Jimmy Smits Biography

Jimmy Smits is an American Emmy award-winning actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes in the 1980s-1990s legal drama L.A. Law, and NYPD Detective Bobby Simone in the 1990s-2000s police drama NYPD Blue.

Jimmy Smits Age

Smits is 68 years old as of 2023. He was born on July 9, 1955, in Brooklyn, New York City, United States. Smits celebrates his birthday on the 9th of July every year.

Jimmy Smits Height

Smits stands at an approximate height of 6 feet 2 inches.

Jimmy Smits Family

Smits was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised by his father Cornelis Leendert Smits, and his mother, Emilina Smits along with his sisters, Yvonne and Diana. His father was from Paramaribo, Suriname, and was of Dutch descent and was born in 1929 but unfortunately, he passed away in 2015.

Smits’ mother on the other side was Puerto Rican, born in 1930 in Peñuelas. Smits and his siblings grew up in a working-class neighborhood. He lived in Puerto Rico for a couple of years when he was ten years old. Until then he did not speak Spanish, he described attending a Spanish-only school as “jarring” and “traumatic.”

Jimmy Smits Wife

Smits is in a relationship with Wanda De Jesus, an actress. The two have been together since 1986. Together they reside in Los Angeles. Previously, he was married to his high school sweetheart, Barbara Smits. The two tied the knot in 1981 before they separated in 1987. Together they share two children, Taina, born in 1975, and Joaquin, born in 1983.

Jimmy Smits Net Worth

Smits has an estimated net worth of $25 Million which he has earned from his successful career as an actor.

Jimmy Smits Education

After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School and earning his Diploma in General Education, he had to further his education. He joined Brooklyn College and in 1980, he earned a bachelor’s degree. Smits also attended Cornell University where in 1982 he earned an MFA. He was an athlete in his youth.

Jimmy Smits Career

Smits is an actor, he has played several roles in different plays. He toured the United States performing in off-Broadway and repertory productions and earning considerable praise in the early 1980s. In 1982, he collaborated in the two plays, ‘Cabaret’ and ‘Loose Ends’. On a part-time basis, he began to get cast in both feature films and television productions. In addition to that, he played Eddie Rivera in the American television crime drama Miami Vice in 1984.

The role he played as attorney Victor Sifuentes in the television legal drama series ‘L.A. Law’ was the one that set in motion his career, and garnered him fame, and prominence. The weekly series was a critical and financial success when it premiered on NBC on September 15, 1986. He guest-starred in the sixth season of ‘L.A. Law,’ appearing in a total of 107 episodes.

In 1994, he made his television debut on the police procedural drama series NYPD Blue as Detective Bobby Simone. He starred in the series from the second through the sixth seasons. In addition to that, he acted in films like ‘Murder in Mind’ in 1997 and ‘The Family’ in 1995, television series such as ‘Happily Ever After’ in 1995, and television movies like ‘The Cisco Kid’ in 1994 in the course of his tenure on ‘NYPD Blue.

Smits was cast as Senator Bail Organa in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, the prequel trilogy’s second part, which debuted on May 16, 2002. He returned to the role in 2005’s ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’ and 2016’s ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Jimmy Smits and his wife Arrest

Smits was arrested in 1987 for assaulting an officer after police answered a call for help at his home. His girlfriend De Jesus, who calls herself Juanita Cruz, began to attack the officers questioning her, Smits joined in and both were arrested for battery on the police officers who responded to the call. Because of conflicting witness statements, the charges were later dropped.

Later he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor of disturbing the peace and was sentenced to 18 months of unsupervised probation, 50 hours of community service, and a $150 fine. His girlfriend De Jesus pleaded guilty too to misidentifying herself as a police officer and disturbing the peace. She was fined $250 and sentenced to 18 months of unsupervised probation and 75 hours of community service.

Jimmy Smits Movies and TV Shows

Movies

• Running Scared as Julio Gonzales
• The Believers asTom Lopez
• Vital Signs as Dr. David Redding
• Gross Misconduct as Justin Thorne
• Lesser Prophets as Mike
• The Million Dollar Hotel as Geronimo
• The Jane Austen Book Club as Daniel Avila
• Mother and Child as Paco
• Who We Are Nowas  Carl
• The Tax Collector as Wizard
• In the Heights as Kevin Rosario

TV Shows

• Miami Vice as Eddie Rivera
• L.A. Law as Victor Sifuentes
• The Highwayman as Bo Ziker
• The Broken Cord as David Norwell
• NYPD Blue as Detective Bobby Simone
• The West Wing as Matt Santos
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Victor Santiago
• Bluff City Law as Elijah Strait
• Obi-Wan Kenobi as Senator Bail Organa
• East New York as Assistant Chief John Suarez