Popular actor, producer, and martial arts star Wesley Snipes has made a name for himself ever since he came on the scene back in the mid-1980s. Like nearly every star in Hollywood, he had small bit roles in a handful of projects during the early years of his career, but just before the ‘80s were starting to transition into the ‘90s, Snipes was cast as Willie Mays Hayes in 1989’s Major League, a supporting role that put him on everyone’s radar.
He then had roles in two of Spike Lee’s better-known classic films, Mo’ Better Blues and Jungle Fever. His rise to pure movie stardom was cemented with roles in King of New York, the urban crime drama New Jack City, and the multi-cultural athletic cult classic White Men Can’t Jump.
After that, Snipes was all over the decade, never seeming to stop as he starred in comedies like To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, dramas such as The Waterdance, and action flicks including one that some argue got Hollywood to take Marvel movies seriously ⏤ the 1998 hit Blade.
Once 2000 hit, he slowed down a little bit but was still working consistently with two more Blade sequels in 2002 and 2004. However, the bulk of his work during the first decade of the 21st century was direct-to-video feature-length films. It started looking to some as if the star power of Snipes was beginning to fade away.
Legal troubles in the 2010s
At the end of 2010, Wesley Snipes reported to a federal prison in Pennsylvania to serve some time for his tax-related infractions that occurred several years before then in a widely publicized tax evasion case.
Surprisingly, a few projects he worked on just prior to his conviction were still eventually released by the time he was behind bars. He had a lead role in Game of Death, a 2011 action film directly followed by a starring role in a video game that featured his likeness and voice, Julius Styles: The International. A 2012 sci-fi western titled Gallowwalkers also came out before his release from prison in April of 2013.
What projects did Snipes do after his time in prison?
After his hiatus, he was back on the scene — at least on the outside — with a role in Expendables 3. That was followed up with a great performance in The Player, a short-lived NBC action-thriller television series.
He then reunited with Spike Lee for a role in Netflix’s Chi-Raq, proving to audiences that he was still a bankable name. His stint in the federal prison system didn’t seem to deter him from gaining consistent opportunities, after all.
What has Snipes been up to lately?
After Chi-Raq, Snipes found more work in the 2019 Eddie Murphy comedy Dolemite Is My Name. His performance earned him a number of nominations, including an NAACP Image nod for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.
Snipes then teamed up with Murphy once again two years later in the highly-anticipated sequel Coming 2 America, in a supporting role. The movie got mixed reviews, but Snipes kept on working.
He followed that performance up with roles alongside Kevin Hart in the Netflix drama series True Story, earning more award nominations. He also recently appeared in the TV drama entitled Paper Empire and a strip club comedy called Back on the Strip, which debuted in August 2023.