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Matthew Ryan Phillippe (born September 10,
1974) is an American actor. He came to fame in the late 1990s, after
appearances in a string of successful films aimed at teenage audiences,
including I Know What You Did Last Summer and Cruel Intentions. Phillippe,
who is married to actress Reese Witherspoon, has most recently appeared in
the 2005 Oscar winner for Best Picture, Crash.
Phillippe (IPA pronunciation: 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 15, 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.
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Phillippe's acting career began with an appearance in ABC daytime drama One
Life to Live from 1992 to 1993. His character Billy Douglas was the first
gay person in a daily soap opera, causing quite a stir. After leaving the
show, he moved to Los Angeles, where he appeared in a number of small parts
in various television shows and movies, including White Squall (1996).
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 comedy 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 England'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 recently completed filming on a number of films to be released in
2006 or 2007; Chaos, in which he plays a police officer; Five Fingers, a
drama set in Morocco; Breach, which chronicles the true story of FBI agent
Eric O'Neill, 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.
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 reportedly telling Phillippe "I think you're my present".[1] The
following morning, Phillippe left California to film I Know What You Did
Last Summer, and 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 of
that year, the couple 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.
In September 2005, Witherspoon and their children were celebrating daughter
Ava's sixth birthday at Disney's California Adventure theme park when they
were approached by paparazzi photographer Todd Wallace. After Witherspoon
declined posing for photos at close range, police say Wallace became enraged
and pushed a child out of the way, while hitting another with his camera, in
his efforts to photograph the actress. Wallace also allegedly shoved two
theme park employees when they attempted to restrain him, and cursed at
Witherspoon, causing several children to burst into tears. As a result of
the altercation, Wallace was arrested and faced misdemeanor charges.
Before the case went to trial, Wallace was found dead in his apartment in
Brentwood. Police are currently investigating the cause of death. |
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