Jimmy Smits

In 1986, Smits was signed to play tyro attorney Victor Sifuentes on the weekly NBC series L.A. Law, a role which would win him a fervent fan following as well as an Emmy. He eventually left the series to pursue a theatrical film career, but by 1994 was back on the small screen in such cable-TV productions as The Cisco Kid and Solomon and Sheba. While filming the latter production in Morocco, Smits was asked by the producers of the TV series NYPD Blue to replace another actor with movie aspirations, David Caruso. In the fall of 1994, Smits made his NYPD Blue bow in the role of detective Bobby Simone, almost immediately reclaiming the viewers who'd sworn to desert the series when Caruso left. Following this personal triumph, Smits starred in 1995's Mi Familia, a critically acclaimed film of barrio life.

In 1998, after four years in the role of Simone, Smits chose to leave NYPD Blue, though the show would continue for another seven years without him. The first few years of his career following the departure from the show were somewhat lackluster, but Smits eventually landed the role of Senator Bail Organa in the second and third Star Wars prequels, a move that would permanently cement him in film history in the minds of at least one very large fanbase.

In addition to his work with the Star Wars franchise, Smits also made an inevitable return to the small-screen mid-decade with a prominent role on NBC's The West Wing during the show's 2004-2005 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide