Member Since: |
2006 |
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IMDb Listing for Jimmy Smits |
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Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning actor Jimmy Smits has established himself as one of the most gifted and versatile actors working in film, television and on the stage. He is one of the few actors who can move effortlessly from television to film to stage and back again.
After an influential and successful role in the critically-acclaimed ABC series “NYPD Blue,” Smits has returned to television, once again in a powerful role on NBC’s “The West Wing” playing Matt Santos, a Houston Congressman who aspires to the White House.
Smits most recently appeared as Ruben Santiago Sr. in HBO's "Lackawanna Blues," George C. Wolfe's colorful tale of boarding house life, love, and blues in 1950s New York. Last May, he reprised his “Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones” role as Senator Bail Organa in “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.”
Smits has involved himself in various charitable organizations over the years and has been a strong advocate for education. In 1997, he co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, along with Esai Morales, Sonia Braga and Washington attorney Felix Sanchez, to promote Hispanic talent in the performing arts. The program offers graduate scholarships and cash grants at prominent colleges and universities in order to expand career opportunities and increase access for Hispanic artists and professionals while fostering the emergence of new Hispanic talent.
Other organizations Smits is involved with include The Fulfillment Fund, United Way, NOFAS (National Organization of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), The Police Athletic League and he has participated in the Century Council’s anti-drunk driving campaign as well as hosted the “El Futuro de Nuestros Ninos” program for Loma Linda University Medical Center.
In theater, Smits was most recently seen gracing the stage in a Public Theater presentation of “Much Ado About Nothing” for the 2004 summer season of Shakespeare in the Park, as well as “Twelfth Night” in 2002. In between, he starred on Broadway as the romantic new arrival in a Cuban-American cigar factory in Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Anna in the Tropics.”
Prior to his transition back to the stage and since his highly-acclaimed departure from the hit series “NYPD Blue,” Smits has been seen in several films, including New Line Cinema’s “Price of Glory,” directed by Carlos Avila, in which he portrayed father/contender Arturo Ortega, who attempts to realize his broken dreams as a championship boxer by training his three sons to become champions; and Chuck Russell’s thriller “Bless The Child” opposite Kim Basinger for Paramount Pictures, in which he portrayed an investigator who specializes in supernatural phenomenon.
Smits has enjoyed an exemplary TV career and has the distinction of having received an Emmy nomination for every year he had been on television. He received six consecutive Emmy nominations for his role of Victor Sifuentes on “L.A. Law,” winning the Emmy in 1990, and also five Emmy nominations for his role as Bobby Simone on the critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning drama, “NYPD Blue.” Additionally, he has four Golden Globe nominations – winning as an Actor in a Leading Role, Drama Series, in 1995 for his role in “NYPD Blue” -- and four SAG Award nominations. His highly touted departure from “NYPD Blue” also won the Humanitas Award.
A native of Brooklyn and a second generation American, Smits traces his Hispanic roots to Puerto Rico on his mother's side and to Surinam, South America, on his father's. His family moved several times during his childhood and he spent his early adolescence in Puerto Rico, where he learned to speak Spanish. |
