RYAN PHILLIPPE - PHILLIPPE CONSIDERED THE ARMY BEFORE MAKING TV HISTORY

Actor RYAN PHILLIPPE considered joining the U.S. Army and fighting for his country in the Middle East before he became an actor. The Crash star, who plays an Iraq War veteran in new film Stop-Loss, admits he accompanied a pal to a recruitment office and almost signed up. He recalls, "I went into a recruitment office around the time of the first Gulf War and my friend, Jason, who went with me, ended up signing up and going over there and I just took the T-shirt and went to New York to be an actor. "I didn't have the best grades and we didn't have a lot of money, so it (the military) was one of the options." Phillippe went from considering the Army to playing the first gay teen in a U.S. soap. Then 17, the actor played homosexual Billy Douglas in One Life To Live - his first paying gig as an actor. He says, "It was my mom's favourite soap."