What the Hell Happened to Wesley Snipes?

At the top of his career, Wesley Snipes was an A-list action star who could also cross-over into comedy and drama as he saw fit.  Few actors can claim the kind of cross-genre success Snipes enjoyed.  But all that ended amid very public legal entanglements that ultimately landed Snipes in jail with a three-year sentence for failing to file tax returns.

If you take nothing else away from this article, remember this: No matter what anyone else tells you, you still need to file your taxes.

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Wesley Snipes – Wildcats – 1986

Snipes made his screen debut opposite future co-star Woody Harrelson in the 1986 Goldie Hawn football comedy, Wildcats.  Amazingly, Wildcats was also Harrelson’s big screen debut.  Years later, the two would reunite as box office stars for two more films.  But here, they were both unkowns.

Wildcats is your typical Goldie Hawn comedy following the formula that was successful with Private Benjamin to lesser results.  Instead of the army, Wildacts finds plucky Hawn as the unlikely coach of an inner city high school football team.

Snipes and Harrelson became friends while filming Wildcats:

Most of the cats in Wildcats were black. Woody was only supposed to be in the movie early on, but Goldie liked him and he ended up with more and more scenes. We thought it was white favoritism. One of the football players, a Muslim from the Nation in Chicago, would whip on Woody every day. Woody couldn’t take it and came to me, “Look, man, what is all this black shit? Why’s he saying I’m the Devil? Do you think I’m the Devil?” We ended up with a friendship from that.

No one expects a movie like Wildcats to be good.  And it wasn’t.  It was the kind of bland, harmless comedy Hawn was known for in those days.  As Roger Ebert noted in his review:

Wildcats is clearly an attempt by Hawn to repeat a formula that was wonderfully successful in Private Benjamin: Wide-eyed Goldie copes with the real world. It was less successful in Protocol, and now it’s worn out altogether.

Wildcats opened in fourth place at the box office behind The Delta Force proving that even with the assistance of Snipes and Harrelson, Hawn was no match for Chuck Norris.

snipes - streets of gold
Wesley Snipes – Streets of Gold – 1986

Later that year, Snipes followed up Wildcats with another sports movie.

Klaus Maria Brandauer starred as a Russian immigrant who was denied the opportunity to join the Soviet national boxing team because he was Jewish.  When he comes to the US, he ends up coaching boxers played by Snipes and Adrian Pasdar.

At the time of the movie’s release, Brandauer was the star.  But later video releases would emphasize Snipes’ supporting role.

Critics complained that Streets of Gold was overly formulaic.  Roger Ebert lamented that the movie ultimately fell into the Rocky trap:

Streets of Gold is a movie that begins with a story that’s genuinely interesting. But then it gradually loses confidence and starts to depend on clichés, and by the last 20 minutes it’s on automatic pilot. Too bad, because this could have been a good one.

The boxing drama opened in ninth place at the box office behind Stand By Me which had been in theaters for 15 weeks by that point.  It barely edged out Top Gun which had been playing for more than six months!

Wesley Snipes - Miami Vice - 1986
Wesley Snipes – Miami Vice – 1986

Meanwhile (yes, we are still in 1986!) Snipes was also paying his dues on TV.  Most notably, he played a pimp on the 80’s TV sensation, Miami Vice.  Bill Paxton also appeared in the episode as a cop who falls in love with one of Snipes’ working girls.

Around this time, Snipes was also in consideration for the role of Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Proving that sometimes things work out for the best, the role ultimately went to LeVar Burton.

Wesley Snipes - 501 Blues Commercial - 1986
Wesley Snipes – 501 Blues Commercial – 1986

In 1986, we all had a bad case of the blues – the 501 blues that is!  Snipes had contracted a worse case than most.  

His love of Levi’s blue jeans had him dancing down the street and losing his hat in this 1986 commercial.

snipes - bad video
Wesley Snipes – Bad video – 1987

The following year, he played another gangster opposite Michael Jackson in the Bad video.

This is easily the most mismatched gang fight on all time.  And yet, Jackson triumphs with his superior crotch-grabs.  Sham-on!  The Bad video was directed by Martin Scorsese.  Yes, THE Martin Scorsese directed a Michael Jackson music video.

It is nothing short of a miracle that Snipes ever played a tough guy again after having both Michael Jackson’s finger and his junk thrust at him that many times.  Originally, the song was meant to be a duet with pop star Prince.  But Prince objected to having Jackson open the song with “Your butt is mine” so he passed.

Snipes was grateful for the opportunity, “The association was powerful–Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Martin Scorsese. To be in that kind of company was no joke.”

Wesley Snipes - Vietnam War story - 1987
Wesley Snipes – Vietnam War story – 1987

On the big screen, Snipes appeared as an ambulance driver in the Richard Pryor comedy, Critical Condition.

On TV, Snipes played a soldier in the HBO anthology, Vietnam War Story.  The series told fictional stories set during the Vietnam War.  Episodes were written primarily by Vietnam veterans and were based on personal experiences.

Wesley Snipes - Western Union commercial - 1987
Wesley Snipes – Western Union commercial – 1987

By 1987, Snipes had mostly recovered from his jeans-related bout with the blues.  

Instead, he was begging relatives to send him some money in a commercial for Western Union.

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Wesley Snipes – Major League – 1989

In 1989, Snipes was primarily doing guest spots on TV shows like the dramedy, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and the Spencer For Hire spin-off, A Man Called Hawk.  But that changed when he landed a supporting role in the baseball comedy, Major League.

Major League focuses on a fictionalized version of the Cleveland Indians. Tom Berenger starred the team’s veteran catcher.  Charlie Sheen played the rookie pitcher nicknamed Wild Thing.  Corbin Bernsen appeared in a supporting role as a prima donna third baseman.  Snipes played the cocky new  center fielder Willie “Mays” Hayes and Rene Russo made her movie debut as Berenger’s ex-girlfriend.

Critics gave Major League a passing grade despite the fact that it was a pretty formulaic sports movie.  The laughs and the execution were enough to earn mostly positive reviews.  Audiences liked it as well.  Major League opened in first place at the box office and earned nearly $50 million dollars.

Major League went on to spawn two sequels, but Snipes didn’t participate in either of them.  His character was played by Omar Epps in Major League II and left out of the third film entirely.

Snipes kicked off 1990 with a recurring role in the TV drama, H.E.L.P.  John Mahoney, best-known from playing Frasier’s dad on Frasier, starred as the chief of the New York City Fire Department.  Snipes and Caruso played cops on the NTPD.  The premise of the show was that the police, fire department and emergency medical services worked together to form an experimental unit.  H.E.L.P. was cancelled after only 6 episodes, but Snipes and Caruso would work together again soon.

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Wesley Snipes – Mo’ Better Blues – 1990

Later that year, Snipes finally got to work with director Spike Lee after having turned down a small role in Do the Right Thing to make Major League.

Mo Better Blues starred Denzel Washington as a talented trumpet player.  Snipes played Washington’s childhood friend and musical rival.  They form a jazz quartet, but Snipes’ character keeps trying to steal the spotlight with his saxophone solos.   The professional friction between the two friends continues to grow until it threatens to tear the band apart.

Spike Lee came under attack by the Anti Defamation League for the film’s depiction of two Jewish nightclub owners played by John and Nicholas Turturro.  They claimed the characters “dredge up an age-old and highly dangerous form of anti-Semitic stereotyping.”  Lee fired back that movie history was filled with negative stereotypes of African-Americans:

Don’t hold me to a higher moral standard than the rest of my filmmaking colleagues… Now that young black filmmakers have arisen in the film industry, all of a sudden stereotypes are a big issue… I think it’s reaching the point where I’m getting reviewed, not my films.

Critical reaction was mixed to negative.  Everyone agreed that Mo’ Better Blues was not in the same league as Do the Right Thing.  But some critics found the performances strong enough to recommend the movie in spite of its flaws.  Roger Ebert wrote “Mo’ Better Blues is not a great film, but it’s an interesting one, which is almost as rare.”

Mo’ Better Blues also achieved mixed results at the box office.  It opened in seventh place behind Die Hard 2: Die Harder which had been in theaters for 5 weeks.  But it was also showing in roughly 500 theaters whereas the Die Hard sequel was still showing in nearly 2,000 theaters.  So it’s hardly a fair comparison.  Every other movie in the top 12 that week was showing in at least 1,000 theaters.  Mo’ Better Blues only played in theaters for three weeks during which it grossed just over $16 million dollars which was a step down from Do The Right Thing.

snipes - king of New York
Wesley Snipes – King of New York – 1990

Snipes ended 1990 with a supporting role in the Abel Ferrara’s crime thriller, King of New York.

Christopher Walken starred as a drug lord who has recently been released from prison.  He has political ambitions now that he has paid his debt to society.  But first, he has some loose ends to tie up with his former business associates.  Laurence Fishburne  and Steve Buscemi played his lieutenants.  Snipes and future TV cop David Caruso, played cops tracking Walken.  Snipes was reuinted with his H.E.L.P. co-star, David Caruso.  Once again, they played NYC cops.

Caruso and Snipes had become friends while co-starring in H.E.L.P.  So when Ferrara was casting his partner, Caruso suggested Snipes.  According to Ferrara, Snipes was living in his car at the time.

The original cut of King of New York had a two-hour run-time.  Roughly 14 minutes were cut from the film in order to secure an R-rating.  When the film premiered at the New York Film Festival, several members of the audience walked out including Ferrara’s wife!  Ferrara held a Q&A session after the screening and the first question was “This film is an abomination. Why aren’t you giving the proceeds to some drug rehab program.”

Reviews were mixed.  Many critics praised Walken’s performance and Ferrara’s direction, but almost everyone found the script to be lacking.  In the years since, the movie has received a critical reappraisal and is now fairly well-respected.  King of New York received a limited theatrical release during which it grossed about $2.5 million dollars.

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Wesley Snipes – New Jack City – 1991

1991 was a big year for Snipes.  He got his first starring role in Mario Van Peebles’ crime drama, New Jack City.

Snipes starred as drug lord Nino Brown, leader of a crime organization known as the Cash Money Brothers.  Ice T played a cop who has vowed to bring Snipes down as revenge for the murder of his mother. Judd Nelson co-starred as Ice T’s partner.  Chris Rock showed up as a druggie who turns informant.

Reviews were mostly positive and the movie was a hit at the box office.  It opened in second place behind The Silence of the Lambs which was in its fourth week in theaters.  New Jack City ended up grossing almost $50 million dollars on an $8 million dollar production budget making it the highest-grossing independent feature of the year.

As a result of that success, Snipes and Van Peebles became hot properties in Hollywood.  Ice T transitioned from a rapper to an actor.  And Brat Packer Judd Nelson became somewhat relevant again for about a half a second.  The movie also inspired countless imitators.

Snipes also made headlines for being one of four black actors to hold a press conference regarding abuses by the L.A. Police.  Snipes was pulled over by a couple of police while driving a leased Mustang.  The officers made Snipes lay face-down on the pavement where he was hand-cuffed with a gun to his head.  One of the officers even recognized Snipes from New Jack City.  According to Snipes:

They knew my movie, even talked to me about it! But they were thinking: ‘Black guy, New Jack City, drug dealer, must be real life. Stolen car… figures.’

Wesley Snipes - Jungle Fever - 1991
Wesley Snipes – Jungle Fever – 1991

Later that year, Snipes reteamed with Spike Lee for the inter-racial relationship drama, Jungle Fever.

Snipes starred as a successful and happily married architect.  He ends up flirting with and eventually having an affair with the new temp played by Annabella Sciorra.  Their relationship proves to be disruptive at work and at home.  The talented cast included Tim Robbins and Brad Dourif as Snipes’ employers, John Tuturro as Sciorra’s boyfriend, Samuel L. Jackson as Snipes’ crackhead brother and Halle Berry (in her film debut) as Jackson’s girlfriend.  Jungle Fever also marked the debut of Queen Latifah as a movie actress.

Sciorra wasn’t happy with the finished film and refused to promote it.  According to Snipes:

She felt the movie should be about love. I agreed with Spike that it wasn’t about love, it was about what happens to two people of different backgrounds in a relationship. That was the movie. If you want to make Brian’s Song, then you do Brian’s Song.

Reviews for Jungle Fever were mostly positive.  Critics went gaga for the film at the Cannes Film Festival and many were surprised when it failed to take the top prize, the Palm d’Or.  Entertainment Weekly proclaimed Snipes “a major actor”.

Jungle Fever was a modest hit at the box office.  It debuted in third place behind Backdraft which had been in theaters for three weeks.  Once again, it should be noted it was playing in roughly one third as many theaters as the films in the top two spots.  It ended up grossing about $32 million dollars in the US which made it the highest-grossing movie of Lee’s career at that time.

Wesley Snipes - White Men Can't Jump - 1992
Wesley Snipes – White Men Can’t Jump – 1992

1992 was another big year for Snipes.  He started it off with another sports comedy, Ron Shelton’s White Men Can’t Jump.

White Men Can’t Jump reunited Snipes with his Wildcats co-star, Woody Harrelson.  Snipes and Harrelson played rival basketball hustlers who team up to play in a tournament with a $5,000 dollar prize.  Rosie Perez co-starred as Harrelson’s Jeopardy-obsessed girlfriend.

Originally, Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves were considered for the leads.  But Washington was committed to Malcolm X and Reeves, well, he couldn’t jump.  Reeves auditioned with Cylk Cozart who was up for Snipes’ role but eventually settled for a smaller part.  According to Cozart:

Keanu almost broke my neck going up for a layup. He was so wild. He was throwing the ball hard and throwing elbows. He didn’t know what he was doing.

According to Snipes, Reeves couldn’t keep up with the trash-talk either:

He would improvise and say something where there would be a natural response from me, and I just left him out there like dirty laundry.

When Washington turned down White Men Can’t Jump, Laurence Fishburne became the front-runner.  According to Shelton, Snipes was not on his radar:

No one knew who Wesley was. He was basically known as the other guy in Mo’ Better Blues, and no one had seen Mo’ Better Blues. Jungle Fever and New Jack City came out after I cast him… Wesley came in talking trash and was in character and had the attitude and the cockiness. I thought, ‘He’s got what it takes’.

Wesley Snipes - White Men Can't Jump - 1992
Wesley Snipes – White Men Can’t Jump – 1992

Shelton started pairing off his potential actors to see who had chemistry and who did not.

I put Woody and a couple of people he was up against — whose names I won’t mention — each in a room with Wesley, and Wesley blew the other guys off the map. Woody didn’t try to out-Wesley Wesley. He just countered. I was convinced immediately that it was a perfect piece of casting, and it was.

Both Snipes and Harrelson received a great deal of coaching to prepare for the role.  Harrelson had played basketball in college and bragged about his skills until coach Bob Lanier challenged him to a game of one-on-one.  Harrelson described the game as “the most embarrassing 15 minutes of my life”.

Snipes, on the other hand, wasn’t initially much of a ball player.  He was a better overall athlete than Harrelson, but Harrelson was generally considered to have more skill.  Snipes denied that Harrelson was the better player, “Every time Woody and I played one-on-one, I won. But he can whip me at surfing.”

Reviews were mostly positive and White Men Can’t Jump was a hit at the box office.  It opened in first place and ended up grossing more than $76 million dollars.  That made it the 16th highest-grossing movie of 1992 and cemented both Snipes’ and Harrelson’s status as movie stars.

Wesley Snipes - The Waterdance - 1992
Wesley Snipes – The Waterdance – 1992

Snipes followed up White Men Can’t Jump with a supporting role in the drama, The Waterdance.

Eric Stoltz played an author who breaks his neck while hiking.  He wakes to find himself in a rehabilitation center.  Snipes played a fellow patient who dreams of dancing on the surface of the water (thus the title).  Helen Hunt played Stoltz’s girlfriend who is struggling to deal with his new status quo.

Despite overwhelmingly positive reviews, The Waterdance never received a wide release.

snipes - passenger 57
Wesley Snipes – Passenger 57 – 1992

Later that year, Snipes kicked off the action movie phase of his career with the Die Hard ripoff, Passenger 57.

Snipes played a security expert whose plane gets hijacked by some very unlucky terrorists.  A then-unknon Elizabeth Hurley appeared as the lead terrorist’s henchwoman who disguises herself as a flight attendant.  Fortunately, Snipes evades the terrorist take-over with a well-timed trip to the bathroom.

Passenger 57 was originally written as a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone.  Snipes saw the movie as a chance to establish his action star credentials.  While he was filming Passenger 57, Snipes described himself as the youngest black actor in Hollywood to have serious star power:

Rarely have you seen a young black male in this type of powerful position, who can basically make or break a project.  Denzel had it to a degree, but he was still a little bit older when he peaked, and Eddie Murphy was really considered more of a comedian than an actor.

Critics panned Passenger 57 for the Die Hard rip-off it was.  But the movie was a modest hit in spite of the bad reviews.  It opened in first place at the box office and ended up grossing over $40 million dollars.  That may not sound like a huge take, but Passenger 57 opened on fewer screens than the number two movie of the week, Under Siege, which had already been in theaters for 5 weeks.

snipes - boiling point
Wesley Snipes – Boiling Point – 1993

In 1993, Snipes played a cop tracking Dennis Hopper in the thriller, Boiling Point.

Hopper portrayed a con artist who has recently been released from prison.  He recruits a hoodlum played by Viggo Mortensen to help him with his latest scam.  Mortensen accidentally kills an undercover cop played by Dan Hedaya who happens to be Snipes’ partner.  Snipes is about to be transferred to another precinct so he has only one week to exact his revenge.

Originally, the movie was titles Money Men and it was about Hopper’s character.  But when Warner Bros bought the movie’s distribution rights, they had it recut as an action movie about the cop played by Snipes and they changed the title to Boiling Point which they thought would be more commercial.

Boiling Point was panned by critics and flopped at the box office.  It opened in third place behind The Sandlot which was in its second week in theaters.  Boiling Point ended up grossing around $10 million dollars or roughly one-fourth of what Passenger 57 made the year before.

rising sun
Wesley Snipes – Rising Sun – 1993

Snipes followed up Boiling Point with the big screen adaptation of Michael Chrichton’s novel, Rising Sun.  

Snipes and Sean Connery played police officers who assist with a murder investigation.  The victim was a prostitute who was found dead during a party in the L.A. offices of a Japanese corporation.  Connery’s character is an expert in Japanese relations and the former partner of the investigating officer played by Harvey Keitel.

Chrichton clashed with the film’s director, Philip Kaufman over changes made to his original screenplay and the casting of Snipes as Connery’s partner.  Chrichton found the casting implausible because the special unit of the LAPD that Snipes’ character was supposed to work for didn’t have any black officers in real life.

The author and his co-writer on the screenplay left the project seven weeks into production after butting heads with Kaufman.  Kaufman downplayed reports that he and Chrichton didn’t get along:

From what I’d read, Crichton and I were supposed to be chasing each other with baseball bats around the block and all kinds of wild things that just never happened.

Despite the behind-the-scenes drama, Snipes and his co-star got along.

[Connery] was great. He liked me. I told him, ‘You ain’t nothing but a brother, anyway. There’s a black man somewhere in your family. You can tell by the way you walk, the color of your skin. The thing about Bond and why we ain’t got no problem with you, is because he whupped ass around the whole world, but he never went to Harlem.’

Rising Sun received mostly negative reviews from critics.  But audiences didn’t care.  It opened in first place at the box office and went on to gross over $60 million in the US.  Worldwide, Rising Sun grossed over $100 million dollars.

Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes - Demolition Man - 1993
Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes – Demolition Man – 1993

Later that year, Snipes took a bad guy turn opposite Sylvester Stallone in the sci-fi action-comedy Demolition Man.

Stallone played a cop who leaves a trail of destruction while pursuing a psychotic criminal played by Snipes. He catches the bad guy, but not before Snipes kills several hostages.  Both the cop and the killer are put into suspended animation for their crimes.   Thirty-six years later, Snipes escapes from prison.  In the future, society has gotten too soft to deal with violent criminals so Stallone is thawed out to track Snipes down.

Demolition Man was originally conceived as a vehicle for Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.  But neither of the action stars would agree to play the villain.  When they left, Stallone came on-board.  He asked his friend, Jackie Chan, to play the bad guy.  But Chan was worried that his Asian audience would be upset if he played a villain.  Meanwhile, the script went through several revisions.  Eventually, producer Joel Silver paid off everyone with a claim to having worked on the screenplay and brought on Daniel Waters to punch it up.  Waters mixed satire in with the action.

According to Snipes, he tried too hard to make a good first impression on Stallone:

I thought I had to prove myself to him. In our first fight scene, I’m thinking Sly,Rocky, Rambo, Cobra–my man is strong, he’s going to want to feel it. So I kicked him hard and he shouted “Cut!” And he said, “This is movies. You don’t have to really kick me.” From that moment on he started talking to me. I still call him now, ask him for advice.

Demolition Man received mixed reviews from critics.  Some appreciated the attempts at satire but many felt the humor was overshadowed by idiotic violence.  It opened in first place at the box office, but only managed to gross $58 million dollars in the US.  That was significantly less than Stallone’s other outing that year, Cliffhanger.

In 1993, Snipes was arrested after he got into an accident and paramedics found a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol in his possession.  Snipes plead no contest to the charges but down-played the incident to the press:

It was a five-shot James Bond gun, know what I’m saying? And it was exposed. A concealed weapon is against the law, but an exposed weapon is not.

snipes - sugar hill
Wesley Snipes – Sugar Hill – 1994

After a string of action movies, Snipes was looking for a more dramatic role.  He found that in the crime drama, Sugar Hill.

Snipes played a drug dealer who wants to go straight.  But business entanglements and family relationships make it challenging for him to start a new life with his girlfriend.

Sugar Hill was written by New Jack City screenwriter, Barry Michael Cooper.  Snipes was immediately interested in playing the lead, but the studios thought the script was a downer.  Eventually, Sugar Hill was produced as an indie and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox.  Snipes received his highest paycheck to date at $2.5 million dollars which was 25% of the movie’s budget.

Reviews were universally negative.  Critics complained that it ripped off a bunch of other, better crime movies without doing anything new.  It opened in third place at the box office behind On Deadly Ground which was in its second week in theaters.  However, Sugar Hill was playing on just over 800 screens.  Its per screen average was twice as high as the top two movies.  Ultimately, it grossed just over $18 million dollars on a $10 million dollar budget.

snipes - drop zone
Wesley Snipes – Drop Zone – 1994

Later that year, Snipes starred opposite Gary Busey and Yancy Butler in John Badham’s sky-diving action movie, Drop Zone.

Busey played the leader of a group of sky-diving criminals who hack government files on undercover agents so they can sell them to drug lords.  Snipes played a federal marshal whose brother was killed as a result.  He enlists the help of a skydiving instructor played by Butler to teach him to sky dive so he can take down the bad guys,

Drop Zone was originally intended to star Steven Seagal.  But Seagal dropped out to make Under Siege II instead.  Drop Zone ended up in a race to theaters with the similarly themed Charlie Sheen movie, Terminal Velocity.  When Paramount realized they couldn’t beat Terminal Velocity to theaters, they took a little extra time filming and moved Drop Zone into a holiday slot.

Snipes says he learned to love sky diving, but it didn’t start out that way:

The first time I jumped from a plane, I screamed like a woman. I was two miles up and you could hear me clear as day. Now I love it.

Reviews were negative, but that’s to be expected.  What was more concerning is that Drop Zone opened at #3 at the box office behind Disclosure and The Santa Clause.  The Santa Clause was in the fifth week of its theatrical run.  It’s one thing for a little movie like Sugar Hill to under perform.  But if you are trying to be a big action hero, you have to open a movie like Drop Zone better than that.  It ultimately grossed just over half of its production budget.  On the upside, it outperformed Terminal Velocity.

Snipes once again made headlines for a run-in with the police.  This time, Snipes lead a state trooper in Florida on a 120-mph chase.  Snipes eventually lost control of his motorcycle and was thrown from it.  Snipes suffered only minor injuries and claimed he was unaware he was being pursued:

You don’t hear a siren when you’ve got a helmet on and are going 120 miles per hour on a motorcycle. I was going straight ahead like a rocket in a Kawasaki ZX-II with no rearview mirror. As I went to get off the exit I leaned into the turn and the police car came screeching around the corner and I saw the lights. Then the bike sat up, took me off line and into the grass. I rolled off and two seconds later the police car hit the motorcycle and dragged it 150 yards. I could have been killed.

Ultimately, Snipes pleaded no contest to reckless driving charges.  He was fined $500, ordered to perform 80 hours of community service and placed on six months probation.

As Snipes’ career was heating up, he decided to fire his long-term manager, Dolores Robinson.  According to one of Snipes’ former employees, the actor’s ego was getting out of control:

He fired his manager as soon as he hit it big. A black woman who’d fought hard to get him everything and he dropped her the minute it got really good.

Robinson ended up suing Snipes for back wages and the actor countersued.  He claimed she was working as his agent illegally.  Snipes’ counter-suit was dismissed.  The case against him was settled out of court.  According to Robinson:

At some point he started caring more about the money and less about the roles.  He felt like the studio wasn’t giving him the money that he deserved.

snipes - to wong foo
Wesley Snipes – To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar – 1995

In 1995, Snipes returned to comedy as a drag queen in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

Patrick Swayze, Snipes and John Leguizamo, three actors who typically play tough guys, went against type to play three drag queens travel from New York to Hollywood to compete in a pageant.

The actors were submitted to long hair and make-up sessions which apparently put them in a bad mood.  Swayze objected to Leguizamo’s improvisations and things became heated.  The two tough guys nearly came to blows on the set while wearing full drag.  According to Leguizamo, Snipes encouraged him to take a swing at Swayze and whispered “I got your back.”

As soon as filming was done, the actors burned their dresses and wigs.  Snipes makes it sound like a cathartic experience:

It was a cremation. There would be no sequel.

Critics compared Too Wong Foo unfavorably to the Australian drag queen road picture, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.   Many critics complained that the movie took its message of tolerance a little too seriously and ended up being preachy when it should have been funny.  Snipes agreed:

Some of it was funny, but it could have been funnier. Getting off into the direction that this be a moral movie and there be a message – please. This was about drag queens. They live a flamboyant life and we should just chronicle that.

To Wong Foo opened in first place at the box office.  But even with that strong start, it ended up grossing around $36 million dollars.  That’s not terrible.  In fact, post Ghost, To Wong Foo is the second-highest-grossing movie of Swayze’s career not far behind Point Break.  It earned almost as much as Drop Zone and Sugar Hill put together.  But if To Wong Foo can be a considered a hit, it’s a modest one at best.

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Wesley Snipes – The Money Train – 1995

Later that year, Snipes attempted to rebound by reteaming with Harrleson for the action/comedy, Money Train.

Snipes and Harrelson played foster brothers who work as transit cops patrolling the New York City subway.  Harrelson has $15,000 worth of gambling debts he needs to pay off.  Desperate for money, the two brothers team up with a sexy transit cop played by Jennifer Lopez to rob the money train.

If Money Train is remembered at all, it’s for the steamy sex scene between Snipes and Lopez.  Lopez later complained that Harrelson and Snipes were constantly hitting on her during filming.  She said Harrelson was funny about it, but Snipes took the come-ons to another level:

Wesley–even though I had a boyfriend at the time–went full court press. He was flirting with me–you always flirt with your costars, it’s harmless–then he just started getting a little more serious. He would invite us all out together and then at the end of the night, he’d drop me off last and try to kiss me. I’d be like, ‘Wesley, please, I’m not interested in you like that.’ He got really upset about it. His ego was totally bruised. He wouldn’t talk to me for two months. I was like, ‘What an asshole.’ Actors are used to getting their way and to treating women like objects. They’re so used to hearing the word ‘Yes.’

Snipes responded to Lopez’s accusations:

What happened was, she had never done a love scene before. She was absolutely terrified. I was given instructions from the director to make her feel good. That was my job… I tried to make her comfortable – took her to dinner, talked. I knew people would look at the screen and say either, “They have chemistry,” or, “They don’t.” I told her, if she took my advice we’d do a wonderful, erotic scene. And if it wasn’t a good love scene, they’d edit around her and throw it on the floor. And that’s exactly what happened. She tried to make it seem like I was using the craft just to get into her pants, and that really offended me. That’s why I didn’t say nothin’ to her.

Wesley Snipes - Money Train - 1995
Wesley Snipes – Money Train – 1995

In latter interviews, Lopez changed her tune a little over Money Train.  She expressed regret about having agreed to film the sex scene, but described Snipes as being professional and even encouraging:

When you first start working professionally, you push the boundaries of what you should and shouldn’t do, and I didn’t think I had the right to say no, like, ‘No, I’m not doing this, and that’s it…’ So we did it and it was tough. Wesley was wonderful about it in the sense that he was like, ‘What’s gonna make you more comfortable?’

Two days after Money Train opened, two men poured petrol over a ticket booth on the Brooklyn subway and set it on fire.  This act was similar to a scene from the movie.  Unfortunately, a booth attendant was burned and later died as a result.  The New York subway workers called for a boycott of the movie and were supported by senator Bob Dole.  But Columbia refused to bow to political pressure.

Critics panned Money Train.  Audiences weren’t won over either.  The movie opened in fourth place at the box office behind Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls which had been in theaters for three weeks already.  It ended up grossing $35 million dollars in the US – roughly half of what White Men Can’t Jump earned.

Wesley Snipes - Waiting to Exhale - 1995
Wesley Snipes – Waiting to Exhale – 1995

Snipes ended the year with an uncredited cameo appearance in the big screen adaptation of Terry McMillan’s novel, Waiting to Exhale.  The movie was directed by Forest Whitaker and featured a cast that consisted predominantly of African American women which is still a rarity.  Snipes played a husband whose wife is dying from breast cancer.  He meets Angela Bassett’s character in a bar and end up getting a room together where they lie in bed fully clothed and talk.

Waiting to Exhale wasn’t just a hit.  Despite mixed reviews, it became a cultural phenomenon.  Snipes’ role was small, but it reinforced his image as the leading African-American movie star of the day.

Wesley Snipes - America's Dream - 1996
Wesley Snipes – America’s Dream – 1996

In 1996, Snipes appeared in an anthology movie for HBO.  America’s Dream consisted of three short stories by prominent African-American writers.  Snipes starred in the second segment, The Boy Who Painted Christ Black.  Snipes played a principal at a school in Georgia in 1948.  One of his students paints a picture that portrays Christ as a black man.  Snipes’ character has to decide whether or not to submit the painting to a state-wide competition knowing that doing so will cost him a promotion.

the fan
Wesley Snipes – The Fan – 1996

In 1996, Snipes starred opposite Robert DeNiro in the Tony Scott thriller, The Fan.

Snipes played a three-time MVP baseball player who has recently joined the San Francisco Giants.  De Niro played an obsessive fan who sells hunting knives for a living.  When Snipes’ character has an off-season, De Niro tries to support his favorite player.  But he ends up taking things way too far.

Snipes originally wanted to play the stalker rather than the athlete.  He later commented that he thought the movie would have been better if he and De Niro had switched roles:

People came away from the movie saying, ‘We’ve seen De Niro do that before.’

Critics agreed with Snipes.  They panned The Fan as a retread.  It opened in fourth place at the box office behind A Time to Kill which had been in theaters for four weeks.  The Fan ended up grossing less than $20 million dollars on a budget north of $50 million.

snipes - murder at 1600
Wesley Snipes – Murder at 1600 – 1997

In 1997, Snipes starred opposite Diane Lane in the political thriller, Murder at 1600.

Snipes played a homicide detective investigating the death of a young White House staffer.  When Snipes begins to suspect a cover-up, he enlists the help of a secret service agent played by Lane.

The movie, which was the adaptation of a novel written by President Harry S. Truman’s daughter, received negative reviews and opened in third place at the box office.  It was beaten by Anaconda and Liar, Liar which was in its fifth week of release.  It’s final gross was around $25 million.

Snipes - One Night Stand
Wesley Snipes – One Night Stand – 1997

Later that year, Snipes starred opposite former model Nastassja Kinski, former FBI agent Kyle MacLachlan, future agent of SHIELD Ming-Na Wen and future Iron Man Robert Downey, Jr. in Mike Figgis’ drama, One Night Stand.

Snipes played a LA ad man who visits his ailing friend in New York.  Downey played the friend who has been diagnosed with A.I.D.S.  While in New York, Snipes’ character has a one night stand with Kinski.  Afterwards, he returns home to his wife played by Wen.  A year later, Snipes returns to New York to see Downey again before he dies.  He meets Kinski again, but now she is married to MacLachlan.

New Line paid screenwriter Joe Eszterhas a record-breaking $4 million dollars for the script.  Joe Eszterhas’ script has been described as “a series of loosely-connected sex scenes” which is a phrase that describes the vast majority of his work.  Additionally, New Line promised $7 million dollars to director Adrian Lyne who had a track record with edgy fare like Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal.

Lyne backed out to direct a remake of Lolita instead.  So New Line approached Figgis who had recently had a hit with Leaving Las Vegas.  Figgis claimed he was nearly broke at the time and accepted the $2.5 million dollar payday on teh condition that he be allowed to rewrite the script New Line had paid record-breaking sums for.  Eszterhas, who had suggested Figgis for the job after Lyne backed out, had his name removed from the final film.

Snipes said he found it difficult to relate to certain aspects of his character.  “There are things in the script that are completely implausible to me.”  Specifically, Snipes found it hard to believe that a guy would return to a woman he had a one night stand with a year later to pick up where they left off.   “If it was a brother writing that story, that shit would not be happening.”

One Night Stand got terrible reviews and grossed a paltry $2 million dollars on a $24 million dollar budget.  Of course $4 million of that was wasted on a script that wasn’t used…  Snipes did win Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival which he said was “significant, because people see me as the action guy, and think that I can’t do it.”

US Marshalls
Wesley Snipes – U.S. Marshals – 1998

In 1998, Snipes co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones in the sequel to The Fugitive, U.S. Marshals.

Jones reprised his role as US Marshal Gerard.  Once again he assembles his team including Robert Downey Jr and Joe Pantoliano to track down a fugitive who probably isn’t guilty.  But if we don’t chase him, there won’t be a movie.  So Jones and the gang chase after Snipes who played a wrongfully accused tow truck driver.

At the time, Downey was still dealing with his substance abuse issues.  Towards the end of filming, he disappeared for a few days.  The only scenes that remained to be filmed involved his character, so the cast and crew waited a few days for Downey to return.  When he did, he offered no explanation or apology for his absence.  Shortly after U.S. Marshals was released, Downey eviscerated the movie in an interview:

It’s possibly the worst action movie of all time, and that’s just not good for the maintenance of a good spiritual condition.

Critics also disliked the movie.  U.S. Marshals opened in second place at the box office behind Titanic which had been in theaters for a staggering 12 weeks by that point and somehow still held on to the top spot.  (Leomania was a thing.)  It ended up grossing under $60 million in the US which is about one-third of what the first movie earned.

blade
Wesley Snipes – Blade – 1998

Later that year, Snipes starred in the movie that would redefine his career, Blade.

Snipes played a half-human, half-vampire who has all of the powers of being a vampire without any of their weaknesses.  Believing that his human mother was killed by a vampire, Snipes teams up with a vampire hunter played by Kris Kristofferson to kill every vampire he can find.  Stephen Dorff played the villain who seeks to enslave humanity

Blade came about at a time when movies based on comic books were not popular.  After high profile flops like Batman and Robin, Steel, The Phantom and The Shadow, Hollywood wasn’t keen on superheroes.  Originally, Blade was developed as a horror spoof.  But writer David Goyer sold New Line on making a serious action-horror movie.

The movie’s first cut was almost two and a half hours long and audiences hated it.  The release date was pushed back six months to accommodate reshoots.  The biggest change was to the ending which originally involved Dorff’s character turning into a CGI blood monster.  But the effects weren’t there yet and the blood monster looked silly.  So a new ending was shot in which Dorff and Snipes have a sword fight and no one turns into a red blob of CGI.

Reviews were mostly negative.  A lot of critics objected to the outrageous blood and violence.  Others complained that the script was pedestrian.  But Ebert and Siskel both endorsed Blade with two thumbs up.  Audiences made Blade a hit at the box office.  It opened in first place and grossed $70 million dollars in the US.  It did nearly as well overseas which put the worldwide gross over $130 million.

Wesley Snipes - Future Sport - 1998
Wesley Snipes – Future Sport – 1998

In 1998, Snipes began working heavily as a producer.  In addition to producing Blade, he also served as a producer on the Mark Wahlberg movie, The Big Hit and the TV movie, Futuresport.  Dean Cain starred as a contestant in a competition called “futuresport” which is a weird thing to call a sport that is being played in the character’s present day and the audience’s future.  The TV Superman teamed with Snipes and Vanessa Williams to take down terrorist in a competition that combines basketball, hover-boards, hockey, roller-blades and probably synchronized swimming.

Wesley Snipes - Down in the Delta - 1998
Wesley Snipes – Down in the Delta – 1998

Snipes also produced and appeared in the drama, Down in the Delta.  Alfre Woodard starred as woman with a drug problem who moves back to her ancestral home to get in touch with her roots.  What makes Down in the Delta notable is that it was directed by legendary poet, Maya Angelou.  Snipes described what it was like to work with her:

You humble yourself when you’re around her, but at the same time I was the producer of our film. I’m still trying to get over the shock of being directed by Maya Angelou… She’s the Queen Mother, but she knew how to come in and say, ‘What do you think, Mr. Producer?’

Down in the Delta was well-received by critics who praised Woodard’s central performance.  Despite positive reviews, it received a limited release in theaters.

The_Art_Of_War_2287_Medium
Wesley Snipes – The Art of War – 2000

In 2000, Snipes produced and starred in the Canadian-American espionage flick, The Art of War.

Snipes played a superspy who gets caught up in an international conspiracy involving a trade agreement with China.  Anne Archer played his boss, Michael Biehn played his partner and Donald Sutherland played the UN Secretary General.  When terrorists frame Snipes, he has to run from his former allies in order to prevent World War III.

The Art of War received terrible reviews and flopped at the box office.  It opened in second place behind Bring It On and ended up grossing about half of its $60 million dollar budget in the US.  And yet there were two direct-to-video sequels released in 2008 and 2009.

Wesley Snipes - Disappearing Acts - 2000
Wesley Snipes – Disappearing Acts – 2000

Later that year, Snipes starred in and produced the romantic drama, Disappearing Acts.  The HBO movie was based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Terry McMillan.  Snipes played a construction worker who becomes romantically involved with a school teacher played by Sanaa Lathan.  Lathan played Snipes’ mother two years earlier in Blade.  Paging Dr. Freud!

Blade-2-sewer
Wesley Snipes – Blade II – 2002

In 2002, Snipes reprised his role as the Daywalker in the sequel, Blade II.

The sequel finds Blade teaming up with the vampires he has spent his life hunting in order to stop a new breed of super vampires that threaten humans and vamps alike.  Despite being killed off in the first movie, Kris Kristofferson returned.  Ron Perlman played a vampire who challenges Blade and Norman Reedus played Snipe’s new sidekick.

Writer David Goyer had ambitious plans for the Blade sequel.  He wanted to send Blade into a future where vampires had taken over.  It was described as Planet of the Apes but with vampires.  Unfortunately, this concept proved to be too expensive.  So Goyer and Snipes – who also served as a producer – settled on the script that eventually became Blade II.

Stephen Norrington who directed the first film did not want to return to the series.  So Guillermo del Toro was brought on board.  According to del Toro, Snipes had the final say on how Blade was portrayed:

Wesley knows Blade better than David Goyer, better than me, better than anyone else involved in the franchise.  He instinctively knows what the character would and wouldn’t do, and every time he twists something around, something better would come out.

Reviews were mostly negative, but most critics agreed the sequel was an improvement over the first film.  Blade II opened in first place at the box office and grossed over $80 million dollars in the US making it the most successful movie in the franchise and the highest-grossing movie in Snipes’ career.

snipes - liberty stands still
Wesley Snipes – Liberty Stands Still – 2002

Later that year, Snipes starred opposite Linda Fiorentino in the thriller, Liberty Stands Still.

Fiorentino played an executive at a company that manufactures guns.  Snipes played a war hero who lost his daughter in a school shooting.  He takes Fiorentino hostage to teach her a lesson about gun control.  And yes, her character’s name is Liberty and she stands still because she is handcuffed to a bench.

Liberty Stands Still premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival where it received mostly negative reviews.  Snipes and Fiorentino were praised for their performances, but critics didn’t care for the movie they were starring in.  The movie was intended to receive a theatrical release but was released direct-to video instead.  We’ll be seeing more of that going forward.

Wesley Snipes - Zig Zag - 2002
Wesley Snipes – Zig Zag – 2002

Snipes had a supporting role in Blade writer David Goyer’s directorial debut, Zig Zag.  Zig Zag was about an autistic teen who steals money from his boss to pay the rent.  Snipes played the boy’s abusive father.  John Leguizamo played the boys mentor in a “big brother” program who also has terminal cancer.  Oliver Platt and Natasha Lyonne co-starred.  Zig Zag received mostly negative reviews and played in only one theater.  It seems pretty obvious that Snipes’ involvement was a favor to his partner in the Blade franchise.  I wonder how much longer their friendship will endure.  (When does Blade 3 come out?)

snipes - undisputed
Wesley Snipes – Undisputed – 2002

In 2002, Snipes starred opposite Ving Rhames in Walter Hill’s prison boxing movie, Undisputed.  Rhames played a boxing champion who is sent to prison after being convicted of rape.  (Sound familiar?)  Snipes played a modest inmate who is undefeated in the prison boxing ring.

Hill approached Snipes before the script was even finished.  Snipes was interested in the story and said he would be willing to play either role.  Later, Hill sent the script to Rhames who was interested in playing the Mike Tyson-inspired role.  Snipes agreed to play the other part.

Undisputed received mixed reviews and took a dive at the box office.  It opened in 8th place behind Austin Powers 3 which had been in theaters for five weeks.  It ended up grossing around $12 million dollars on a $20 million dollar budget making it an undisputed flop.

Wesley Snipes - The Bernie Mac Show - 2003
Wesley Snipes – The Bernie Mac Show – 2003

After a very busy year in 2002, Snipes slowed down a bit the following year.  He had a guest spot on the sitcom, The Bernie Mac Show.  Snipes played Bernie’s wife’s boss.  Comedy ensues when Bernie brings his nieces and nephews to visit his wife at the office.

snipes - unstoppable
Wesley Snipes – Unstoppable – 2004

In 2004, Snipes starred in the direct-to-video movie, Unstoppable.

Snipes played an ex-CIA agent who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after a botched mission in Bosnia which resulted in the death of his best friend.  While he is waiting to meet his girlfriend, he is abducted by thieves who have mistaken him for an active CIA agent.  They inject him with a drug that causes him to hallucinate about the failed mission.

blade trinity
Wesley Snipes – Blade: Trinity – 2004

Once again, Snipes relied on the Blade franchise to revive his flagging career.  But this time, the result was drastically different.  2004’s Blade: Trinity was the directed by David Goyer, the writer of all of the Blade films.  The movie would prove to be a power struggle between writer/director Goyer and star/producer Snipes.

In the third Blade movie, the Daywalker must join forces with a group of vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers.  Scene-stealing motormouth Ryan Reynolds and hot girl in leather Jessica Biel played Blade’s new allies.  They are united against the ultimate vampire, Dracula himself.  The vampires who revive Dracula hope to use his blood to eliminate their weaknesses.

Goyer pitched his vampire apocalypse idea again.  And again it was deemed both too dark and too expensive.  Guillermo del Toro was offered the opportunity to direct the sequel, but passed to make Hellboy instead.  Stephen Norrington was also offered the chance to return to the franchise.  But he didn’t like Goyer’s script and passed.  Ironically, Goyer’s lackluster script for Blade 3 got him hired as a director because no one else wanted the job.

Both Snipes Kris Kristofferson were unhappy with Blade: Trinity.  They felt like all the new characters were crowding their characters out of their own franchise.  They suspected that Goyer intended to use Blade 3 as a means to launch a new series based around the Nightstalkers played by Reynolds and Biel.  Snipes actually filed a lawsuit against New Line Cinema and Goyer.  He claimed he was squeezed out of the film creatively and that his role as producer was marginalized.  According to Snipes, this hurt the box office performance of Blade 3.

blade - patton oswalt
Blade Trinity – 2004

Comedian/actor Patton Oswald had a small part in Blade Trinity and described the experience as follows:

It was a very troubled production. Wesley was just fucking crazy in a hilarious way. He wouldn’t come out of his trailer, and he would smoke weed all day…  Then I remember one day on the set—they let everyone pick their own clothes—there was one black actor who was also kind of a club kid. And he wore this shirt with the word “Garbage” on it in big stylish letters. It was his shirt. And Wesley came down to the set, which he only did for close-ups. Everything else was done by his stand-in. I only did one scene with him. But he comes on and goes, “There’s only one other black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ You racist motherfucker!”

So we went out that night to some strip club, and we were all drinking. And there were a bunch of bikers there, so David says to them, “I’ll pay for all your drinks if you show up to set tomorrow and pretend to be my security.” Wesley freaked out and went back to his trailer.

And the next day, Wesley sat down with David and was like, “I think you need to quit. You’re detrimental to this movie.” And David was like, “Why don’t you quit? We’ve got all your close-ups, and we could shoot the rest with your stand-in.” And that freaked Wesley out so much that, for the rest of the production, he would only communicate with the director through Post-it notes. And he would sign each Post-it note “From Blade.”

A lot of the lines that Ryan Reynolds has were just a result of Wesley not being there. We would all just think of things for him to say and then cut to Wesley’s face not doing anything because that’s all we could get from him. It was kind of funny. We were like, “What are the worst jokes and puns that we can say to this guy?” And then it would just be his face going, “Mmm.”

After the movie finished shooting, Snipes sent a five-page letter to the founder of New Line complaining about the way he was treated by Goyer.  One of Snipes’ former employees claimed that was the final straw:

He shot himself in the foot big time with that letter.  The Hollywood machine works a certain way and no one actor is going to change that. From that point on Wesley could only really make independent films and straight-to-video films for the most part.

Critics panned Blade: Trinity and it flopped at the box office.  It opened in second place behind Ocean’s Twelve.  The movie ended up grossing about $52 million dollars making it the worst-performing entry in the series.  That was enough to effectively kill the Blade franchise.  If a Nightstalkers series was planned, it died too.  Snipes’ lawsuit against New Line and Goyer was settled out of court.

Around this time, Snipes was embroiled in some bizarre proceedings.  A crack addict had filed a paternity suit against Snipes back in 2002.  Ultimately, it was determined that Snipes was not the father.  But the case made headlines because the actor refused to show up for court hearings or take a paternity test.  In a way, Snipes’ refusal to play along is understandable seeing as how he knew he was not the father of the woman’s child.  But as a result of his non-participation, the issue dragged on for several years.

Snipes also ran afoul of the powerful William Morris Agency which filed a claim against him for half a million dollars that they claimed they were owed by the actor.  Eventually, Snipes paid back the money and the issue was settled.  Additionally, Snipes had his $1.7 million dollar mansion in Florida auctioned off for half of what he paid for it.  Snipes contested the sale of the house claiming that his signature was forged.  But his claims were dismissed by the courts and the sale went through.

Snipes - IRS

But Snipes’ legal turmoil was just getting started.

In 2005, Snipes was detained at OR Tambo International Airport for attempting to leave South Africa using a fraudulent South African passport.  And in 2006, Snipes’ entanglements with the IRS started up.

Snipes was charged with one count of knowingly making or aiding and abetting the making of a false and fraudulent claim for payment against the United States.  He was also charged with six counts of willfully failing to file federal income tax returns by their filing dates.  Snipes also faced a conspiracy charge for filing a false amended tax return for 1996 which included a $4 million dollar tax refund and another return in 1997 which included a $7.3 million dollar return.

According to the IRS, Snipes was filing fraudulent claims as a form of protest.  They claim Snipes subscribed to the  “861 argument” which suggests that  the domestic income of U.S. citizens and residents is not taxable.  Turns out, it totally is!  Who knew?  Apparently not Snipes.  Snipes failed to file from 1999-2004.  You have to think the government is going to notice that.

Snipes - Acquitted

Snipes responded to the government charges with a letter in 2006.  He claimed he was being made an example of because of his fame.  Snipes also claimed that he was a non-resident alien.  It was an assertion that his birth record did not support.  But you have to give him credit for trying.

In 2008, Snipes was acquitted of the felony charges.  His co-defendants were convicted instead.  But Snipes was found guilty on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file federal income tax returns.  On April 24, 2008, Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison for willful failure to file federal income tax returns.

snipes - reports to fed prison

Snipes reported to federal prison on December 9, 2010.  He was serving a three-year sentence at  McKean Federal Correctional Institution, a federal prison in Pennsylvania.  Snipes appealed his case all the way to the US Supreme Court.  On June 6, 2011, the Supreme Court declined his appeal.

File photo of actor Wesley Snipes pumping his fists to his fans while leaving the federal court house in Ocala

Snipes was released on April 2, 2013.

During those years, Snipes had done irreparable harm to his career.  He had spent years as a tax exile which resulted in him starring in a string of direct-to-video action flicks.  His last mainstream Hollywood movie was Blade: Trinity in 2004.  And his last hit was Blade II over a decade earlier.

Snipes - Expendables 3
Wesley Snipes – The Expendables 3 – 2014

Fortunately, Snipes had a job waiting for him when he got out.  His old Demolition Man co-star was saving him a seat in the 2014 action sequel, The Expendables 3.

This was the first film in the Expendables series to receive a PG-13 rating.  After a public falling out with Stallone over his salary, Bruce Willis dropped out of the picture and was replaced by Harrison Ford.  Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas and Kelsey Grammer also joined the cast.

Reviews were bad and the movie opened in third place at the box office.  A few weeks before the official release date, The Expendables 3 was leaked on the internet.  That had to hurt its prospects at the box office.  Also, it was facing stiffer-than-usual for late summer competition from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Guardians of the Galaxy both of which over-performed.

It’s too early to say whether or not this is a franchise killer for The Expendables.  Dozens of aging action heroes hope it isn’t.  But if Snipes was hoping that his appearance in the franchise would spark a comeback, it didn’t.

In 2014, Snipes began talking about returning Blade.  Rumors swirled that he might star in Blade 4.  By this point, New Line had allowed the rights to the character to revert to Marvel.  According to Snipes, he had been in talks with Marvel to possibly reprise the role.

Is Blade 4 likely to happen?  I wouldn’t bet on it.  I don’t doubt that Marvel agreed to meet with Snipes and hear him out.  But Marvel has mapped out a pretty elaborate plan for box office domination.  And a fourth Blade movie in the old Snipes series seems like a really odd fit for their family-friendly brand.

So what the hell happened?

According to Snipes’ former employee, Snipes’ ego got the better of him.  When he was an up-and-coming actor, Snipes befriended guys like Harrelson and Caruso who helped him get work.  But as he grew more and more successful, Snipes surrounded himself with an entourage of yes-men.  According to Snipes’ former manager, he lost perspective:

“Actors get to the point where somebody is saying no, no, no, but that is a little squeaky voice in the wilderness.  Everyone else around them, people who are really taking from them, are saying yes, yes, yes. The person telling you no, no, no is suddenly the enemy.”

There’s no delicate way to put this, but race was clearly a factor.  Coming up, Snipes was told point blank that he was “too dark” to be a movie star.  Studios weren’t shy about comparing his skin tone unfavorably with that of Denzel Washington.  And then of course there was the incident in which Snipes was pulled over for driving while black.  If Snipes had to deal with those kind of issues on his way up, you can bet he dealt with them on his way back down as well.

Some have speculated that Snipes, who very openly professed to a preference for Asian women over women of his own race, alienated himself from the black community as well.  A publicist who knows Snipes well commented:

Wesley is a treasure, and it would be nice if he were connected to the black community in a more public way.

In an interview with Ebony magazine, Snipes offended many readers with comments that repeatedly reinforced negative stereotypes about black women.  When the article ran, Snipes began receiving hate mail and even death threats.

But the nail in Snipes’ movie star coffin has to be the tax issue and his resulting incarceration.  Although Snipes is now a free man, he hasn’t starred in a hit movie in well over a decade.  Young audiences don’t know who he is.  And his older fans have moved on.

The fall, Snipes will have a chance to start winning some of those fans back.  He will be starring in a new show on NBC called The Player.  Whether or not the show will be enough to reverse Snipes’ fortunes remains to be seen.

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sean1966
11 years ago

Great article! Kinda sad that his ‘best’ movie was Blade.
But, hey, when Snipes gets done with his prison ‘tickle fights’ (by that, I mean rape) we can have a Blade 4! Yayyy!

gg
gg
10 years ago
Reply to  sean1966

Seriously? That’s an issue to joke about.

sean1966
11 years ago

You are probably right, but I was kidding about Blade 4. I saw Blade in the theater and kinda liked it at the time. Silly old me.
I really enjoy your ‘what the hell happened’ posts. You’ve reminded me how much I used to look forward to flicks with actors like Val Kilmer (douche canoe) or Elizabeth Shue (such a hottie back in ’95)
Which in turn reminds me how friggin’ old I am. So…thanks for that.

CL Rafetto
CL Rafetto
11 years ago

Thanks for the info about Wesley Snipes. Sitting here watching Major League wondering…”what the hell happened to him?” now I know.

Danielle Charney
Danielle Charney
11 years ago

I was wondering that myself of late, although I knew he was in prison- absurd- I know many who never file, no one has bothered them- I remember a movie- just tried to recognize it on IMBD and couldn’t find it- where he plays a slacker who moves in a rather straight woman who gets fed up with his flakiness – it was a small film with him playing a forcibly contained, yet explosive character- emotionally – he was great- I am not a big action movie person except for the odd film or late at night if nothing else… Read more »

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

wesley played a great villian in demolition man. i loved us marshals, rising sun, money train, blade, murder at 1600, passenger 57 and white man can’t jump.

tbob1
11 years ago

Gotta admit I enjoyed some of his lesser titles: Murder at 1600, Rising Sun, Art of War. I have all of them in my collection; they’re good popcorn, filler flicks when nothing else is happening. The Blade trilogy was decent and came before the explosion and popularity of the whole vampire genre which at this time has been wayyyy over done. Blade probably kicked the whole thing off in the first place. Always good to be first. Anyway, he puts out a decent movie most of the time. His tax issues were nutty; even with bad advice he’s a grown… Read more »

Marti
Marti
11 years ago

I’d have to say that To Wong Fu was Wesley Snipes’ best movie because it was a role entirely out of the spectrum from which he typically played. I think the Blade series may have been his most successful movies, but not really his best work. I do appreciate you sharing all of his work though; it’ll make it easier for me to add all of his movies to my Blockbuster @Home queue. It’s funny that I was talking about Snipes to the security guard at the Dish call center I work at, and neither of us could figure out… Read more »

Chris
Chris
11 years ago

Murder at 1600…I watched about 5 minutes of it, and had to switch it off, it was sooo bad.

Chris
Chris
11 years ago

“Jungle Fever”, one of his best dramatic performances, and loved him in “White Men Can’t Jump”. I guess he learned nothing from Willie Nelson’s troubles with the IRS..

Kennair.
Kennair.
10 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I only just found out about your great blog a couple of days ago. Very entertaining. I have another story along the lines of the Patton Oswald story:
An acquaintance from college went on to Hollywood to do CGI work in movies. His first jobs were the titles for “Batman Forever”, the cold-breath work for “Titanic”, and a bunch of work for “Blade”. He wasn’t too impressed with the movie, and the oddest thing about it was that Wesley Snipes refused to get wet. It was his job to digitally add blood on Mr. Snipes.

Paul M
Paul M
11 years ago

Thanks for the article. Very informative and entertaining. When i googled ‘ what happened to Wesley Snipes’, i got all the information and more. So thankyou again 🙂

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago

Mathew “Film Brain” Buck’s “Bad Movie Beatdown” of “Blade Trinity”:
http://blip.tv/film-brain/blade-3-bmb-6308072
Buck even did a whole “Bad Movie Beatdown” month of Wesley Snipes’ movies.

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago

10 Actors Who Are Certifiably Insane: http://whatculture.com/film/10-actors-who-are-certifiably-insane.php/3 8. Wesley Snipes It’s well documented that in recent times Wesley Snipes hasn’t been too hot on paying his taxes – hence him preparing to finish up a custodial sentence for it this July – but that isn’t exactly a sign you’re going nuts. However, Snipes’ behaviour on the set of his last big film, Blade: Trinity, certainly is; comedian Patton Oswalt reported that Snipes kept in character as Blade for the entirety of the shoot, which is rather at odds with the fact that he refused to come out of his trailer… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

The 5 Most Hilarious Actor Meltdowns Behind Famous Movies:
http://www.cracked.com/article_20487_the-5-most-hilarious-actor-meltdowns-behind-famous-movies.html/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage
#4. Wesley Snipes Gets Stoned, Strangles the Director of Blade 3

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

COMMENTARY TRACKS OF THE DAMNED:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/blade-trinity,30328/
Crimes:
Wasting the goodwill earned by the previous two Blade films on a muddled, poorly shot, tediously scripted mess
Taking nearly two hours to never get to a point
Using Dracula, the biggest vampire cliché in a genre full of really big clichés, as the main villain, and giving him lines like “Blade, ready to die?”
Replacing You’ve Got Mail as the low point in Parker Posey’s cinematic career

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

Superhero Rewind: Blade Trinity Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wKFMLDptyw
“Blade Trinity,” (2004). Wesley Snipes, Jessica Biel. Directed by David Goyer.

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

THE TOP 5 CAREER MISSTEPS: http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/70450 Bryan Kristopowitz 3. Wesley Snipes/David Goyer – Blade: Trinity (2004) This movie, of course, pretty much destroyed the Blade movie franchise, and while I mostly blame director/screenwriter Goyer for the flick’s absolute total failure of the movie to be any good (the only thing he got “right” in the movie were the action scenes, but even they couldn’t help the movie succeed), Snipes, as the star and a producer, should have never signed off on Goyer as the director. But at least Snipes tried to make a good movie. Sadly, after the flick’s failure,… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago

FRC Fallen Icon #1 – Wesley Snipes: http://www.frontroomcinema.com/frc-fallen-icon-1-wesley-snipes/ But where is he now? Unfortunately for the star his life turned into what could have been a script from one of his movies. He was arrested in 2006 for tax fraud. It seems that Snipes forgot to file tax returns from 1999-2004! Which is a pretty big deal seeing as this was at the height of his career. He was finally convicted in 2008 and sentenced in 2010 for three years in jail, where he now resides. It would seem owing the U.S. Government $2.7 million is a bad thing. Now… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago

25 A-List Hollywood Actors Who Fell the F Off:
http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/02/25-a-list-hollywood-actors-who-fell-the-f-off/wesley-snipes
Wesley Snipes
Best Known For: White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Blade (1998)
Most Recent Project: Gallowwalkers (2012)
Younger filmgoers best remember Snipes as the star of the Blade trilogy, but this guy was everywhere in the early ’90s. Jungle Fever. To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. White Men Can’t Jump. That’s the whole of the ’90s expressed in just three movies!
Alas, Snipes did not give his cut to the Man. He’s now serving a three-year sentence for tax evasion in Pennsylvania.

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

10 actors who could use a Quentin Tarantino-steered comeback: http://www.hitfix.com/galleries/overlay/10-actors-who-could-use-a-quentin-tarantino-steered-comeback#10 Currently serving a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion at the McKean Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania, Snipes is luckily at the tail end of his incarceration – and what better time to start weighing his career comeback options? Of course, the actor’s career slide started long before his conviction, with the last near-decade of resume mainly composed of direct-to-DVD dreck and the occasional middlebrow studio release (his last being the already-forgotten 2009 crime-thriller “Brooklyn’s Finest”). Snipes hasn’t been given an opportunity to showcase his chops in a long time,… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
10 years ago

The Ebony article that ruined Wesley Snipe’s career: http://www.lipstickalley.com/f15/ebony-article-ruined-wesley-snipes-career-422761/ The Asian model and restaurateur he introduces as “my lady, Donna [Wong]” has been Snipes’ companion for the past year and a half When asked if he dates Black women, he says: “Primarily all of my life I’ve dated Black women…. Oh, most definitely. Oh, my God. Mostly. But it just so happens that now I’m dating an Asian woman. It’s different. Different energy, different spirit, but a nice person.” He says he is not ready for marriage; nor is Donna. “She’s got to learn to deal with the love scenes… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  lebeau

I think if anything ruined Wesley’s career (outside of the giant elephant in the room, which is his issues w/ the IRS) it’s his reputation of being difficult to work with (this perhaps can explain why he was relegated to doing a lot of B-movie level, straight-to-DVD work in the later part of his career). Wesley Snipes unfortunately, became sort of a black Steven Seagal (another action star who eventually found himself in straight-to-DVD purgatory) in that perhaps “reaped what he sowed” by being a colossal jerk/egomaniac.

Leo
Leo
10 years ago

I watched “One Night Stand” last year based on Film Brain’s review as part of Wesley Snipes month for Bad Movie Beatdown. When you looked at it, it had an interesting cast, with Snipes, Nastassja Kinski, Kyle MacLachlan and Robert Downey Jr. Plus it was directed by the guy who made “Leaving Las Vegas”. I checked it out, and it was pretty terrible. There’s no chemistry between Snipes and Kinski, I couldn’t even care about their problems, some of the characters are unlikable and the only person who puts a decent effort to the film was Downey. Apparently Joe Eszterhas… Read more »

vitieddie
vitieddie
10 years ago

Lebeau, you should write a summary for this article – like the rest …

cheryl ann
cheryl ann
10 years ago

I honestly do miss the talent and images of Mr. Westley and pray we will again be entertained by him in America … because he truly is a very extra special kind of actor
that can not ever really be imitated. We still love you “Blade!”

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

10 Actors Who Need To Stop Flogging A Dead Horse: http://whatculture.com/film/10-actors-need-stop-flogging-dead-horse.php/4 Wesley Snipes Done To Death: Blade, and anything resembling Blade. Wesley Snipes was always an action guy, equally at home in dystopias and ganglands as long as the pace was fast, the gunfire heavy and the attitude flowing. He did appear in a handful of non-violent films, some of which are quite good, but mostly he stuck to his talents. He was sufficiently menacing as the vampiric vampire hunter Blade when the character first appeared in 1998, and soared in Guillermo del Toro’s sequel, but Blade: Trinity is without… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

17 Career Comebacks We’d Love To See: http://www.hitfix.com/galleries/overlay/17-career-comebacks-wed-love-to-see/16.js Wesley Snipes Best known for: “Passenger 57” and other ’90s action hits. Last seen in: Leaving direct-to-DVD duds out, maybe “Brooklyn’s Finest”? But more likely? “Blade: Trinity.” Comeback plan: “The Expendables 3” will be Wesley Snipes’ big return after his time in prison and his apparent exile. But that’s not the ticket, Wesley. You’re in your 50s. You’re not going to be fronting action franchises ever again. But remember that guy who was in “Mo’ Better Blues” and “New Jack City” and “Jungle Fever” and “The Waterdance” and “Sugar Hill”? That guy… Read more »

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