Lou Diamond Phillips - Career

Career

The first low-budget film in which he starred was called Trespasses. Phillips' big break came with the starring role in 1987's La Bamba, in which he played early rocker Ritchie Valens. Prior to his cinematic breakthrough, he starred in the Miami Vice episode "Red Tape" (13 Mar 1987), portraying detective Bobby Diaz.

In 1988, Phillips co-starred with Edward James Olmos in the inner-city high school drama Stand and Deliver, in a role for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture". He plays Angel Guzman, a cholo gangster who is inspired by his math teacher, Jaime Escalante, to excel at calculus. Working to master the subject, he develops a friendship with his teacher. Stand and Deliver was filmed before La Bamba, but it was released a year later. In 1988 and 1990, Phillips co-starred with Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland in the Western films Young Guns and Young Guns II, in which he plays Jose Chavez y Chavez, a historical Old West outlaw.

In the mid-1990s, Phillips was a vocalist with the Los Angeles based rock group The Pipefitters.

In 1996, Phillips made his Broadway debut as the King in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's The King and I. Phillips won a Theatre World Award and was nominated for both a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance.

In 1998 he starred as Cisco, the counterpart of the main character Melvin Smiley (played by Mark Wahlberg), in the comedy-action movie The Big Hit.

He later featured a minor role in the TV sitcom "George Lopez" (2002-2004) as George Lopez's half-brother.

On September 11, 2007, Phillips joined the touring troup for Lerner and Loewe's Camelot in the role of King Arthur.

He also played a role in the first season of the TV series 24 as secret government agent Mark DeSalvo, opposite former Young Guns star Kiefer Sutherland. Phillips played the recurring role of FBI agent Ian Edgerton in the television series Numb3rs. Edgerton is an FBI tracker and sniper who works as an instructor at Quantico FBI Academy when he is not working a case in the field. Phillips won the second season of the NBC reality series, I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!, over pro-wrestler Torrie Wilson. Lou currently hosts the weekly series An Officer and a Movie on The Military Channel. This series features a World War II drama such as Kelly's Heroes, with Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas.

Phillips had a recurring role as Colonel Telford in the Stargate Universe television series during its two-season run on the SyFy channel 2009-2011. He played the would-be commander of the Destiny expedition, who is left behind when an accident launches an unsuspecting crew into deep space. The commander works from Earth to bring the crew home, often coming into conflict with the shipborne command characters.

Phillips has been a regular poker player since college. In May 2009, Phillips placed 31st of 403 entrants in the 2009 California State Poker Championship Limit Texas hold 'em. He placed in the money at the $10,000 July 2009 World Series of Poker World Championship No Limit main event. On July 12, he was eliminated as the original field of 6,494 was trimmed from 407 to 185. He entered the day in 114th place among the 407 and was eliminated on the final hand of the day finishing in 186th place and earning $36,626.

In January 2012, he was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. On January 29th, 2012 he was announced as the winner with a score of 28 out of 30, winning $50,000 for his charity.

In June 2012, Philips began costarring in Longmire, about a modern day sheriff played by Robert Taylor. Lou is playing Henry Standing Bear, a Native American, who is Longmire's good friend -- often helping him with cases and in dealing with the reservation police who don't respect or like outsiders, especially other law enforcement.