The Great Wesley Snipes Story: From Bronx Streets to Hollywood Fights

Delve into “The Great Wesley Snipes Story: From Bronx Streets to Hollywood Fights!” This captivating biography explores the rise of a martial arts prodigy to Hollywood action hero. Discover Snipes’ journey, from his New York beginnings to wielding the katana as Blade. Learn about his diverse filmography, including classics like “Passenger 57” and “Demolition Man.” This is the story of resilience, talent, and the captivating fight for success.

The Great Wesley Snipes Story

“The Wesley Snipes Story,” Wesley Trent Snipes, is an American actor. In the title role, Snipes has starred in numerous action-adventures, thrillers, and dramatic feature films such as New Jack City, Jungle Fever, Passenger 57, Rising Sun, Demolition Man, Drop Zone, U.S. Marshals, The Expendables 3, and the Blade film trilogy.

Snipes started martial arts training at the age of 12. He holds a 5th-degree black belt in Shotokan karate and a 2nd-degree black belt in Hapkido. Additionally, he has trained in Capoeira under Mestre Jelon Vieira, as well as in various other disciplines, including Kung Fu at the USA Shaolin Temple, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Kickboxing. While in New York, Snipes received fighting training from his friend and mentor, Brooke Ellis.

Wesley Trent Snipes was born July 31, 1962, in Orlando, Florida, to Marian (Long), a teacher’s assistant, and SMSGT Wesley Rudolph Snipes, an aircraft engineer. He grew up on the streets of the South Bronx in New York City, where he early on decided that dance and theater would be his career. He attended the High School for the Performing Arts (as popularized in Fame (1980)).

However, dreams of musical theater (and perhaps a few commercials) faded when his mother relocated to Orlando, Florida before he could graduate. Fate intervened when he, along with two friends and his “Drama class” teachers, Mr. S Porro and K. Rugerio, started a bus-n-truck theater company (Struttin Street Stuff), which played a crucial role in his high school’s (Jones High) induction into the International Thespian Society, Orlando Chapter, and helped establish the foundation for what would become Dr.

Phillips High School’s theater arts program. Rooted in musical theater, Snipes performed song-n-dance, puppetry, and acrobatics in city parks, dinner clubs, and performing arts centers around central Florida. As a recipient of a Victor Borge Scholarship, Snipes left Orlando and enrolled in the world-renowned professional theater arts program at SUNY Purchase in New York, now Purchase College, where he honed his theatrical performance and martial arts skills.

The Wesley Snipes Story: Career

Graduating with a BFA, he proceeded to co-star in a few soap operas and nighttime dramas, sprinkled in between critically acclaimed performances on Broadway. It was there, in a Broadway theater, that an agent spotted him on stage and invited him to audition for his first feature film role.

Goldie Hawn starred in “Wildcats” (1986). Athletic roles like that transitioned into dramatic roles, such as his role in “New Jack City” (1991), and tough guy roles like the one in “Passenger 57” (1992). Wesley feels that with the approval of Hollywood heavyweights such as Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper, and Sean Connery, he must be doing something right, as they all had veto power over casting and approved his roles. Additionally, Wesley founded Amen Ra Films Production Company and is a Multi-System Combat Arts Black Belt Holder IT Technologist & VC.

The Wesley Snipes Story: Personal Life

Snipes has been married twice. His first marriage was to April Snipes (née Dubois), with whom he has a son named Jelani, who had a cameo role in Snipes’ 1990 film “Mo’ Better Blues.” In 2003, Snipes married painter Nakyung “Nikki” Park Snipes, with whom he has four children. Additionally, Snipes has a son who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Snipes, who was raised as a Christian, converted to Islam in 1978 but left the faith in 1988. In a 1991 interview, he mentioned that “Islam made me more conscious of what African people have accomplished, and gave me some self-dignity.” Snipes’ apartment in New York City was destroyed by the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers during the September 11 attacks, although he was on the West Coast at the time.

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