Circuit City News Paper - 1996

Lou Diamond Phillips gets his idiosyncratic good looks from a gene pool varied enough to make your head spin. He was born in the Philippines and numbers among his ethnic extractions some Filipino, Cherokee Indian, Scottish-Irish, Hawaiian and Hispanic blood.

His dark complexion and exotic looks have relegated him to "ethnic" roles in Hollywood. Phillips was born Lou Upchurch in the Phillipines, the son of a naval aircraft mechanic, and raised in Flour Bluff, a small town near Corpus Christie, Texas. Philipps's father died when he was young and he would later change his name to Phillips from his step-father.

Though he received scholarships to the U.S. Naval Academy and to Yale, Phillips preferred to attend the local University of Texas at Arlington so he could remain close to his high school friends. While working towards his BFA at University, Phillips found a growing passion for acting and after appearing in several drama club productions and in a local comedy troupe, believed himself destined for stardom.

When real stars came to town, he would go to extreme lengths to meet them. For example, when his idol Robert DeNiro came, Phillips dressed up as a bellboy and slipped up to the great actor's hotel room.

After college, Phillips joined Fort Worth's tiny Stage West theater. During his four year stay, Phillips appeared in such made-in-Texas independent films as Trespasses (1987) for which he also wrote the script. He associate-produced another of these films, Dakota. After the only moderate success of Young Guns, Phillips career faltered with films such as First Power (1989), the dismal Young Guns II (1990) and the laughably self-important Shadow of the Wolf (1992). Phillips made an inauspicious directorial debut with Dangerous Touch (1993), following it up with Sioux City (1994).

During these years of hit and miss films, Phillips would take much of his spare time working on human suffering. On November 18, 1993 he received the Oxfam America award for his dedication toward ending world hunger.

Though he worked steadily in films through the decade, Phillips was almost a forgotten quantity in Hollywood. In 1995, Phillips' career took a surprising and unexpectedly successful turn when a casting director spotted Phillips and brought him in to audition for the role of King Mongkut in a new production of The King and I. Phillips had only a few experiences on stage, but his portrayal of the bumbling king won him an Outer Critics Award for Outstanding Debut of an Actor as well as a Theatre World Award in 1996. Among the benefits of his re-emergence has been renewed interest in Phillips from Hollywood. Though he never really left, Phillip's had a "comeback" when he starred opposite Denzel Washington in Courage Under Fire (1996).

In 1986, he married assistant director and music video director, Julie Cypher. A short-lived marriage, they filed for divorced in 1991 and Cypher began dating singer Melissa Etheridge. A new woman entered his life, model Kelly Preston (not to be confused with actor Kelly Preston). The two were married in April of 1994. They have twin daughters, Grace and Isabella.

As for Phillips' slant on what he hopes the take-away message is from the films he appears in, he says, "People should leave a movie having learned something about themselves, about others and about life."

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