Article: Role in `La Bamba' rocks actor's soul // Phillips identifies with Ritchie Valens

Lou Diamond Phillips couldn't help feeling a personal bond with Mexican-American rocker Ritchie Valens, whom he portrays in "La Bamba," now at local theaters.

It was eerie being part of the historical portrayal in which he played a man happily unaware he was heading to tragedy, said the 25-year-old Texan. And the vibrations hit hardest the night they re-created events leading to the plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959, which killed Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. Phillips was scared when he got inside the plane with Marshall Crenshaw and Stephen Lee, who played the other singers.

"There we were, in costume, looking at each other. I don't think I was told that the plane would be ...

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