Profile of Wesley Snipes on Famous Like Me

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

Biography

Snipes grew up in The Bronx and decided early on that he wanted to be a dancer until he took some acting classes. He started the High School for the Performing Arts, but his mother divorced and they moved back to Orlando, where he graduated from Jones High School. While in Florida, Snipes did puppet theatre, mime and musical theatre in competitions and festivals. He then attended the State University of New York College at Purchase and graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in 1985.

He did dinner theater and regional productions. An agent spotted Snipes and got him a role in Wildcats (1986). He often plays tough characters in action movies, and demonstrates considerable athletic and fighting ablity. He is interested in martial arts, including Karate, Kung Fu and Capoeira, and this interest is reflected in the fact that many of his movies make reference to Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Snipes was married from 1985 to 1990 and has a son from this marriage. His second child, another son born in 2000, a third child, a daughter born in 2001 and a fourth child, a son born in 2004, were all with his wife (who he married in 2003), Korean painter Nikki Park.

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.

Wesley Snipes played 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 whereas his character was involved in drugs was the hauntingly somber movie "Sugar Hill".

In 2000, a security / paramilitary group called the Royal Guard Of Amen-Ra, Inc. (owned by Amen Ra Films) filed BATF papers in moves to set up a security training center next to the Tama-Re compound of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors in Georgia. The Nuwaubians claimed Snipes as one of their own, though a spokeswoman for Snipes denied any connection.

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 also 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 undesireable as a result of the incident. To date, there is no obvious or apparent reason exactly why Snipes had entered South Africa on forged papers.

Abuse Allegations

In 2003, R&B singer Christopher Williams publicly accused Snipes of abusing actress Halle Berry during the early 1990s. Snipes and Halle Berry had been romantically involved at the time. Williams stated that: "The stuff they wrote about (me) and Halle was totally false. They said something like I busted her eardrum, and I'm tired of it. I never said it (before) but I'm so tired of people thinking I'm the guy (who did it). Wesley Snipes busted her eardrum, not me." *

Paternity Suit Allegations

In 2004, Snipes was named as the defendant in a paternity suit brought by an Indiana woman named Lanise Pettis. Pettis alleged that she had sex with Snipes in a Chicago crack house 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 it 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. *

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)
• Demolition Man (1993)
• Drop Zone (1994)
• To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
• The Fan (1996)
• Murder at 1600 (1997)
• Blade (1998)
• The Art of War (2000)
• Disappearing Acts (2000)
• Blade II (2002)
• Blade: Trinity

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Wesley Snipes