Lou Diamond Phillips

The actor popularly known as Lou Diamond Philips was born as Lou Diamond Upchurch at Subic Bay US Naval Station to Lucita Aranas and Gerald Upchurch. His mother was a native of Candelaria, Zambales while his farther was an officer with the US navy and is of Scots-Irish and Cherokee descent. Phillips was named after Master Gunnery Sergeant Leland “Lou” Diamond of the United States Marine Corps. He was raised in Texas where he attended high school in Corpus Christi. Phillips then proceeded to graduate from the University of Texas Arlington with a BFA in Drama.

Phillips's first major staring role was in the 1987 film La Bamba where he portrayed the Mexican-American Rock and Roll Pioneer Ritchie Valens. In 1988, Phillips co-starred in the film Stand and Deliver: an American drama film based on the work of Jaime Escalante in predominantly Chicano Garfield High school in East Los Angeles. Phillips was nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role" for his depiction of Angel Guzman, an aspiring gangster in an AP Calculus class. In 1996 Phillips starred in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, his first work in Broadway, and won a Theater World Award. Phillips was also nominated for a Tony and a Drama Desk award for his performance. In 1998 Phillips took on the role of Cisco in the comedy action flick The Big Hit directed by Kirk Wong and co-produced by John Woo. In 2007 Phillips joined a touring performance of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot as King Arthur. In 2001 Phillips was awarded the “Achievement Award for Entertainment” by Filipinas Magazine and in 2003 was awarded the Cinemanila Film Festival Achievement Award in the Philippines.

Phillips has long advocated the passage of HR 4574. The legislation, also known as the Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2006, would have provided the same benefits to Filipino World War II veterans who served with the United States as had been available to veterans of American citizenship. In a letter to the Veterans Affairs Committee, Phillips introduces himself as “an American citizen of Filipino descent,” recounts his mother's citizenship oath and recalls U.S. code sec. 101, title 38 – the so called Rescission Act – to outline his support for Filipino veterans of the Second World War.

Phillips began dating his current wife, Yvonne Boismier, in 2004. They married in August of 2007 and their daughter, Indigo Sanara, was born two months later in October of 2007. In 2009 Phillips finished 186^th of over 6000 players in the World Series of Poker main event.

http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/schedule107/jun02/6-13-02/lphillips.pdf