BIOGRAPHY:

Birth Name
Matthew Ryan Phillippe

Ryan Phillippe was born on September 10, 1974. His childhood was spent in New Castle, Delaware, with three sisters, Kirsten, Lindsay, and Katelyn. Ryan's acting career began with the soap opera "One Life to Live" (1968). It was no small role. His character, Billy Douglas, was US daytime television's first gay teenager. Billy struggled with coming out issues and the town's anti-gay reactions. After several other television appearances and he began appearing in movies of his own, Nowhere (1997), White Squall (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997).

Spouse
Reese Witherspoon (5 June 1999 - 13 June 2008) (divorced) 2 children

Personal Quotes
(On working and being with Reese Witherspoon on the film Cruel Intentions (1999)): It was great. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. Not only personally but professionally. She was an asset to the movie and we begged her to do it. She didn't have as colorful a role as Sarah's and mine, but she did an amazing job. Really elevated the piece.

(On starting a family with Reese): "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."

(About ex-wife Reese Witherspoon): The person I trust most in this world is Reese, definitely. She's that pure-hearted a person, and that honest. And I would never suspect her of any wrong.

People keep trying to make me a movie star but they just don't understand. I'm not a movie star, I'm an actor.

I will no longer be an actor to hire, I have a passion for producing and making films.

(About his daughter, Ava): She is a relief from all the stress in my life; everyday she does something new and it is so amazing.

Music is my greatest love. If I could play an instrument I would be a musician.

I have good taste, that's the one thing I'm cocky about.

I secretly sing Frank Sinatra songs in the shower.

Things like my baby and my wife are a lot more important to me than being in one of the top ten grossing movies of all time.

I have a huge CD collection. Music is an obsession of mine.

I think who Reese is sort of radiates and emanates. She's incredibly conscientious, kind and good to people. She has a perspective that extends far beyond her own personal gain, and I think that's an impressive thing.

(On life and family before his divorce): Home life's great, man. The kids are great, happy and healthy. I've reached this sort of wonderful precipice. I've been in this business for a long time at my age, I've just turned 30, and I feel like my wife's career is going incredibly well, my kids are happy and healthy in schools, we've both been able to buy a house for our parents, respectively, in the places they live. And now I'm ready to work on my stuff, my career. I feel like everything's taken care of. I'm just in a really good place.

Where you raise your children isn't as important as how you raise your children. I think it's what you talk to them about, what you expose them to, what you make them mindful of. And you've got to do that anywhere you live. LA can be a very open and accepting creative environment. But it is important, because there is this odd separation here, it is important to make your kids mindful of other people and other people's plight. I grew up with no money. My kids will grow up with a lot of money and so it's really important to me, and it will always be a part of my parenting, to keep them conscientious and connected socially to other people.

I'm such a supporter of women, work-related. I'm happy for my wife and I'm ecstatic that she makes more than most men in Hollywood. The first writer I hired for a movie I'm producing was a black woman. She did an amazing job. It's like I just think that seeing women get passed over, being so intimately involved with so many women throughout my life - my sisters, my mother and that sort of thing - it's shaped me and given me a sensitivity and understanding that I don't think a lot of men necessarily have.

(On filming the Iraqi war film Stop-Loss (2008) in Morocco): You felt like a monster. We were there in full gear, with these assault rifles, on what's akin to their Christmas. We were barging into peoples' actual homes to shoot those scenes. I felt incredibly uncomfortable and ashamed at the time.

TRIVIA:

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