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Cruel Intentions
Background:
A young leading man with the chiseled looks of a Greco-Roman
statue, Ryan Phillippe initially came to prominence on the small
screen as gay teenager Billy Douglas in the daytime soap ”One
Life to Live” (ABC, 1992-1993) before acquiring worldwide fame
as a movie actor. He is well-known for playing the conceited jock
Barry Cox in the blockbuster smash hit I Know What You Did Last
Summer (1997, opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar
and Freddie Prinze Jr.), naïve bartender Shane O’Shea in
54 (1998), and modern-day Valmont in the critical and box office
victory Cruel Intentions (1999, with Reese Witherspoon and Sarah
Michelle Gellar). In 2002, Phillippe took home a Screen Actors Guild
for his brilliant turn as Henry Denton in the Oscar-nominated feature
Gosford Park (2001), directed by Robert Altman.
Fans can also watch Phillippe in recent and upcoming projects such
as Company Man (2000), The Way of the Gun (2000), Antitrust (2001),
the critically admired comedy Igby Goes Down (2002), the sci-fi
thriller The I Inside (2003), the Oscar winning feature Crash (2004),
Chaos (2005), Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers (2006),
Breach (2006) and Tlatelolco: Mexico 68 (2006).
Ryan Phillippe, who earned $250,000 for I Know What You Did Last
Summer (1997), $500,000 for 54 (1998), Cruel Intentions (1999), The
Way of the Gun (2000) and Igby Goes Down (2002), and $2,750,000 for
Chaos (2004I), runs his own production company named Lucid Films with
long-time friends Breckin Meyer, Seth Green, and David E. Siegal, and
is becoming more actively involved in his films as a producer.
“It just makes so many other things insignificant. It is
the most incredible thing that has happened to me and I feel so lucky
to have found the person I want to be with, and to be prepared and
enthusiastic.” Ryan Phillippe on starting a family with Reese
Witherspoon
On a more private note, the actor has been married to Hollywood
darling Reese Witherspoon since 1999 and has two children with her.
The marriage, however, is rumored to have been in trouble recently.
Lately, they’ve played the happy couple at pre-Oscar events,
but on the night of the Academy Awards, it was clear that their
relationship is still on the rocks. The Best Actress Academy Award
winner Witherspoon was even overheard asking at the Vanity Fair
party, “Did I thank Ryan (during the acceptance speech)? He’s
so easy to forget most of the time!”
Frank Sinatra Fan
Childhood and Family:
Born Matthew Ryan Phillippe, on September 10, 1974, Ryan Phillippe
grew up in New Castle, Delaware, along with his three sisters,
Kirsten, Lindsay, and Katelyn Phillippe. His father is Richard
Phillippe, a chemist, and his mother, Susan Phillippe, managed a day
care. He attended New Castle Baptist Academy in New Castle,
Delaware, and excelled in baseball and soccer. An active student,
Phillippe also earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and was the
Yearbook Editor in his senior year. He idolized Frank Sinatra and
frequently spent his weekends driving around in his old pickup truck,
listening to the tunes of Sinatra, rather than partying with friends.
Commenting about this, he said, “I had friends, so I wasn't a
complete loner, but I was a bit anti-social. High School is so much
about groups and I was never comfortable about that. It was almost a
phobia. I was definitely more of a Ducky (the Pretty in Pink
character).”
At age 15, he developed a love for acting and decided to try his
hand in the cinematic industry after receiving advice from his
neighbor. Two years later, while in a barbershop, he was spotted by
an agent who immediately sent the 17-year-old boy to auditions in New
York.
Phillippe met Reese Witherspoon (actress; born on March 22, 1976)
in 1997 when he attended a party given for the actress’s 21st
birthday. Within a second, he was captivated and spent all night
talking to her. After a two-year relationship, the couple became
engaged and exchanged wedding vows on June 5, 1999, in a small
private ceremony on a plantation near North Charleston, South
Carolina. Phillippe and Witherspoon have two children, daughter Ava
Elizabeth Phillippe (born on September 9, 1999) and son Deacon
Phillippe (born on October 23, 2003). When he is not spending time
with his wife or children, Phillippe enjoys photography, cartooning
and writing.
One Life to Live
Career:
A native of New Castle, Delaware, Ryan Phillippe was discovered by
a talent agent at age 17 and soon began trekking three hours to New
York for auditions. His first acting job, as well as his
breakthrough role, arrived when he landed a landmark role in the ABC
soap opera “One Life to Live” (1992-1993) playing gay
teenager Billy Douglas, reportedly the first male homosexual teenaged
character on a daytime drama. Following the early success, Phillippe
headed for Hollywood and, just like other struggling actors, he had
to deal with hardship. Without a car, he frequently rode the bus or
skateboarded to auditions. Phillippe’s uphill struggles paid
off as the actor secured a number of primetime TV credits, including
“The Secrets of Lake Success” (1993), A Perry Mason
Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor (1994) and Deadly
Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare (1995). He also received notice
for his fine guest starring performance as a juvenile with heart
problems in an episode of the CBS drama “Chicago Hope”
(1996).
Phillippe’s got his first film role in 1995 when director
Tony Scoot tapped him to play a crewman named Seaman Grattam in the
Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman vehicle Crimson Tide. After a
supporting turn in the sci-fi movie Invader (1996), Phillippe was
cast in his first major screen role as timorous student Gil Martin in
the ensemble of White Squall (1996), opposite Jeff Bridges, Caroline
Goodall and John Savage. He was next seen in the ensemble cast of
Gregg Araki’s Nowhere (1997) and undertook his first starring
role in a movie as a young man determined to be normal in a
dysfunctional family in the little seen Little Boy Blue (1997).
The actor’s rising star status was further confirmed when he
costarred with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar and
Freddie Prinze Jr. in the horror thriller I Know What You Did Last
Summer (1997), portraying the cocky jock Barry Cox. The film was a
huge hit, debuting at No. 1 on the blockbuster chart and remaining in
the position for three consecutive weeks. The film’s
phenomenal victory led to Phillippe gaining popularity and being cast
in more high-profile projects in the following years.
Next up for Phillippe, he found himself acting with Billy Bob
Thornton and Kelly Lynch in the independent flick Homegrown (1998)
before delivering perhaps his finest acting performance (to date) as
innocent bartender Shane O’Shea, who lands in the hedonistic
world of disco, in 54 (1998), based on the popular 70’s
nightclub called Studio 54. The drama movie also starred Mike Myers,
Neve Campbell, Salma Hayek, his good buddy Breckin Meyer, and Sela
Ward. The same year, he joined the large ensemble of talent in the
film Playing By Heart. Among his costars were Sean Connery, Gena
Rowlands and Angelina Jolie. Phillippe rounded out the end of
century with a memorable portrayal of blemished rich kid Sebastian
Valmont in the critical and box office success Cruel Intentions
(1999), a modern adaptation of the Choderlos de Laclos’ novel
titled “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” The Roger
Kumble-directed movie, which also starred future wife Reese
Witherspoon and I Know What You Did Last Summer co-star Sarah
Michelle Gellar, was a sensation among its projected teenage
audiences, cementing Phillippe’s aptitude to play characters
that require sex appeal.
Entering the new millennium, Phillippe was featured as a Russian
dancer, along with Woody Allen, John Turturro and Sigourney Weaver,
in the comedy Company Man (2000) and acted in Christopher McQuarrie’s
feature directorial debut The Way of the Gun (2000), which starred
James Caan and Benicio Del Toro. He was then seen as a famed
computer-whiz in the high-tech thriller Antitrust (2001, opposite Tim
Robbins and Claire Forlani) and played Henry Denton, the manservant
of a visiting American movie producer, in Robert Altman’s
critically-acclaimed Gosford Park (2001). For his efforts in the
latter film, Phillippe was handed a 2002 Screen Actors Guild for
Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture.
The following years saw roles in such films as the admired comedy
Igby Goes Down (2002, as the smooth older brother Oliver Slocumb) and
the effective, but little-seen, sci-fi thriller The I Inside (2003,
opposite Sarah Polley and Piper Perabo). Philippe was also cast in
the supporting turn of an LAPD patrol officer in Paul Haggis’
directorial debut Crash (2004), which was one of the best-reviewed
films of 2005 and won 3 Oscars, including one for “Best
Picture.” In 2005, he was cast as Martijn in the drama/
thriller Five Fingers and costarred with Jason Statham and Wesley
Snipes in Chaos. The 32-year-old actor will soon play the small role
of John Bradley, opposite Adam Beach and Jesse Bradford, in Clint
Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers (2006). He is also scheduled
to portray Eric O’Neill in the crime/drama Breach (2006) and
Patrick in the drama Tlatelolco: Mexico 68 (2006).
Awards:
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