Phillips, Lou Diamond Lou Diamond Phillips has a net worth of $6 million as an actor and director in the United States. The character of Ritchie Valens in the 1987 film “La Bamba” was Lou Diamond Phillips’ breakthrough role. “Stand and Deliver,” “Young Guns,” “Courage Under Fire,” and “The 33” are among his other credits. Phillips appeared in the Western series “Longmire” and the procedural drama “Prodigal Son” on television.
Early Life and the Start of a Career
Lou Diamond Phillips was born in the Philippines Subic Bay Naval Station in 1962 as Lou Diamond Upchurch. Gerald, his father, was a Marine KC-130 crew chief and was of Cherokee and Scots-Irish ancestry. Lucita, his mother, was from Candelaria, Philippines. Phillips took up his stepfather’s surname after his father died in 1963. Later, he traveled to Texas and attended Corpus Christi’s Flour Bluff High School. Phillips received a BFA in drama from the University of Texas in Arlington for his higher education.
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Phillips made his feature acting debut in the television movie “Time Bomb” and the science-fiction picture “Interface” in 1984. He made an appearance in an episode of “Dallas” in 1985, and in the low-budget film “Trespasses” in 1986.
Breakthroughs
Phillips rose to stardom in 1987, when he played Chicano rock sensation Ritchie Valens in the historical drama film “La Bamba.” The high school drama “Stand and Deliver,” featuring Oscar nominee Edward James Olmos, had even more success the following year. Phillips earned the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his portrayal of struggling math student Angel Guzman. Phillips also acted in the 1988 films “Dakota” and “Young Guns,” in which he played the Old West outlaw Jose Chavez y Chavez. Phillips rounded off the decade with major parts in “Disorganized Crime,” a heist comedy, and “Renegades,” an action crime picture.
Developing Your Film Career
Phillips returned to the role of Jose Chavez y Chavez in the sequel film “Young Guns II” in 1990. He appeared in the thriller “A Show of Force” as well as the horror pictures “The First Power” and “Demon Wind” in the same year. Following that came the mystery “The Dark Wind,” the thriller “Ambition,” which Phillips also wrote, the action thriller “Extreme Justice,” and the adventure feature “Shadow of the Wolf,” which starred Toshiro Mifune, Jennifer Tilly, and Donald Sutherland. Phillips made his directing debut in 1994 with the film “Dangerous Touch,” in which he also starred. He also directed and starred in “Sioux City” that year. Phillips appeared in films such as “Teresa’s Tattoo,” “Boulevard,” “Courage Under Fire,” “The Big Hit,” “Brokedown Palace,” and “Bats” throughout the rest of the 1990s.
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Phillips’ active acting career continued in the 2000s; he appeared in “Picking Up the Pieces,” “Supernova,” “A Better Way to Die,” “Knight Club,” “Route 666,” “Lone Hero,” and “Stark Raving Mad” between 2000 and 2002. Following that, he appeared in “Hollywood Homicide,” “Absolon,” “Fingerprints,” and the second installment of Steven Soderbergh’s two-part “Che.” “Transparency,” “Filly Brown,” “Sanitarium,” “Sequoia,” “Sky,” and “The 33,” based on the real-life 2010 Chilean mining catastrophe, are among Phillips’ many other films credits.
A Career in Television
Phillips appeared in episodes of “Tales from the Crypt,” “Spin City,” “The Outer Limits,” and “Adventures from the Book of Virtues” on television in the 1990s. In addition to “The Wharf Rat,” “Undertow,” and “In a Class of His Own,” he appeared in the television movies “The Wharf Rat,” “Undertow,” and “In a Class of His Own.” Phillips had a recurring role in the supernatural drama series “Wolf Lake” from 2001 to 2002. He also appeared in the first season of Fox’s action series “24” in 2002, playing covert government agent Mark DeSalvo. More supporting roles followed on the sitcom “George Lopez,” in which he played Lopez’s half-brother, and the crime thriller “Numb3rs,” in which he played FBI agent Ian Edgerton on a recurrent basis. Phillips has appeared in a variety of television movies in the early to mid-2000s, including “Red Water,” “The Trail to Hope Rose,” “Gone, But Not Forgotten,” “Murder at the Presidio,” and “Alien Express.” In 2005, he starred in “The Triangle,” a science-fiction drama about the Bermuda Triangle’s secrets.
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“Psych,” “The Beast,” “Chuck,” “Cougar Town,” “Happily Divorced,” and the TV movie “Metal Tornado” are among Phillips’ other television credits. He had a recurring role as Colonel Telford on the SyFy channel’s “Stargate Universe” series from 2009 to 2011. In 2012, he began co-starring in the Western series “Longmire,” playing the eponymous character’s Native American best buddy. Phillips’ later credits include the crime drama “Blindspot,” the television movie “The Night Stalker,” the animated children’s series “Elena of Avalor,” the sitcom “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” the crime drama “NCIS: New Orleans,” the legal drama “Goliath,” and the police procedurals “Blue Bloods” and “Prodigal Son,” in which he played NYPD lieutenant Gil Arroyo.
Personal Life
Phillips met assistant director Julie Cypher on the set of “Trespasses,” and the two married in 1987. Cypher came out as a lesbian after their divorce in 1990. Phillips was then briefly engaged to Jennifer Tilly, whom he met on the set of “Shadow of the Wolf.” He married Kelly Preston in 1994 and they have three daughters: Grace and Isabella, twins, and Lili. The couple split up in 2003 and divorced in 2007. Phillips dated makeup artist Yvonne Boismier throughout their split. He was accused of domestic assault against her in 2006. They did, however, marry the next year and have a son named Indigo.