BIOGRAPHY

Born in Orlando, Floria, on July 31st, 1962, Wesley Snipes grew up in the Bronx. He developed an early interest in acting and attended Manhattan's High School for the Performing Arts. His mother moved him back to Florida before he could graduate, but after finishing up high school in Florida, Snipes attended the State University of New York-Purchase and began pursuing an acting career. It was while peforming in a competition that he was discovered by an agent, and a short time later he made his film debut in the Goldie Hawn vehicle Wildcats in 1986. Although he appeared in a few more films during the 1980s, it was Snipes' turn as a street tough who menaces Michael Jackson in the Martin Scorsese-directed video for 'Bad' that caught the eye of director Spike Lee. He was so impressed with the actor's performance that he cast him in his 1990 Mo Better Blues as a flamboyant saxophonist opposite Denzel Washington. That role, coupled with the exposure that Snipes had received for his performance as a talented but undisciplined baseball player in the previous year's Major League, succeeded in giving the actor a tentative plot on the Hollywood map. With his starring role in Lee's 1991 Jungle Fever, Snipes won critical praise and increased his audience exposure, and his career took off.      That same year, Snipes further demonstrated his flexibility with disparate roles in New Jack City, in which he played a volatile drug lord, and The Waterdance (1992), in which he starred as a former wild man repenting for his ways in a hospital's paraplegic ward. Both performances

earned strong reviews, and the following year Snipes found himself as the lead in his first big budget action flick, Passenger 57. The film, which featured the actor as an ex-cop with an attitude who takes on an airplane hijacker, proved to be a hit. Snipes other film that year, the comedy White Men Can't Jump, was also successful, allowing the actor to enter the the arena of full-fledged movie star. After a few more action stints in such films as Rising Sun (1993), which featured him opposite Sean Connery, Snipes went in a different direction with an uncredited role in Waiting to

Exhale (1995). The same year he completely bucked his macho, action figure persona with his portrayal of a flamboyant drag queen in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Snipes continued to focus on less testosterone-saturated projects after a turn as a baseball player in The Fan (1996), starring as an adulterous director in One Night Stand (1997) -- for which he won a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival -- and as Alfree Woodard's handsome cousin in Down in the Delta in 1998. That same year, Snipes returned to the action genre, as a man on the run from the law in the sequel to The Fugitive, U.S. Marshals, and playing a pumped-up vampire slayer in Blade. As of recent times, he continued to balance his career with adrenaline action flicks such as The Art of War (2000) and Blade II (2002) with more lighter, serious films such as Liberty Stands Still and Undisputed (both 2002). Snipes took some time off, but returned in top form as vampire hunter Blade in the third and final installment of the popular franchise, Blade: Trinity (2004) and in a villianous turn in the thriller Chaos (2005).      With sleek, well-muscled good looks that easily lend themselves to romantic leading roles or parts that call for running, jumping and handling firearms, Wesley Snipes became one of the most popular Hollywood stars of the 1990s and continues to entertain and astonish movie fans all over the world. (A majority of this biography was taken from Yahoo! Movies.)

FILMOGRAPHY

TRIVIA

CHAOS (2005) BLADE: TRINITY (2004) UNSTOPPABLE (2004) BLADE II (2002) UNDISPUTED (2002) LIBERTY STANDS STILL (2002) ZIGZAG (2002) DISAPPEARING ACTS (2000) THE ART OF WAR (2000) FUTURESPORT (1998) BLADE (1998) THE BIG HIT (1998) DOWN IN THE DELTA (1998) U.S. MARSHALS (1998) ONE NIGHT STAND (1997) MURDER AT 1600 (1997) THE FAN (1996) WAITING TO EXHALE (1995) MONEY TRAIN (1995) TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! JULIE NEWMAR (1995) DROP ZONE (1994) SUGAR HILL (1994) DEMOLITION MAN (1993) RISING SUN (1993) BOILING POINT (1993) PASSENGER 57 (1992) THE WATERDANCE (1992) WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP (1992) JUNGLE FEVER (1991) NEW JACK CITY (1991) MO' BETTER BLUES (1990) KING OF NEW YORK (1990) MAJOR LEAGUE (1989) CRITICAL CONDITION (1987) STREETS OF GOLD (1986) WILDCATS (1986)

HEIGHT: 5'8" SPOUSE: April (???-1990) (divorced), 1 son (Jelani, born in 1988) - Has been dating Korean painter Nikki Park who is the mother of his second child (Iset, born in 2001), for years. The two do not have any future plans to marry. - He is a 5th Degree Black Belt. - Practices Capoeira, Brazilian martial arts. - Publicly blasted director John Singleton for not casting him in the title role of Shaft in the updated version. Snipes claims that the film would have made twice its $60 million+ earnings had he been cast instead.  - Insisted that the role of Mimi, his character wife in the film One Night Stand, be played by an Asian woman in order to "push the boundaries of racial -sexual taboos." His character Max is a successful Black commerical director who has an extramarital affair with an attractive blonde.