BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS LEO: WESLEY SNIPES

Actor and producer Wesley Snipes was sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison on tax charges Thursday (April 24, 2008), a victory for prosecutors who wanted to make an example of the action star.

Snipes was convicted Feb. 1 on three misdemeanor charges of failing to file a return. The government charged he should've paid $2.7 million in taxes on $13.8 million income during the three years he didn't file returns from 1999 to 2001.

Snipes was acquitted of five more serious counts, including felony fraud and conspiracy and three other misdemeanor counts of not filing a tax return.

Defense attorneys argued for probation, writing that Snipes "promises that he will never again break the law, and respectfully asks the Court to consider not just a jury verdict but also all the good that he has done in his life."

They also offered about three dozen letters attesting to Snipes' good character, including ones from celebrities Woody Harrelson and Denzel Washington.

But U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges said Snipes exhibited a "history of contempt over a period of time" for U.S. tax laws. "In my mind these are serious crimes, albeit misdemeanors," he said.

Snipes apologized while reading from a written statement for his "costly mistakes" during a hear in Ocala, Florida.

"I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance," Snipes said. Later, his wife, Nikki Park, collapsed in tears outside the courtroom.

Snipes' co-defendants were also sentenced. Eddie Ray Kahn got ten years and Douglas Rosile received more than four years. Snipes was a member Kahn's American Rights Litigators, which prosecutors described as a tax-evasion scheme. Rosile, a former Certified Public Accountant, prepared some of Snipes' tax returns for the organization.

Snipes remains free and will be notified later when he should report to prison. He is expected to appeal.

Wesley Trent Snipes was born July 31, 1962, in Orlando, Florida. Raised with his three sisters in the South Bronx by his grandmother and mother, Snipes attended the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City.

After attending the State University of New York at Purchase, he pursued his acting career in earnest.

Snipes made his film debut in Wildcats starring Goldie Hawn in 1986. After Spike Lee spotted him in the Michael Jackson video Bad, the director cast him in Mo' Better Blues opposite Denzel Washington in 1990.

The following year, Snipes not only took the leading role in Lee's Jungle Fever, but also portrayed one of his most memorable characters to date, that of stylish crime lord Nino Brown in Mario Van Peebles' New Jack City.

Throughout the 1990s, Snipes remained one of the biggest actors in Hollywood thanks to subsequent turns in such successful films as the emotionally wrought The Waterdance, the big-budget action flick Passenger 57 and the comedy White Men Can't Jump.

Though audiences might best remember him in such action adventures as 1993's Rising Sun and 1988's Blade, Snipes has made a concerted effort to explore other directions with such films as Waiting to Exhale in 1995, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (where he played an over-the-top drag queen) and One Night Stand in 1997, for which he won a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival.

Snipes married April Snipes in 1985.  They had a son.  The couple divorced in 1990.

In 2003, Snipes married painter Nakyung “Nikki” Park.  They have four children.

© 2008 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.