Wesley Snipes

Wesley Snipes is a Hollywood actor best known for his various starring roles in action flicks in the 1990s. Snipes was one of the most bankable black actors up until several years ago. Unfortunately, Snipes's ego eventually got the better of him as he apparently came to believe that "his shit didn't stink" and thought he shouldn't have to pay federal income taxes on the millions of dollars of income he received from his various acting roles over the years. When the IRS brought criminal charges against Snipes, he was convicted of various charges and sentenced to 3 years in prison for his crimes in a practically unbelievable fall from grace.

Wesley Snipes was born on July 31, 1962 in Orlando, Florida, although he grew up in the Bronx in New York City.  Snipes decided to pursue acting at any early age and attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing, a school popularized in the movie Fame.  However, Snipes moved back to Orlando during his teenage years.  After graduating from high school, Snipes local dinner theaters and regional productions.

Snipes' first movie role was in the 1986 movie Wildcats, where he played a high school football player.  Snipes followed up with a major role in the famous 1987 Michael Jackson video for Bad.  Snipes also had a starring role as a boxer in the 1987 movie, Streets of Gold.

Snipes turned down a minor role in the 1989 Spike Lee movie, Do the Right Thing, for a larger role in the hit baseball comedy movie Major League, where he played Willie Mays Hayes, a speedy slap hitter.  Snipes' role in Major League was well-received and really put him on the map with mainstream audiences.  After the success of Major League, Snipes became one of the most sought-after black actor actors in Hollywood.

Snipes followed up on the success of Major League by appearing in starring roles in both Jungle Feaver and New Jack City in 1991.  Snipes' performances were acclaimed and his star was clearly on the rise as of the early 1990s.  Snipes later appeared in starring role in the 1992 sports comedy, White Men Can't Jump. Snipes followed up with roles in the 1992 action hit, Passenger 57, and the 1993 action hit, Demolition Man, where he showed off his martial arts skills.

Snipes later appeared in the cult-classic 1998 vampire action flick, Blade, and subsequently appeared in two Blade sequels, Blade II, and Blade: Trinity.

However, after the 1990s had passed, Snipes' star started to fade as audiences tired of him and the roles he was offered became few and far between.  Snipes' personal life started crashing down upon him at the same time.  Snipes apparently thought he was immune to the federal tax laws, as he unbelievably filed a false tax refund claim of over $4 million for the 1996 tax year, a false tax refund claim of over $7.3 million for the 1997 tax year, and also failed to file any federal tax returns for the tax years between 1999 and 2004.

Not surprisingly, the IRS was none to too pleased with Snipes' apparent tax fraud.  Snipes was charged with defrauding the IRS and with one count of knowingly making or aiding and abetting the making of a false and fraudulent claim for payment against the United States. Snipes additionally charged with six counts of willfully failing to file federal income tax returns by their filing date.

Snipes must have squandered his acting fortune, as he apparently lacked the means to pay his tax bills.  In 2005, desperate for money, Snipes initially agreed to fight Joe Rogan in a mixed martial arts match, although later backed down out of fear of receiving a vicious pummeling.   Snipes defended himself in his legal case by raising an absurd defense that he was not a U.S. citizen and therefore was not obligated to pay federal taxes, despite the fact that Snipes was born in the U.S. and is therefore a U.S. citizen by birthright.  Snipes was also so desperate to avoid jail time that he claimed that he was the victim of a racist conspiracy notwithstanding his obvious fraudlent actions.

The government's action against Snipes went to court in 2008, where he was found guilty of willful failure to file federal income tax returns and was sentenced to three years in prison.  Snipes began serving his sentence in 2010 was was released in 2013.  Snipes has apparently tried to return to the limelight and is reportedly set to appear in a minor role in the 2014 action flick, Expendables 3.

Wesley Snipes was once one of the most bankable black actors in Hollywood.  He must have felt like he was invincible and that the world was his oyster by the late 1990s.  However, Snipes' arrogance apparently got the better of him as his squandered his fortune and willfully failed to pay his federal taxes.  Snipes' stunning fall from grace led to a three-year prison sentence.  Accordingly, there is no doubt that Wesley Snipes is on washed-up celebrity!

Steven Seagal

Steven Seagal, born April 10, 1951, is an action movie actor best known for his unique brand of martial arts used in his films. Seagal is a 7th-dan black belt in aikido and as a young adult was an aikido instructor in Japan before moving to Los Angeles, California at which point he was noticed by entertainment executives who gave him his first movie role in Above The Law in 1988.

Seagal played a Chicago cop investigating a drug ring in Above The Law. The film was a moderate success, bringing in $18 million in box office receipts in the U.S. Seagal later acted in other successful action flicks as a tough guy cop, including Hard To Kill and Out For Justice. Out For Justice includes one of Seagal's most famous scenes, where he shows up at a bar frequented by low life criminals and proceeds to beat up about 15 of them without the use of a gun. Instead, he uses his fists, pool cues, and a billiard ball to put the hurt on the bad guys who generally only attack him one-at-a-time. In his most famous line in the movie, he keeps asking, "Anybody seen Richie?" to the bar's criminal patrons as he searches for Richie Madano, a violent drug dealer.







Seagal parlayed these roles in late-1980s to early-1990s action movies into a starring role as a former Navy SEAL who stops a group of mercenaries on a U.S. Navy battleship in the 1992 blockbuster, Under Siege, a movie that brought in over $156 million in worldwide box office receipts.

Under Siege was released at the pinnacle of Seagal's career. He was a popular movie star known for his long hair/mullet and his calm and relaxed demeanor he displayed while engaging in fighting scenes. He was in great physical shape at this time and was somewhat of an unconventional sex symbol, as evidenced by his then marriage to the supermodel Kelly LeBrock.

Unfortunately for Seagal, his career collapsed during the mid-1990s and has yet to recover. One of Seagal's problems is that he was typecast and generally played the same type of characters in all of his movies - his characters were typically brooding tough cops or engaged in some other kind of law enforcement. Seagal also fell victim to gluttony, seemingly eating every piece of greasy food in sight. Seagal must have gained close to 100 lbs of fat since the mid-1990s and is practically unrecognizable now. He is obese and his abuse of fatty foods in reminsecent of that of fellow washed-up celebrity Dennis Haskins.

Reports have also surfaced that Seagal has been rough on stuntmen. During the filming of 2001's Exit Wounds, he injured a number of stuntmen and his co-star, DMX. According to Steven Quadros, a fight trainer, Seagal has been known to "kick guys in the nuts to see if they were wearing cups." Seagal was also at the center of an incident in which stuntman and judo master Gene Lebell confronted Seagal over this abuse of stuntmen and reportedly put Seagal into a Shime-Waza (i.e., "sleeper") hold, choking Seagal unconscious.

Seagal also allegedly has ties to the Mafia. The Italain Mafia apparently wanted to finance several action movies in which Seagal was to star. When Seagal informed the mobsters that he didn't want to act in these action movies, the mobsters paid Seagal a visit during a shakedown in which Seagal was "petrified," and probably came close to crapping his pants (and understandibly so).

Seagal was eager to cover up his relationship with the mafia and hired disgraced Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pelicano to thwart an Los Angeles Times expose on his ties to the Mafia. A Los Angeles Times reporter, Anita Busch, found a dead fish with a rose in its mouth on her punctured windshield. A note found under the fish said, "STOP!" Alexander Proctor, an ex-con, told an informant that he'd been hired by Pelicano on behalf of Seagal. Seagal later denied any involvement in this incident when he testified at a trial on one of the mobsters in 2003.

Seagal's career is now in the toilet. Unbeknownst to the general public, he has apparently continued acting over the past few years. However, almost all of his movies now go straight to video. For this and the other reasons discussed above, Steven Seagal is one washed up celebrity!


Update - June 24, 2007

Here is a clip of Seagal's great fight scene from Out For Justice that I discovered on YouTube:


Update - August 19, 2007

Seagal blames the FBI for his washed up career and believes that allegedly false allegations by FBI agents beginning in 2002 ruined his career. Seagal told the Los Angeles Times, "False FBI accusations fueled thousands of articles saying that I terrorize journalists and associate with the Mafia. These kinds of inflammatory allegations scare studio heads and independent producers -- and kill careers." Seagal also demanded an apology from the FBI.

It's funny that Seagal is blaming his woes on the FBI. He's been washed up since the mid-late 1990s and became obese long before the FBI made any statements, true or false, about him. Seagal's recent whiney claims help prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that he definitely washed up!