"There are so few guys who do action and do it well. Even fewer who are African-American. Even fewer who have classical-theater training. So a cat like me coming in, I'm bringing all of that to an action movie."
Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962 in Orlando, Florida) is an American actor, producer, and martial artist.
He's famous for appearing in films like New Jack City, White Men Can't Jump, Passenger 57 and Demolition Man, and for portraying the Marvel Comics dhampyr Blade in a film trilogy.
He formed a production company, Amen-Ra Films, in 1991, and a subsidiary, Black Dot Media, to develop projects for film and television. He is a lifelong martial artist, having training in Karate, Capoeira, hapkido, Taekwondo, Shaolin kung fu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Kickboxing.
Snipes was previously married to April Dubois and is currently married to Nakyung Park. He has six children.
Selected filmography:
- Bad (1987, music video) as Mini Max
- Major League (1989) as Willy Mays Hayes
- King of New York (1990) as Thomas Flanigan
- Mo' Better Blues (1990) as Shadow Henderson
- New Jack City (1991) as Nino Brown
- Jungle Fever (1991) as Flipper "Flip" Purify
- White Men Can't Jump (1992) as Sidney "Syd" Deane
- Passenger 57 (1992) as John Cutter
- Rising Sun (1993) as Lieutenant Webster "Web" Smith
- Demolition Man (1993) as Simon Phoenix
- Drop Zone (1994) as Pete Nessip
- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) as Noxeema Jackson
- Money Train (1995) as John
- Waiting to Exhale (1995) as James Wheeler
- The Fan (1996) as Bobby "Bob" Rayburn
- Murder at 1600 (1997) as Harlan Regis
- One Night Stand (1997) as Max Carlyle
- Down in the Delta (1998) as Will Sinclair
- The Blade Trilogy as Eric Brooks / Blade
- Blade (1998)
- Blade II (2002)
- Blade: Trinity (2004)
- Futuresport (1998) as Obike Fixx
- U.S. Marshals (1998) as Mark J. Sheridan / Mark Warren / Mark Roberts
- The Art of War (2000) as Neil Shaw
- The Art of War II: Betrayal (2008)
- Undisputed (2002) as Monroe "Undisputed" Hutchens
- Zig Zag (2002) as David Fletcher
- Chaos (2005) as Lorenz
- Brooklyn's Finest (2009) as Casanova "Caz" Phillips
- Gallowwalkers (2013) as Aman
- The Expendables 3 (2014) as Doc
- The Player (2015) as Mr. Johnson
- Dolemite Is My Name (2019) as D'Urville Martin
- Coming 2 America (2021) as General Izzi
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023) as Maris Morlak (voice)
