Wesley Snipes grew up on the streets of the South Bronx in New York City, where he very early decided that the theater was to be his career. He attended the High School for the Performing Arts (popularized in Fame). But dreams of the musical theater (and maybe a few commercials) faded when his mother moved to Orlando, Florida before he could graduate from high school. But after graduation from a Florida high school he appeared in local dinner theaters and regional productions. An agent saw him in a competition and got him his first movie role with Goldie Hawn in Wildcats. Athletic roles such as that gave way to tough guy roles as in New Jack City, and to the action hero in Passenger 57. Wesley feels that at least with the Hollywood heavyweights he must be doing something right - Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper and Sean Connery all had veto power over casting and all approved his role.
Blade: Trinity (2004): $13,000,000
Murder at 1600 (1997): $10,000,000
The Fan (1996): $7,000,000
Money Train (1995): $5,500,000
Drop Zone (1994): $7,000,000

Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1990" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 42. Despite the fact that Mr. Snipes does not often acknowledge it, he did attend the State University of New York at Purchase and graduated with a BFA in 1985. As the most famous alumni of this school, he joins the other notables SUNY Purchase graduates who include: Parker Posey, Sherry Stringfield, Melissa Leo, Stanley Tucci, directors Hal Hartley & Nick Gomez, and producers Todd Baker and Bob Gosse. He appeared in Michael Jackson's Bad music video. You can only see him in the full length, 16-minute, black & white/color music video. It is usually shortened down to just the color segment for television. Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. [1991] He is a 5th degree black belt. Practices Capoeira, Brazilian martial arts. Publicly blasted John Singleton for not casting him in the title role of the updated version of Shaft. Snipes claims the film would have made twice its $60 million+ earnings had he been cast. Insisted that the role of Mimi (played by Ming-Na), his character's wife in the film One Night Stand, be played by an Asian woman in order to "push the boundaries of racial-sexual taboos." Snipes's character, Max, is a sucessful Black commercial director who has an extramarital affair with an attractive blonde ('Natassja Kinski' ). Father of son Jelani (born 1988). Daughter Iset born July 2001. Married Korean painter Nikki Park, who is the mother of his two youngest children, in March, 2003. Snipes spends a lot of time in Park's home country which he call his "second home." In his big action film, Passenger 57 you see him reading a book on the plane. The book is The Art of War which is the same title as a movie that he starred in years later, though unrelated to it. He has mastered numerous martial arts forms including the Brazilian street fighting form Capoeira. His apartment was destroyed by the collapse of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. He happened to have been delayed at the gym where he was working out, otherwise he would have been home at that moment. Lives in Marina del Rey, California. Is a fanatical music lover and collector and owns more than 1,000 LPs and 4,000 CDs. Father retired from United States Air Force Reserve's 315AW Charleston Air Force Base April 1998 with the rank of MSGT. Ranked the tenth most popular movie star in America by the Annual Harris Poll (1999). On April 18, 2005, Snipes filed a suit against New Line Cinema for more then $5 million, claiming that the studio failed to pay the balance of his fixed rate for Blade: Trinity, and that he wasn't allowed to approve the director, per his contract stipulations. Introduction and training in the martial arts was first by fellow classmate and now fight co-coordinator/technical advisor Marcus Salgado. On October 17, 2006, he was indicted on eight counts of tax fraud.