Ryan Phillippe

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domora Ryan Phillippe (pronounced Fil-lih-pee) (born September 10, 1974 in New Castle, Delaware as Matthew Ryan Phillippe) is an American actor.

His first role was as Billy Douglas, daytime television's first gay teenager, in the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. After leaving the show, he moved to Los Angeles, where he struggled for a time before landing a number of small parts in various television shows and movies, including White Squall (1996).

Later that year he played the part of Barry Cox in I Know What You Did Last Summer with Jennifer Love Hewitt. The movie was a summer hit and led to a starring role in 54 in 1998, alongside Salma Hayek, Mike Myers, and Breckin Meyer.

In 1999, Phillippe landed the role of Sebastian Valmont in Cruel Intentions, a modern retelling of the Choderlos de Laclos' novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The movie was both a critical and box office hit amongst its intended teenage audience. This was the second time that Phillippe had worked alongside television's Buffy the Vampire Slayer star, Sarah Michelle Gellar. He also appeared alongside his future wife, Reese Witherspoon.

In 2000 Phillippe starred opposite Benicio Del Toro in The Way of the Gun, followed with his role as a wizard software engineer in the high-tech thriller Antitrust. In 2001, Ryan co-starred in Robert Altman's critically-acclaimed Gosford Park, with several of England's most respected actors, including Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren, and Emily Watson.

In 2003, Phillippe appeared in the critically lauded film Igby Goes Down. Following this, in 2004 he joined a stellar ensemble cast in Paul Haggis's critical and indie box office hit Crash. He recently completed a string of films to be released in 2006; Chaos, in which he will play a police officer; Five Fingers, a drama set in Morocco; and 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.

He is currently filming Breach, an FBI crime thriller, in Toronto. He 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.

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Personal life

Ryan hails from a fairly ordinary background; his French-born father works as a chemist for DuPont and his mother manages a day care center. He grew up in New Castle, Delaware along with three sisters.

In 1997, Ryan attended a party given for Reese Witherspoon's 21st birthday. Upon meeting the guest of honor, Phillippe was immediately mesmerized and spent all night talking to the young actress. The two began a long distance courtship by mail, e-mail, and telephone while Ryan was filming I Know What You Did Last Summer. When he returned to L.A., the couple continued dating and became engaged in December of 1998.

Phillippe and Witherspoon married in the summer of 1999 and had a daughter named Ava Elizabeth later that year on September 9. Their son Deacon was born on October 23, 2003.

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