate with the South African Inspectorate of the National Immigration Branch in their investigation. Snipes was allowed to return home because he had a valid U.S. passport, but the South African authorities reduced his immigration status to undesirable as a result of the incident. To date, no explanation has been offered as to exactly why Snipes attempted to enter South Africa on forged papers. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20050928115054176C868509

Tax fraud charges

On October 12, 2006, Wesley Snipes was charged in a superseding indictmentAccording to the Court docket, the original indictment apparently had been handed down on April 5, 2006, but had been sealed. [1] with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States under ,Where the victim is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the purpose is to defeat the lawful functioning of the IRS, a section 371 conspiracy is called a "Klein conspiracy," after the case of United States v. Klein, 247 F.2d 908 (2d Cir. 1957), 57-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 9912, cert. denied, 355 U.S. 924 (1958). one count of making or aiding and abetting the making of a false and fraudulent claim for payment against the United States, under and , and six counts of willfully failing to timely file Federal income tax returns under .

Also charged was Douglas P. Rosile, Sr., an accountant who allegedly prepared certain amended returns filed by Snipes. In 2002, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa granted an injunction against Rosile, prohibiting him from preparing or assisting in the preparation of Federal income tax returns for other people.United States v. Rosile, 2002-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 50,566 (M.D. Fla. 2002). Rosile allegedly prepared or helped prepare frivolous tax returns for 174 clients in 34 states, involving at least $29 million USD in taxes.

The conspiracy charge against Snipes includes allegations that he filed a false amended return including a false tax refund claim of over $4 million for the year 1996 and a false amended return including a false tax refund claim of over $7.3 million for the year 1997. The government alleges in the indictment that Snipes attempted to obtain fraudulent tax refunds using a discredited tax protester theory called the "861 argument" (essentially, an argument that the domestic income of U.S. citizens and residents should not be taxable). The indictment said Snipes used accountants who already had a history of filing false returns to obtain refund payments for their clients.http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/tax/ussnipes101206ind.html Under the alleged deal, the firm (American Rights Litigators) was to receive, from the clients, an amount equal to 20 percent of the tax refunds obtained for those clients. One other person was indicted with Snipes and Rosile.

The government also charges that Snipes failed to file tax returns for the years 1999 through 2004.http://apnews.myway.com//article/20061017/D8KQFR2G0.html

If convicted, Snipes could face up to sixteen years in prisonThe sixteen years could consist of one year on each of the six counts under 26 U.S.C. section 7203, five years under 18 U.S.C. section 371, and five years under 18 U.S.C. section 287. and substantial fines. On October 17, 2006, an arrest warrant was issued for Wesley Snipes on the tax charges.

Trivia

The video game "Tekken 5" has a character named "Raven", who looks a lot like Wesley Snipes.

Selected filmography

Wildcats (1986)
Major League (1989)
King of New York (1990)
Mo' Better Blues (1990)
New Jack City (1991)
Jungle Fever (1991)
White Men Can't Jump (1992)
Passenger 57 (1992)
Rising Sun (1993)
Demolition Man (1993)
Drop Zone (1994)
Sugar Hill (1994)
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
Money Train (1995)
Waiting to Exhale (1995)
The Fan (1996)
Murder at 1600 (1997)
One Night Stand (1997)
Blade (1998)
U.S. Marshals (1998)
The Art of War (2000)
Disappearing Acts (2000)
Liberty Stands Still (2002)
Blade II (2002)
Undisputed (2002)
Blade: Trinity (2004)
Unstoppable (2004)
The Marksman (2004)
7 Seconds (2005)
Hard Luck (2006)
Chaos (2006)
The Detonator (2006)
Chasing The Dragon (2006) (pre-production)
Toussaint (2007) (pre-production)
Gallowwalker (2007) (pre-production)

References

External links

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