Snipes, Wesley

▪ 1994

      Wesley Snipes became established as a bona fide bankable movie star in 1993, when he both shared name-above-the-title billing with two of Hollywood's biggest draws in two of the top-grossing films of the year and became one of the highest-paid actors in the motion-picture industry.

      Like screen legend Sean Connery (alias James Bond), his costar in Rising Sun (1993), and screen superstar Sylvester Stallone (alias Rambo), his costar in Demolition Man (1993), Snipes's rapid ascension to this elite Hollywood echelon occurred mainly as a result of his film portrayals of action heroes who consistently outfought, outshot, and outsmarted the "bad guys." Unlike Connery and Stallone, however, Snipes rose through the ranks with one notable distinction: the actor portrayed gunslinging, karate-chopping heroes who were black.

      Snipes gained recognition in 1990 when he played a musician in director Spike Lee's film Mo' Better Blues. He received critical acclaim in 1991 with his portrayal of Nino, a ruthless Harlem drug lord in the film New Jack City. That same year Snipes won notice for his performance as an architect who had an affair with his white secretary in Jungle Fever, also directed by Lee. In 1992, after starring roles in White Men Can't Jump and The Waterdance, Snipes played an airline security expert who battled terrorists in Passenger 57, which became a smash hit at the box office.

      His experiences as a youth helped prepare Snipes for the diverse roles he portrayed on the silver screen. He was born in Orlando, Fla., on July 31, 1962. His parents had divorced before he was two years old, and he spent his early years in New York City's South Bronx. Snipes studied martial arts from age seven, initially because he was small for his age and needed to defend himself.

      At age 12, after winning a small role in an off-Broadway production of The Me Nobody Knows, he decided that performing would be the focus of his future. He studied acting, music, and dance at the High School of the Performing Arts until 1977, when his mother moved the family back to Orlando. There he graduated from Jones High School. Shortly after receiving a B.A. degree from the State University of New York at Purchase, he made his motion-picture debut in Wildcats (1986) and appeared in a number of theatrical and television productions, including "Miami Vice" and the soap opera "All My Children."

      (EDWARD PAUL MORAGNE)

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