Photo: David Shankbone / CC BY 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What strikes me about Ryan Phillippe is how he weaponized being underestimated. He arrived as a soap-opera pretty boy, and Hollywood seemed content to keep him in that lane, yet his iciness in Cruel Intentions remains one of the most precise pieces of late-90s screen villainy. I admire that he diversified into producing and directing rather than chasing leading-man status forever; that suggests a self-awareness rare in actors who peak young. Add a genuine taekwondo background that lends his action work real physicality, and you get a career built on quiet durability rather than hype. He never quite got the prestige roles he deserved, and I think that is Hollywood's loss more than his.
Overview
Matthew Ryan Phillippe ( FIL-ip-ee; born September 10, 1974) is an American actor. After appearing as Billy Douglas on the soap opera One Life to Live (1992–1993) and making his feature film debut in Crimson Tide (1995), he came to prominence in the late 1990s with starring roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), 54 (1998), Playing by Heart (1998), and Cruel Intentions (1999).
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Ryan Phillippe
- Name (Japanese)
- ライアン・フィリップ
- Reading
- らいあん・ふぃりっぷ
- Born
- September 10, 1974 (age 51)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Tiger
- Origin
- New Castle, Delaware, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / film producer / film director / taekwondo athlete / film actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Film producer — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.