Jimmy Smits

Jimmy Smits (July 9, 1955) is an Emmy Award-winning American actor.

Quotes

 * As an artist I want to try to be as versatile as possible. I’ve had the good fortune to play characters that have a role-model thing to them. But I would think now, after 25 years, 30, that the body of work does say something about where I’m coming from. So now it’s not so much about role models. Although this character does have a nihilistic approach to life and he’s very complicated and flawed, that’s a meal for an actor.
 * On his role in Sons of Anarchy in “Jimmy Smits | Interview” in Time Out (2012 Dec 26)


 * I'm told L.A. Law's success — the fact that his ethnicity was very much part of his identity and he was a great lawyer — caused an increase in applicants to law schools. I got requests to be a keynote speaker at the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association. I always felt that was a little bit above my pay grade, but that's a nice icing on the cake, when your character resonates with the audience.
 * On the legacy of his role as Victor Sifuentes in L.A. Law in “Jimmy Smits Returns to NBC With New Law Series” in AARP Magazine (2019 Sep 19)


 * As an immigrant first-generation family here in this country, it wasn't about safe choices, it was about realistic choices. There was a lot of weight put into the fact that I was one of the first in my extended family to attend college [a bachelor's from Brooklyn College, a master's in fine arts from Cornell) and what that meant — what this country has to offer.
 * On how his parents initially wanted him to have a more traditional occupation in “Jimmy Smits Returns to NBC With New Law Series” in AARP Magazine (2019 Sep 19)