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Wesley Snipes

Wesleysnipes

Miami Vice Character
Born
July 31, 1962, Orlando, Florida
Active
1986-present
Spouse(s)/Children
April DuBoise (1985-1990, divorced), one child
Nikki Park (2003-present), four children


Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962, Orlando, Florida) made his TV debut as Silk, a pimp working with mobster Leo Cryson in the episode "Streetwise" of the series Miami Vice.

Career[]

Snipes was discovered at a martial arts competition and got into acting, debuting in the 1986 movie Wildcats (with Bruce McGill, Mykelti Williamson, and Jsu Garcia), followed by appearances in Streets of Gold (with Rainbow Harvest), Major League, and King of New York (with Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Calderon, and Steve Buscemi), then teamed up with Spike Lee on some of his films, including Mo' Better Blues (with Esposito and John Turturro), New Jack City, and Jungle Fever (with Turturro and Lonette McKee), White Men Can't Jump, then got into action movies such as Passenger 57 (with Marc Macaulay), Boiling Point (with Viggo Mortensen and Paul Gleason), Rising Sun (with Steve Buscemi, Kevin Anderson, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), Demolition Man, and Drop Zone. Other movies include To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar (with John Leguizamo), The Fan (with Leguizamo and Patti D'Arbanville), Murder at 1600 (with Charles Rocket), Blade and its sequels, Blade II (with Ron Perlman) and Blade: Trinity (with James Remar), Brooklyn's Finest (with Vincent D'Onofrio), The Expendables 3, Chi-Raq (with David Patrick Kelly), Armed Response (with Gene Simmons), Dolemite is My Name (with Chris Rock), Coming 2 America (with Shari Headley), and his most recent movie appearance, 2023's Back on the Strip. His TV appearances have been limited to The Bernie Mac Show (with Garcelle Beauvais), H.E.L.P (6 episodes, with Joe Urla), A Man Called Hawk (with Maryann Plunkett and Jay O. Sanders), The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (with David Strathairn), and his most recent, True Story. He also appeared as one of the gang members in Michael Jackson's video for his hit single "Bad".

Personal Life[]

Snipes married April DuBoise in 1985 until their 1990 divorce, they had one son, Jelani Asar (born 1988), was linked to a number of women including Jada Pinkett-Smith, Jennifer Lopez, and Halle Berry before becoming involved with painter Naiyung "Nikki" Park, they married in 2003 and have four children; Akhenaten Kihwa-T Snipes; daughter Iset Jua-T Snipes (born July 31, 2001); son Alaafia Jehu-T Snipes (born May 26, 2004); and son Alimayu Moa-T Snipes (born March 26, 2007). In 2006 Snipes and two others were indicted on tax evasion charges, using the so-called "861 argument" (that domestic income from US citizens is not taxable) as his defense. He was convicted of failing to file income tax returns from 1999-2004 and was sentenced to 36 months in prison, which he began serving on December 9, 2010, after the U.S. Court of Appeals denied his appeal and the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of his case.  Snipes was released from prison in April, 2013.

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