Ryan Phillippe

Matthew Ryan Phillippe (born September 10, 1974) is an American actor.

After appearing as Billy Douglas on the soap opera One Life to Live (1992–1993) and making his feature film debut in Crimson Tide (1995), he came to prominence in the late 1990s with starring roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), 54 (1998), Playing by Heart (1998), and Cruel Intentions (1999).

His character, Billy Douglas, whom he played from 1992 to 1993, was the first gay teenager on a daytime soap opera.

After leaving the show, Phillippe moved to Los Angeles, where he appeared in a number of small parts in various television series including Matlock, Due South, the TV miniseries The Secrets of Lake Success, and movies, including the 1995 film Crimson Tide and the 1996 film White Squall.

He was cast in the 1997 horror film, I Know What You Did Last Summer.

The film was a success and led to Phillippe gaining wider renown and being cast in a few more high-profile films, including 54 and Playing by Heart in 1998.

In 1999, he starred in Cruel Intentions, a modern retelling of the Choderlos de Laclos novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, which also starred Phillippe's future wife, Reese Witherspoon.

It was a success among its intended teenage audience, cementing Phillippe's ability to play characters that require sex appeal.

Phillippe can also be seen in the Marcy Playground music video "Comin' Up From Behind", which appears on the film's soundtrack.

In the years following, he 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 Gosford Park, which was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture.

Throughout the 2000s and beyond, Phillippe took on a range of parts in films such as The Way of the Gun (2000), Antitrust (2001), Gosford Park (2001), Igby Goes Down (2002), The I Inside (2003), Crash (2004), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Breach (2007), Stop-Loss (2008), MacGruber (2010), The Bang Bang Club (2010), and The Lincoln Lawyer (2011).

Phillippe had supporting parts in the films Igby Goes Down (2002) and Crash (2005), which won the Best Picture Oscar.

His 2003 film The I Inside premiered on cable.

In 2006, Phillippe played real-life Navy corpsman John Bradley in the war film Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood and following the journey of the United States Marines 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 and that he would have "given [his] life" to fight in World War II, noting that both of his grandfathers fought in the war.

His performance was positively received by film critic Richard Roeper, who thought it was Phillippe's best to date.

Phillippe's next role was in the thriller Breach, in which he played FBI investigator Eric O'Neill opposite Chris Cooper.

He has since commented that he believes Cooper to be "the best actor America has to offer".

He then starred in Chaos, in which he plays a police officer; Five Fingers, a drama set in Morocco; Kimberly Peirce's Iraq war film Stop-Loss; and the futuristic Franklyn.

Next up for Phillippe was a rare comedic role as Lt. Dixon Piper in MacGruber, a film based on the Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit of the same name.

Filming for the movie took place in South Africa beginning in March 2009.

Phillippe described the filming process as "really run-and-gun. There were no comforts, and I actually appreciate that."

He noted that the experience affected him, explaining that "we were shooting during the day in Soweto, and it was an endless procession of funerals — death is so common. Kids there have no quality of life. It has made me want to get more involved in Africa-based charities."

An early cut of the film was shown at Cannes Film Festival in May 2009, with the final version shown at Cannes in May 2010.

It was released in the U.S. and Canada on May 21, 2010.

As part of the film's promotion, Phillippe made his SNL hosting debut on April 17, 2010.

Two days later, on April 19, 2010, Phillippe co-hosted WWE Raw, also in support of MacGruber.

That same year, Phillippe starred in the Canadian and South African production The Bang-Bang Club, which tells the real-life story of the Bang-Bang Club, four South African photographers whose images documented the bloody end of apartheid.

Phillippe stars as Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich.

The film officially premiered in September 2010 at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

In mid-2010, Phillippe began filming the adaptation of popular crime novel The Lincoln Lawyer, taking on the role of Louis Roulet, a wealthy Los Angeles playboy accused of a crime for which his culpability is unclear.

The U.S. rights to the movie were picked up by Tribeca Film, which premiered the movie at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and opened it in limited release on April 22, 2011.

Outside of film, Phillippe appeared in the lead role of Bob Lee Swagger on USA Network's Shooter (2016–2018) and reprised his portrayal of Dixon Piper in the Peacock adaptation of MacGruber (2021).

Phillippe was born in New Castle, Delaware.

His mother, Susan, ran a day care center in the family's house; his father, Richard Phillippe, was a chemist.

Phillippe has three sisters, and is of part French descent.

He graduated from Barbizon in Wilmington, Delaware.

Phillippe earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do in his youth.

Phillippe's acting career began after being signed to Cathy Parker Management in Voorhees, New Jersey.

Shortly after, he made an appearance in the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live.