Why Kevin Rosario From In The Heights Looks So Familiar

Jimmy Smits was a part of the main cast of 1980s legal drama "L.A. Law" for the show's first five seasons, after which he took on a guest role for Season 6. He took on the part of Victor Sifuentes, an associate attorney at the law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak. The series was among the first television shows to delve into the personal lives of legal professionals and it broke further ground with its casting of Smits, becoming the first successful drama to cast a Latino actor in a central role, according to OZY. In an article entitled "The Latino Lawyer Who Revolutionized Television," writer Sean Braswell shows how revolutionary the decision was by demonstrating how the first scene in which Victor Sifuentes mirrored the cultural breakthrough: Sifuentes demands to see his client at a local police precinct but refuses to be frisked before doing so, for which he's escorted from the premises and demeaned with racial epithets, being derogatorily called "Jose" and "Pancho freakin' Villa." But the crafty Sifuentes has the last laugh, using the incident as leverage to get the case dismissed on the grounds that his client was denied access to counsel.

For such a groundbreaking role, "L.A. Law" fans may be surprised to know Smits almost didn't get the part because he bombed his first audition, he revealed to Entertainment Tonight. Describing his tryout as a "last-minute thing," he revealed "It didn't go well. I'm really methodical about stuff and I've never really done well off the fly." But a friend convinced him to fly out to L.A. and seek out another audition, which he did manage with the show's creator. "I did get another chance to meet Steven Bochco and people that were involved. I was very prepared and was able to verbalize what I could bring, what I felt was there and what could be there, and it went good." Smits received six Emmy nominations for the role and won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series in 1990.

Jimmy Smits had a pretty eclectic resume in the early 2000s.  Starting in 2002, he played a role in the "Star Wars" prequels, appearing as Senator Bail Organa in "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones." Then, in 1999, acclaimed writer Aaron Sorkin launched "The West Wing," a political drama that dove into the lives of members of the White House staff, as they worked in support of fictional President Josiah Bartlett (Martin Sheen). The show was an immediate critical darling, with its first season boasting a 96% critics score and Certified Fresh rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The show's success came due in no small part to its cast, which featured an ensemble of talented actors. John Spencer played Leo McGarry, the president's right-hand man and chief of staff. Allison Janney played press secretary C.J. Cregg, who eventually took over as chief of staff. Richard Schiff played communications director Toby Ziegler, with Rob Lowe as deputy comms director Sam Seaborn. Bradley Whitford played deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman, who would leave the White House to go work for the presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits.

Smits joined the cast of "The West Wing" as a series regular in the show's sixth season. President Bartlett convinces Santos to run for White House to succeed him in the Oval Office, a campaign in which he's successful and is sworn in as president in Season 7, with Lyman serving as his chief of staff. Smits told Entertainment Tonight he was honored to have the opportunity to play a candidate for president from an underrepresented group. "John Wells, who was one of the creators of the show, wanted to explore this path of a minority candidate and what going into a candidacy would be all about ... I felt like there was something else that was going on in terms of what he could potentially represent," Smits said.

Jimmy Smits must have really enjoyed playing a character who operated outside the law in "Dexter," because one of his next television roles came on the outlaw biker drama "Sons of Anarchy." As motorcycle matriarch Gemma Teller-Morrow (Katey Sagal) tries to recover from her split with husband Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman), who killed her first husband John Teller — who was the father of her son, Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) — she does what any woman would do in her place: she gets drunk and hooks up with a gang-leading pimp named Nero Padilla, played by Smits. Well, Nero prefers the term "companionator" for his role in running a brothel, but that's really just a charming way of splitting hairs. Nevertheless, Nero becomes a quick ally and business partner to Jax and the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club's Redwood Original charter, despite the inherent awkwardness of the romantic relationship between Nero and Jax's mother, whose current husband remains, for the time being, nearly 6-feet-tall standing upright, as opposed to six-feet-under, laying horizontally. 

Smits touched on the bond between Jax and Nero in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, explaining the nuanced nature of their rapport. "The relationship has to do with the fact that it operates on a lot of different levels," the actor said. "There is a paternal aspect to it. There's a brotherly kind of thing — they're both in this outlaw world, that kind of bro thing that they have. I think the fact that they both have children and there's a lot of guilt there that they haven't been the fathers that they could've been. I think that's one of the reasons why there's an emotional bridge between them. It's okay for them to have these softer moments."