Matthew Ryan Phillippe ( ; born September 10, 1974) is an American actor. After appearing on the soap opera One Life to Live, he came to fame in the late 1990s, starring in a string of teen-oriented films, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, and 54. Phillippe's more recent roles include the 2005 Academy Award-winning ensemble film Crash and the 2006 war drama Flags of Our Fathers. In 2007 he starred in Breach, a movie based on the true story of FBI Operative Eric O'Neill who is assigned to shadow and help catch his boss, Robert Hanssen, a spy for the Soviet Union, in the act of selling secret material.
Ryan Phillippe was born on September 10, 1974. His childhood was spent in New Castle, Delaware, with three sisters, Kirsten, Lindsay, and Katelyn. Ryan's acting career began with the soap opera, "One Life to Live" (1968). It was no small role; his character, Billy Douglas, was US daytime television's first gay teenager. Billy struggled with coming out issues and the town's anti-gay reactions. After several other television appearances and some small roles in movies, he began starring in movies of his own, Nowhere (1997), White Squall (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997).
