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Ryan Phillippe: Life
built 269 days ago
Discovered while getting a haircut in his native Delaware, Ryan Phillippe's interest in acting began at 13 when he saw Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. After moving to New York at 17, he began his professional career on daytime television with a role on ABC's soap One Life to Live. Playing a teenager struggling with his emerging homosexuality, the part was a milestone for daytime television, as a gay character had never been portrayed before. Phillippe stayed with the part for nearly a year before heading to LA to try his luck on the big screen.
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Phillippe got his first break on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, on which he portrayed daytime's first gay teenager, Billy Douglas. The role, which he played from 1992 to 1993, won him both favorable notices and increasing recognition. After quitting the show to focus on his screen career, Phillippe got a small part in 1995 submarine action thriller Crimson Tide. More work -- and more boat-oriented action -- followed in 1996 with Ridley Scott's White Squall, in which Phillippe was given a prominent role alongside two other up-and-coming actors, Ethan Embry and Scott Wolf. After this mainstream, big-budget venture, Phillippe took a walk down the yellow brick road of independent filmmaking, first with his starring role as an abused trailer-park teen in Little Boy Blue (1997), and then in Gregg Araki's Nowhere (1997), as the latest of Araki's trademark ultra-horny boys.
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At 17, Phillippe plays gay teenager Billy Douglas on the ABC soap One Life to Live. The character pushes the limits of daytime television with storylines about coming out and homophobia. "Soaps are a powerful way to reach people who live sheltered, closed-off lives," Phillippe tells Paper magazine in 2001. He leaves the show in 1993 after disagreements with ABC regarding his character's development and moves to L.A. to pursue a film career.
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In 1992, Phillippe hit pay dirt when he was offered a controversial gay role on “One Life to Live.” He boldly accepted the pre-Ellen, pre-“Melrose Place” landmark role; ... jumpstarting his career. The hectic soap shooting schedule was a great training ground for the new actor, and the amount of fan mail he received from troubled teens who related to his character was an enormous encouragement. Unfortunately, the show wrote out the character in less than a year, and an unemployed Phillippe took the opportunity to move to Hollywood and try his luck there.
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