Phillippe, Ryan (1974– )

US actor. He is known for his good looks and serious demeanour. His first major role was as Billy Douglas, the first gay adolescent on US daytime television, in the popular daytime soap opera One Life to Live. Major film roles include a scheming playboy in Cruel Intentions (1999), a modern remake of Dangerous Liaisons co-starring with his future wife US actor Reese Witherspoon; a licentious valet in Robert Altman's Gosford Park (2001); and a pompous elder brother in Igby Goes Down (2002).

Phillippe started his own production company, Lucid Films, in 2001.

He grew up in New Castle, Delaware, and moved to New York City soon after high school to pursue his acting career. After a successful run in One Life to Live he moved to Los Angeles, California, to try to break into films. He made a number of television appearances there before landing his first screen role, as a member of a submarine crew in the film adaptation of Tom Clancy's Crimson Tide (1995). He went on to star in a number of independent and mainstream films including White Squall (1996), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Little Boy Blue (1997), Homegrown (1998), 54 (1998), Playing By Heart (1998), The Way of the Gun (2000), Company Man (2000), Antitrust (2001), and Crash (2004).