Action star Wesley Snipes celebrated his 60th birthday this year. Years ago, a prison career was hampered. Even that didn’t deter him and he returned straight from the prison cell to the movie screens.
After graduating from high school, he decided to perform on stage, which led to the music video for Michael Jackson’s hit Bad. While filming a music video with the King of Pop, he met director Spike Lee, who later cast him as saxophonist Henderson in the musical comedy My Better Blues (1990).
The 90s brought the actor a lot of success. He came to public attention playing a drug kingpin in the action drama Drug Empire (1991). And then he shined in the role of a successful architect in the film Jungle Fever (1991). He also starred in the thriller Demolition Man (1993) and the comedy When I Breathe (1995). However, his role in his life was the half-human, half-vampire Blade in the 1998 film of the same name, with which he immediately gained worldwide fame. He played the role of him two more times at the beginning of the new millennium, but the other parts of him were not so popular with the audience anymore. Blade was followed by other action heroes, one of them being, for example, a dangerous shooter from the film Nuclear Target (2005) or a secret agent of the CIA, which he played in the American-Romanian film Detonator (2006).
In 2010, fans of the ninety-year-old star experienced a big shock. The representative of the famous action heroes had to go to prison for tax evasion from 1999 to 2004. He spent almost three years in prison and was released under house arrest in recent months. After all, Wesley Snipes got something out of prison. “Now I am much more aware of the value of time. People often tend not to think about it at all. I appreciate it after the time spent without my family and friends.” the actor confided to The Guardian newspaper.
The first acting job after returning was the third installment of the Loseable film series (2014). “I had to find out if I had lost popularity. It turns out not. Prison and acting are two separate things and audiences continue to appreciate my work equally.” He added. However, run-ins with the law were not unusual for him, he had already been arrested several times for illegal possession of a weapon prior to his time behind bars.
The Hollywood megastar is also the father of five children and, since 2003, the husband of the painter Nikki Park. They don’t hide their interest in fast motorcycles or martial arts. He also showed up at the annual Oscars this year, where he literally took his fans’ breath away. He goes from a beefy action hero to a skinny guy. It is among the fans that rumors are spreading about the alleged disease that caused him to lose so much weight.
Zdroje: The Guardian, csfd, Esquire
