Although this Hispanic hunk's character died quickly in his TV debut on the Miami Vice pilot, Smits parlayed what could have been 15 minutes of fame into a multi-decade career. His five-year stint on L.A. Law as a rags-to-riches lawyer turned Smits into a star, earned him an Emmy and helped pave the way for Latino actors who were sick of only playing criminals. In 1994, he joined the taboo-breaking NYPD Blue as a sensitive detective who wasn't afraid to show his backside. While Smits appeared in a handful of films along the way, including two Star Wars movies, he's most frequently seen on the small screen. In 2004, he signed on to play a Democratic presidential candidate-turned-president-elect on the last two seasons of West Wing. After that series ended, Smits executive-produced and starred on the short-lived CBS drama Cane---a casualty of the 2007-08 writers' strike---which he immediately followed with a Season 3 stint on Showtime's acclaimed Dexter. Smits also devotes his time to a number of charitable causes, including the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, which he co-founded in 1997 to promote Hispanic talent in the performing arts.