# Jimmy Smits
**Jimmy Smits** (born 1955 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actor best known for television roles connected to law and public life: attorney Victor Sifuentes on *L.A. Law*, detective Bobby Simone on *NYPD Blue*, presidential candidate Matthew Santos on *The West Wing*, assistant district attorney Miguel Prado on *Dexter*, and Nero Padilla on *Sons of Anarchy*[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits). He won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1990 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for *L.A. Law*, earned five further lead-actor nominations for *NYPD Blue*, and won a Golden Globe for *NYPD Blue*[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/). Alongside acting, he co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts in 1997[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1955, Brooklyn, New York; some reference sources print 1958 instead[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits) • [4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/smits-jimmy-1955) |
| Education | Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, B.A. in theater, 1980; Cornell University, M.F.A., 1982[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/smits-jimmy-1955) |
| Emmy record | 12 nominations and 1 win, per the Television Academy; the win was Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1990 for *L.A. Law*[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits) |
| Signature TV roles | Victor Sifuentes on *L.A. Law*, Bobby Simone on *NYPD Blue*, Matthew Santos on *The West Wing*, Miguel Prado on *Dexter*, Nero Padilla on *Sons of Anarchy*, Chief John Suarez on *East New York*[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits) • [5](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/online-originals/jimmy-smits) |
| Golden Globe | Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Drama, for *NYPD Blue*, listed as a 1996 win by IMDb and Encyclopedia.com and as a 1995 win by the Television Academy[3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/) • [2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits) |
| Film roles | Bail Organa in the *Star Wars* prequels and *Rogue One*; Kevin Rosario in *In the Heights* (2021)[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/jimmy_smits) • [5](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/online-originals/jimmy-smits) |
| Advocacy | Co-founder, National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (1997), with Esai Morales, Sonia Braga, and attorney Felix Sanchez[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits) |
## Early life and education
Smits was born in Brooklyn to Emelina Smits, a nurse from Puerto Rico, and Cornelis Smits, a plant manager who had immigrated from Suriname[7](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/jimmy-smits/). He spent a short period of childhood in Puerto Rico, between roughly ages nine and 11, before the family returned to New York[7](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/jimmy-smits/). His formative years were in Brooklyn, where he attended George Gershwin Junior High School and Thomas Jefferson High School; at [Thomas Jefferson](https://www.edgepedia.org/thomas-jefferson) he played linebacker on the football team and quit to concentrate on the drama club[5](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/online-originals/jimmy-smits) • [7](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/jimmy-smits/).
He attended [Brooklyn College](https://www.edgepedia.org/brooklyn-college), where he switched majors from education to theater while keeping a minor in Puerto Rican studies, and earned his M.F.A. in theater from Cornell University in 1982[7](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/jimmy-smits/). In the early 1980s he toured the United States in repertory and off-Broadway productions[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits).
## Early screen work
His television debut came in the two-hour pilot of *Miami Vice* (1984), in which he played [Don Johnson](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-johnson)'s character's original partner, a role that ended with the character killed in the episode[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits). In 1986 he took his first big-screen role, as a drug dealer in *[Running Scared](https://www.edgepedia.org/running-scared-1986-film)*, and later that year he was cast as attorney Victor Sifuentes on *L.A. Law*[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits).
## L.A. Law and stardom
*L.A. Law*, [Steven Bochco](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-bochco)'s legal drama for NBC, made Smits a star; the role of Sifuentes, a public defender turned corporate litigator, made him a popular leading man and, as one profile puts it, a Hispanic heartthrob[8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/smits-jimmy-1945) • [1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits). He received six consecutive Emmy nominations for the role, winning Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1990[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits).
He left the series in 1991, with guest appearances afterward, to pursue a film career[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits). During this period he starred as General Arroyo in *Old Gringo* (1989) opposite [Jane Fonda](https://www.edgepedia.org/jane-fonda) and [Gregory Peck](https://www.edgepedia.org/gregory-peck), and appeared in *Switch* (1991), *The Broken Cord* (1992), and [Stephen King](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-king)'s *The Tommyknockers* (1993)[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits) • [1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits).
## NYPD Blue
Bochco approached Smits in 1993 after [David Caruso](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-caruso)'s departure from *NYPD Blue*; according to a Los Angeles Times account, Smits had been the first actor Bochco considered for the co-starring role before Caruso took it, and had declined it at that time[9](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-30-ca-14001-story.html). Smits debuted in the fall of 1994 as detective Bobby Simone, partner to [Dennis Franz](https://www.edgepedia.org/dennis-franz)'s Andy Sipowicz, and remained with the show until 1998[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits).
The role brought five consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (1995 through 1999), a Golden Globe win for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Drama, and Golden Satellite and ALMA Award wins[3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/). The Golden Globe year is itself a source disagreement: IMDb and Encyclopedia.com list the win in 1996, while the Television Academy biography says he won "in 1995"[3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/) • [4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/smits-jimmy-1955) • [2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits).
## The West Wing, Dexter, and Sons of Anarchy
In 2004 Smits returned to series television as Representative Matthew Santos, a Texas legislator who runs for and wins the presidency in the later seasons of *The West Wing* (2004 to 2006)[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits) • [10](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/374586/1/Victoria_20Kearley_20Thesis_20Feb_202015.pdf). For the role he won an ALMA Award in 2006 and an Imagen Award in 2005 for Best Actor in [Television](https://www.edgepedia.org/television)[3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/).
In 2008 he played Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado in Season 3 of Showtime's *Dexter*, a guest arc the Television Academy describes as his 12th Emmy nomination; his character begins as a restrained, respectable figure and gives way to amoral and murderous instincts[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits) • [10](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/374586/1/Victoria_20Kearley_20Thesis_20Feb_202015.pdf). He won a Saturn Award for Best Guest Performance in a Television Series for the role[3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/).
Beginning in 2012 he was a regular on the FX drama *Sons of Anarchy* as Nero Padilla, a semi-reformed gang leader whom the Television Academy describes as "a Latino gangbanger with an exit strategy"; the role brought Satellite Award nominations in 2014 and 2015[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/). In between, his El Sendero Productions company co-executive produced the CBS series *Cane* (2007), in which he also starred, and he narrated the PBS documentary series *Latin Music USA*[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits).
## Film and later television
Smits's film work includes Senator Bail Organa in *Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones* (2002), *[Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith](https://www.edgepedia.org/star-wars-episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sith)* (2005), and *Rogue One: A Star Wars Story* (2016); the lead in Gregory Nava's *My Family/Mi Familia* (1995), which brought an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead; *Lackawanna Blues* (2005); *Mother and Child* (2009); and Kevin Rosario, the widowed father in the musical film *In the Heights* (2021)[3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/jimmy_smits) • [2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits). On stage he starred on Broadway in Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning *Anna in the Tropics* (2004) and in *God of Carnage* (2009)[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits).
In 2019 he played a civil rights activist in the NBC series *Bluff City Law*, and in March 2022 he joined the cast of the CBS police drama *[East New York](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-new-york-tv-series)* as Chief John Suarez, the mentor of Deputy Inspector Regina Haywood, reuniting with *L.A. Law* and *NYPD Blue* producers William Finkelstein and Michael M. Robin[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits) • [2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits) • [5](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/online-originals/jimmy-smits).
## Hispanic representation and advocacy
Smits has repeatedly played educated, authoritative Latino characters, a pattern scholars of Hispanic masculinity on television single out, alongside his working-class roles such as the detective in *NYPD Blue* and the gang figure in *Sons of Anarchy*[10](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/374586/1/Victoria_20Kearley_20Thesis_20Feb_202015.pdf). In 1997 he co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts with actors [Esai Morales](https://www.edgepedia.org/esai-morales) and Sonia Braga and Washington attorney Felix Sanchez; the organization offers graduate scholarships and cash grants at prominent colleges and universities to expand career opportunities for Hispanic artists and professionals[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits). Biography.com reports that he has won three ALMA Awards and received the Ackerman Leadership Award in 2015 for community work[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits).
## Personal life
Smits married his high school sweetheart Barbara in 1981; the couple had two children, Taina and Joaquin, before divorcing in 1987. He has been the longtime companion of actress Wanda De Jesus[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/smits-jimmy-1955) • [1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits). With comedian Paul Rodriguez and [Jennifer Lopez](https://www.edgepedia.org/jennifer-lopez), he invested in the Conga Room, a Los Angeles club devoted to Latino music[1](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits).
## References
1. [Jimmy Smits Biography, Biography.com](https://www.biography.com/actor/jimmy-smits)
2. [Jimmy Smits, Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/jimmy-smits)
3. [Jimmy Smits - Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001751/awards/)
4. [Smits, Jimmy 1955(?)-, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/smits-jimmy-1955)
5. [Jimmy Smits' Homecoming, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/online-originals/jimmy-smits)
6. [Jimmy Smits, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/jimmy_smits)
7. [Jimmy Smits, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/jimmy-smits/)
8. [Smits, Jimmy (1945-), Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/smits-jimmy-1945)
9. [Seeking 'Glory' in the Ring, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-30-ca-14001-story.html)
10. [Victoria Kearley, thesis on Hispanic masculinity on television, University of Southampton](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/374586/1/Victoria_20Kearley_20Thesis_20Feb_202015.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1970s to 1990s › Surnames Sm to Su*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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