Last Updated on March 2, 2023

Wesley Snipes Biography

Wesley Snipes born as Wesley Trent Snipes is an American actor, film producer, martial artist, and author. His famous film roles include Major League (1989), Mo’ Better Blues (1990), New Jack City (1991), White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Demolition Man (1993), and the Marvel Comics character Blade in the Blade film trilogy (1998–2004).

In 1991 he formed a production company, Amen-Ra Films, and a subsidiary, Black Dot Media, to develop projects for film and television. Snipes since the age of 12 he has been training in martial arts earning a 5th dan black belt in Shotokan Karate and 2nd dan black belt in Hapkido.

Snipes started serving a three-year prison sentence in McKean County, Pennsylvania in 2010, for misdemeanor failure to file U.S. federal income tax returns. In 2013 he was released from prison.

Wesley Snipes Age | How Old Is Wesley Snipes

Snipes was born on July 31, 1962 in Orlando , Florida. He is 56 years old as of 2018.

Wesley Snipes Family

Snipes was born on July 31, 1962 in Orlando, Florida. He is the son of Marian (née Long), a teacher’s assistant, and Wesley Rudolph Snipes, an aircraft engineer. He was brought up in the Bronx, New York.

Wesley Snipes Education

Snipes joined the High School of Performing Arts of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. He later moved back to Florida before he could graduate.

When he  graduated  from Jones High School in Orlando, he returned to New York and attended the State University of New York at Purchase. Snipes  also attended Southwest College in Los Angeles, California.

Snipes FilmsWesley  | Wesley Snipes Movies List

Wesley Snipes Tv Show

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Best Wesley Snipes Movies

1. Blade
2. New Jack City
3. Blade II
4. White Men Can’t Jump
5. Brooklyn’s Finest
6. The Fan
7. U.S. Marshals
8. Money Train
9. Blade: Trinity
10. Demolition Man

Wesley Snipes Martial Arts | Wesley Snipes Karate

Snipes started training in martial arts when he was 12 years old, often sparring with his childhood friend Aaron Willyard. He has a 5th degree black belt in Shotokan karate and a 2nd degree black belt in Hapkido. He has also trained in Capoeira under Mestre Jelon Vieira and in a number of other disciplines including kung fu at the USA Shaolin Temple and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxi.  Snipes when he was in  New York, Snipes was trained in fighting by his friend and mentor Brooke Ellis.

Wesley Snipes Tax | Wesley Snipes Prison | Wesley Snipes Jail | Wesley Snipes Arrested | Wesley Snipes Tax Evasion | Wesley Snipes Jail Time

Snipes, Eddie Ray Kahn, and Douglas P. Rosile on October 12, 2006,were charged with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States and one count of knowingly making or aiding and abetting the making of a false and fraudulent claim for payment against the United States. Snipes was also charged with six counts of willfully failing to file federal income tax returns by their filing dates.

The conspiracy charge against Snipes alleged that he filed a false amended return.  This includes 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 US$7.3 million for the year 1997. The government reputed that Snipes attempted to obtain fraudulent tax refunds using a tax protester theory called the “861 argument”.  Essentially, an argument that the domestic income of U.S. citizens and residents is not taxable.  The government also charged that Snipes sent three worthless, fictitious “bills of exchange” for $14 million to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Snipes was also charged by the government for  failing to file tax returns for the years 1999 through 2004. On December 4, 2006 Snipes responded to his indictment in a letter , declaring himself to be “a non-resident alien” of the United States; in reality, Snipes is a birthright U.S. citizen. He said he was being made an example of and was unfairly targeted by prosecutors because of his fame in connection with the federal tax fraud investigation. Such strategy  are common of the “Freemen”, “Sovereign Citizen”, or “OPCA” (Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Argument) category of litigation strategy, designed to tie up courtroom proceedings with nonsense and delay judgments.

Snipes was acquitted on the felony count of conspiracy to defraud the government and on the felony count of filing a false claim with the government on February 1, 2008.  However, he was found guilty on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file federal income tax returns (and acquitted on three other “failure to file” charges). Douglas P. Rosile and Eddie Ray Kahn who were his co-defendants, were convicted on the conspiracy and false claim charges in connection with the income tax refund claims filed for Snipes.

Snipes on April 24, 2008 was sentenced to three years in prison for willful failure to file federal income tax returns under 26 U.S.C. § 7203 .   The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed Snipes’s convictions in a 35-page decision issued on July 16, 2010. Snipes reported to federal prison on December 9, 2010 to begin his three-year sentence, and was held at McKean Federal Correctional Institution, a federal prison in Pennsylvania.[34] On June 6, 2011, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear Snipes’s appeal.  On April 2, 2013, Snipes was released from federal prison after   finishing his period of house arrest on July 19, 2013.

The United States Tax Court ruled on November 1, 2018, that the Internal Revenue Service did not abuse its discretion in rejecting an offer in compromise made by Snipes. In sustaining the filing of a notice of federal tax lien in connection with approximately 23.5 million dollars in Federal tax liabilities for tax year 2001 and years 2003 through 2006.

Wesley Snipes Wife | Wesley Snipes Children | Is Wesley Snipes Married

Snipes has been married twice.  He first married April Snipes and they have a son named Jelani, who had a cameo role in Snipes’s 1990 film Mo’ Better Blues. Later, Snipes married painter Nakyung “Nikki” Park, together they have four children. Snipes also has a son who lives in Vancouver, Canada born in 2008.  Snipes was raised a Christian but he converted to Islam in 1978. In 1988 he left Islam. During a 1991 interview, Snipes said “Islam made me more conscious of what African people have accomplished, of my self-worth, and gave me some self-dignity”.

Wesley Snipes Son

Snipes together with his first wife have a son named Jelani, who had a cameo role in Snipes’s 1990 film Mo’ Better Blues.

Wesley Snipes Height | How Tall Is Wesley Snipes

Wesley stands at a  height of 5′ 9″ (1.75 m).

Wesley Snipes Career | Actor Wesley Snipes

Snipes at the age of 23 was discovered by an agent while performing in a competition. He made his first film debut in the 1986 Goldie Hawn vehicle Wildcats. In the same year, he appeared on the TV show Miami Vice as a drug-dealing pimp in the episode “Streetwise” (first aired December 5, 1986). Snipes in 1987 he appeared as Michael Jackson’s nemesis in the Martin Scorsese–directed music video “Bad” and the feature film Streets of Gold. In same year, he was also considered for the role of Geordi La Forge in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the role eventually went to LeVar Burton.

Snipes’s performance in the music video “Bad” got the attention of director Spike Lee. Snipes turned down a small role in Lee’s Do the Right Thing for the larger part of Willie Mays Hayes in Major League, starting a succession of box-office hits for Snipes. Lee would later cast Snipes as the jazz saxophonist Shadow Henderson in Mo’ Better Blues and as the lead in the interracial romance drama Jungle Fever. He then played Thomas Flanagan in King of New York opposite Christopher Walken. He played the drug lord Nino Brown in New Jack City, which was written specifically for him by Barry Michael Cooper. He also played a drug dealer in the 1994 film Sugar Hill.

In action films Snipes has played a number of roles like Passenger 57, Demolition Man (with Sylvester Stallone), Money Train, The Fan, U.S. Marshals and Rising Sun, as well as comedies like White Men Can’t Jump, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar where he played a drag queen. In dramas Snipes has appeared in The Waterdance and Disappearing Acts.

He won the Best Actor Volpi Cup at the 54th Venice Film Festival for his performance in New Line Cinema’s One Night Stand in 1997. Snipes had his largest commercial success with Blade in 1998, which has grossed over $150 million worldwide. The film turned into a series. Snipes also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and an honorary doctorate in humanities and fine arts from his alma mater, SUNY/Purchase. Snipes repeated his role in the third film, Blade: Trinity, which he also produced. He sued New Line Cinema and David S. Goyer, the film’s studio and director, respectively in 2005. He asserted that the studio did not pay his full salary, that he was intentionally cut out of casting decisions, and that his character’s screen time was reduced in favor of co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel. The suit was later settled, but no details were released. He has discussed reprising the role of Blade as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Trinity was his last theatrical release in the U.S. until 2010.

Snipes later appeared in The Contractor, filmed in Bulgaria and the UK, Gallowwalkers which was released in 2012, and Game of Death. Originally, Snipes was slated to play one of the four leads in Spike Lee’s 2008 war film Miracle at St. Anna. He had to leave the film due to tax problems; his role eventually went to Derek Luke.

Snipes made a comeback performance in Brooklyn’s Finest as Casanova “Caz” Phillips, a supporting character, it was his first theatrical release film since 2004. He also had to turn down the part of Hale Caesar in The Expendables because he was not allowed to leave the United States without the court’s approval. He appeared in the sequel The Expendables 3 in 2014, .

Wesley Snipes Networth | How Much Money Is Wesley Snipes Worth

Wesley Snipes being an actor, film producer and martial artist he has an estimated net worth of $10 million dollars.

Wesley Snipes Book

Talon of God Jul 25, 2017

Wesley Snipes Quotes

1. I think of myself as a young prince from a long line of royalty.
2. I don’t see myself as extremely handsome. I just figure I can charm you into liking me.
3. Nobody wants to get locked up, although ‘locked up’ is a matter of perspective. There can be people who are out who are in prison mentally and emotionally and worse off than those who are behind bars.
4. My sign is Leo. A Leo has to walk with pride. When he takes a step, he has to put his foot down. You walk into a room and you want people to know your presence, without you doing anything
5. I like to read about different religions – Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.
6. We’re conditioned in this country to believe that if there’s a problem, the black man is usually the culprit.
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Wesley Snipes Body | Pictures Of Wesley Snipes | Wesley Snipes Images

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Wesley Snipes Blade 4

Snipes had his largest commercial success with Blade, which has grossed over $150 million worldwide. The film turned into a series.

Wesley Snipes Vampire Movie
Wesley Snipes Bad

Snipes appeared as Michael Jackson’s nemesis in the Martin Scorsese–directed music video “Bad” and the feature film Streets of Gold in 1987 . In same year,he was also considered for the role of Geordi La Forge in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the role eventually went to LeVar Burton.

Wesley Snipes House

Snipes’s apartment was destroyed by the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers during the September 11 attacks. He was on the West Coast at the time.

Unstoppable Wesley Snipes

This is an American action film directed by David Carson, and starring Wesley Snipes, Jacqueline Obradors, Stuart Wilson and Kim Coates.

Stallone Wesley Snipes

Stallone and Wesley appeared on a Demolition Man  a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla in his directorial debut. The film stars are Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. The film was released in the United States on October 8, 1993.

Wesley Snipes Expendables

The Expendables 3 is a 2014 American action film directed by Patrick Hughes and written by Creighton Rothenberger, Katrin Benedikt and Sylvester Stallone. It is the third installment in The Expendables film series and the sequel to The Expendables (2010) and The Expendables 2 (2012). The film characterized  an ensemble cast of stars including Stallone, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Wesley Snipes Major League |The Player Wesley Snipes

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