Ryan Phillippe
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| Ryan Phillippe | |
| Birth name | Matthew Ryan Phillippe |
| Born | September 10, 1974 New Castle, Delaware |
| Notable roles | Cruel Intentions (1999) Crash (2005) Flags of Our Fathers (2006) |
Ryan Phillippe (born Matthew Ryan Phillippe on September 10, 1974) is an American actor. After appearing on the soap opera One Life to Live, he came to fame in the late 1990s, after starring in a string of teen-oriented films, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, and 54. Phillippe's more recent roles include the 2005 Academy Award-winning ensemble film Crash and the 2006 war drama Flags of Our Fathers.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Phillippe (IPA pronunciation: [ˈfɪɫɪˌpiː]) was born in New Castle, Delaware to Richard Phillippe (a chemical technician for DuPont) and Susan (who ran a day care center in the family's house); he has three sisters, Kirsten, Lindsay and Katelyn. Phillippe attended New Castle Baptist Academy, where he played basketball and soccer, as well as earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do; he was also the Yearbook Editor in his senior year. At the age of fifteen, he became interested in an acting career, inspired by a neighbor's suggestion. A casting agent spotted Phillippe in a barbershop two years later, and began sending him to auditions in New York.
[edit] Career
Phillippe's acting career began with an appearance in ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. His character Billy Douglas, whom he played from 1992 to 1993, was the first gay teenager in a daily soap opera, causing a stir. After leaving the show, Phillippe moved to Los Angeles, where he appeared in a number of small parts in various television shows and movies, including 1996's White Squall.
Phillippe was cast in the 1997 horror film, I Know What You Did Last Summer, which co-starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The film was a success in October of that year, and led to Phillippe gaining wider renown and being cast in a few more high-profile films, including 54 in 1998 and 1999's Cruel Intentions, a modern retelling of the Choderlos de Laclos' novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The latter film, which also starred Phillippe's future wife, Reese Witherspoon, as well as his I Know What You Did Last Summer co-star, Sarah Michelle Gellar, was a success among its intended teenage audience, cementing Phillippe's ability to play characters that require sex appeal.
In the years following, Phillippe appeared in the crime drama The Way of the Gun, starred as a famed software engineer in the thriller Antitrust, and co-starred in Robert Altman's critically-acclaimed Gosford Park, which featured several of Britain's most respected actors. Subsequently, Phillippe had supporting parts in the films Igby Goes Down (2002) and Crash (2005), which won the Oscar for "Best Picture". His 2003 film, The I Inside, premiered on cable. Phillippe and his long-time friends Breckin Meyer, Seth Green, and David E. Siegal run a production company called Lucid Films. Phillippe is becoming more actively involved in his films as a producer.
Phillippe's most recent role is as real-life military medical corpsman John Bradley in the 2006 war film Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood and following the journey of the men who lifted the flag at the battle of Iwo Jima. Phillippe has said that the film was the "best experience" of his career because of its "personal meaning" to him,[1] and that he would have "given [his] life" to fight in World War II, noting that both of his grandfathers fought in the war.[2] Phillippe's role was positively received by film critic Richard Roeper, who specified that he thought it was Phillippe's best performance to date.[3]
Phillippe has also completed filming on a number of films to be released in 2006 or 2007, including Chaos, in which he plays a police officer, Five Fingers, a drama set in Morocco, and Breach, which chronicles the true story of FBI agent Eric O'Neill, As of October 2006, Phillippe has been filming a war-themed film directed by Kimberly Peirce.[2]
[edit] Personal life
In 1997, Phillippe attended a party given for actress Reese Witherspoon's 21st birthday. Upon meeting Witherspoon, Phillippe was immediately mesmerized and spent all night talking to the young actress, with Witherspoon telling Phillippe "I think you're my birthday present".[4] The following morning, Phillippe left California to film I Know What You Did Last Summer, and subsequently began a long-distance courtship with Witherspoon by mail, e-mail, and telephone. When Phillippe returned to Los Angeles, the couple continued dating and became engaged in December 1998. The following year, the pair starred in Cruel Intentions together. Phillippe and Witherspoon married in the summer of 1999, in a small ceremony on a plantation near North Charleston, South Carolina.
On September 9, 1999, Phillippe and Witherspoon had a daughter named Ava Elizabeth, after Phillippe's grandmother. Their son, Deacon (named after Phillippe's distant relative, Deacon Phillippe, a baseball player) was born on October 23, 2003. The family resides in a gated community in Brentwood, California. When he is not spending time with his wife or children, Phillippe enjoys photography, cartooning, and writing.
On October 30th, 2006, Phillippe and Witherspoon released a statement announcing that they have decided to formally separate after seven years of marriage.
On November 8th 2006, Witherspoon filed for divorce.
[edit] Selected filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Crimson Tide | Seaman Grattam | |
| 1997 | Little Boy Blue | Jimmy West | |
| 1997 | I Know What You Did Last Summer | Barry William Cox | |
| 1998 | 54 | Shane O'Shea | |
| Playing by Heart | Keenan | ||
| 1999 | Cruel Intentions | Sebastian Valmont | |
| 2000 | The Way of the Gun | Parker | |
| 2001 | AntiTrust | Milo Hoffman | |
| Company Man | Petrov | ||
| Gosford Park | Henry Denton | ||
| 2002 | Igby Goes Down | Oliver 'Ollie' Slocumb | |
| 2003 | The i Inside | Simon Cable | |
| 2005 | Crash | Officer Tommy Hanson | |
| 2006 | Flags of Our Fathers | John Bradley | |
| Five Fingers | Martijn | ||
| Chaos | Officer Shane Dekker | ||
| 2008 | Picasso at the Lapin Agile | Pablo Picasso |
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ VOA.com. Movie Focuses on Story Behind Famous WWII Photo. Retrieved on October 22, 2006.
- ^ a b Cleveland.com. Star of Eastwood film salutes heroes of World War II. Retrieved on October 15, 2006.
- ^ Ebert & Roeper. Reviews for the Weekend of October 7 - 8, 2006. Retrieved on October 15, 2006.
- ^ JANE Magazine. The Nine About-to-Be Biggest Stars. Retrieved on October 15, 2006.
