- Named by his father for highly decorated Gunnery Sergeant Leland "Lou" Diamond, USMC, who enlisted in the Marines at age 27 in 1917, and saw action in both world wars. To this day "Lou" Diamond is considered one of the finest Marines of all time, and is known as "Mr. Leatherneck".
- Is 1/8 Cherokee.
- Lou's father, Gerald Amon Upchurch, was an American, from Georgia, and had English and Scots-Irish ancestry. Lou's mother, Lucita Umayam Araña, was Filipino, from Candelaria.
- Was nominated for Broadway's 1996 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for playing one of the title roles, the King, in a revival of "The King and I."
- Grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas
- Was very good friends with the late Brandon Lee & Miguel Ferrer.
- Good friends with Kiefer Sutherland.
- Contributed Native American vocals on the Jon Bon Jovi solo album Young Guns II (1990) soundtrack.
- He was once engaged to Jennifer Tilly.
- Graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington with a BFA in Drama
- The name Phillips is from his step-father.
- Met wife, Yvonne, while shooting a Radio Shack commercial in Vancouver, British Columbia.
- Worked at Whataburger as a teen, becoming a shift leader during his term of employment.
- Lou and his wife, Yvonne, became the parents of a girl, Indigo Sanara, on October 9, 2007.
- Has 3 daughters with second wife Kelly Phillips: twins Grace and Isabella (born 5 October 1997) and Lili Jordan (born 26 September 1999).
- In May 2011 Phillips accepted the GI Spirit Award from Brandon Millet and Laura Law-Millet, who are founders of the the GI Film Festival. The award is presented to actors embodying "the spirit of an American GI in their creative and philanthropic work." Prior recipients of the award include Gary Sinise, Jon Voight, Karri Turner and Rich Schroder.
- The part of Ritchie Valens in the film 'La Bamba' went to the then 25 year old unknown Lou Diamond Phillips who put on 15lbs to get a chubbier face and learned how to sing and play the guitar after he'd passed the audition. During the filming Lou married his own 'Donna' Julie Cyphers who was a production assistant on 'La Bamba'.
- He plays with the group, "The Pipefitters with Lou Diamond Phillips".
- He started acting in theater at the Stage West in Fort Worth, Texas.
- Loves playing poker and has held games at his Los Angeles home for nearly two decades for his friends and others.
- Starring as King Arthur in the national tour of Camelot. (November 2007)
- Graduated from Flour Bluff High School in Corpus Christi, Texas.
- (June 1996 - ?) Stars as the King on the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I
- Dubbed an "Honorary Latino" by Remezcla, a website targeting Latino Millennials.
- Mentor was actor Adam Roarke. They lived in Arlington, TX and Philips helped run Roarke's Film Actors Lab. Philips was also a graduate.
- Turned down his role in Supernova (2000) a few times before eventually accepting it.
- Auditioned for the role of Richard LeStrange in The Blue Lagoon (1980).
- Enjoys doing theater.
- As guest starring, he have appeared in 14 police-detective procedural dramas/thrillers: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), 24 (2001), The Handler (2003), Numb3rs (2005), Criminal Minds (2005), Psych (2006), Chuck (2007), Blue Bloods (2010), Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013), Ironside (2013), NCIS: New Orleans (2014), Blindspot (2015) and Training Day (2017). The episodes where he appeared (in chronological order) are: 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. (2002), 8:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. (2002), Jar of Spiders (2003), Sniper Zero (2005), Toxin (2005), Fault (2006), Spree (2006), Two Daughters (2006), Pandora's Box (2007), Psy vs. Psy (2007), High Exposure (2008), Angels and Devils (2009), Ultimatum (2009), Cause and Effect (2010), Chuck Versus the Cat Squad (2011), Hidden Agenda (2013), Sent on Tour (2015), Authentic Flirt (2015), Sunset (2017), Ka Laina Ma Ke One (2017), The Big House Pt. 1 (2017), The Big House Pt. 2 (2017), Submerged (2018), Checkmate, Part 1 (2018), Checkmate, Part 2 (2018), Playing with Fire (2018), By Hook or by Crook (2018), Common Enemies (2019) Iunne Ennui (2020) and Where the Truth Lies (2020). As regular cast, he appeared in two series: Longmire (2012) and Prodigal Son (2019).
- Good friends with Bill Allen.
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