After a quick start with two acclaimed performances in 1987 -- as 1950s rocker Ritchie Valens in La Bamba and as a gang member in Stand And Deliver -- his career quickly sputtered and stalled.

Except for supporting roles in the Young Guns movies, Phillips disappeared into a series of movies that landed on video almost as quickly as they were released.

"There was one year that just boggled my mind," he recalls.

After Young Guns II, he did three films that came out within a year, in 1993-94, Extreme Justice, The Dark Wind and Shadow Of The Wolf. Phillips had high hopes for them all ... and they all tanked.

"Some strange things conspired to keep them out of the market place," he says. "One year of my life and three films that went nowhere."

He shakes his head, still amazed that life could turn on anyone like that. And this explains his response when he's asked why he took so long to getting around to playing the kind of heavy he does in Courage Under Fire, which opens today.

"I have played a number of heavies," he chuckles.

"It's just that I've played a number of heavies in movies nobody has seen."

The point, he says, was to keep working.

"I feel I never left the party. I just went out to the kitchen for a few beers and to talk to a few old friends."

Whichever way you put it, there's no question Phillips has kept up his output in the past 10 years -- even if, as he says, no one saw most of what he did. And there's no question that this year, so far, has been as good as 1993-94 was bad.

In Courage Under Fire, he has perhaps the meatiest and most memorable role, as Monfriez, a Gulf War veteran who masks his post-traumatic shock syndrome with machismo.

"He seems to be the warrior-survivor," Phillips says, "but, in fact, he carries the most baggage."

However, Phillips almost had to pass up the role, when he was offered the chance to make his Broadway debut as the male lead in the classic musical The King And I.

"A Sophie's Choice," he calls the situation. But the schedule was worked out and he was able to do both, winning Theatre World and Outer Critics Circle awards, and a Tony nomination for The King And I.

As well, he makes his directorial debut this year with Sioux City, a drama about a Native American raised by a Jewish family.

"After years of doing roles that weren't so stellar, to so suddenly be in this position is ..."

And he leans back, smiles, folds his arms behind his head, and just says, "Ahhhhhhh."

Lou Diamond Phillips is back from the kitchen.

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