Matt Damon

Damon at the Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, 7 December 2001
Birth name
Matthew Paige Damon
Born
October 8, 1970 (1970-10-08) (age 36)
Cambridge, Massachusetts U.S.
Years active
1988 - present
Spouse(s)
Luciana Bozán Barroso (2005-present)
Awards
Academy Awards
Best Original Screenplay
1997 Good Will Hunting
Golden Globe Awards
Best Screenplay
1998 Good Will Hunting
Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American actor and screenwriter. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his screenwriting in Good Will Hunting and was nominated for his lead performance in the same film. Growing steadily in popularity from that film back in 1997 with many appearances alongside other A-list actors in mainstream films, today he is rated amongst the top actors in Hollywood.
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life
- 1.2 Career
- 1.3 Upcoming films
- 2 Awards and honors
- 3 Philanthropy
- 4 Personal life
- 5 Interests and notable events
- 6 Filmography
- 7 References
- 8 External links
//
Biography
Early life
Matt Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Kent Telfer Damon, a stockbroker, realtor, and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University.[1] Damon has a brother, Kyle, who is an accomplished sculptor and artist.[2] After his parents divorced, Damon and his brother moved with his mother to Cambridge.[3] Damon grew up next door to actor Ben Affleck and historian and author Howard Zinn.[3][4] Damon worked Zinn's popular book A People's History of the United States into his character's dialogue in the movie Good Will Hunting, saying: "That book will knock you on your ass." Later he did the narration for Zinn's own biographical film You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train[5] and an audio version of A People's History of the United States.
Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the only public high school in Cambridge, and performed in several theater productions.[6] He graduated from the school in 1988 and began attending Harvard University in the same year. Damon could have graduated with the class of 1992, but kept leaving classes to pursue acting projects, including the TNT original film Rising Son and ensemble prep-school drama School Ties. While at Harvard, he concentrated in English and lived in Lowell House. He did not take part in student theater generally, but did appear in A... My Name is Alice (in one of the three male roles usually performed by women). Damon dropped out of the university to pursue his acting career in Los Angeles after Geronimo: An American Legend was expected (incorrectly) to be a big success.
Career
Damon's first film role came in 1988 when he was 16, with a single line of dialogue in the romantic comedy Mystic Pizza. Damon appeared in small roles before landing a big part in Geronimo: An American Legend with Gene Hackman and Jason Patric. He next appeared as a heroin-addicted soldier in 1996's Courage Under Fire. He was required to lose 40 pounds (18 kg) in 100 days (for only two days of filming).[7][8] After following a self-prescribed diet and fitness regimen to lose the weight, Damon was told after filming that he was fortunate his heart did not shrink.[8] Damon took medication for several years afterwards to correct the stress inflicted on his adrenal gland, and has stated that it was worthwhile to properly portray his character and show the industry how committed he was to the role.[8]
Damon and actor Ben Affleck, close personal friends as well as co-stars in several films, developed a thriller about a young math genius, which they pitched around Hollywood. Receiving advice from writer/director/actor Rob Reiner, screenwriter William Goldman, and their friend writer/director Kevin Smith,[citation needed] the two changed the script around to focus on a young math genius trying to make his way in the world. Goldman's only advice was to agree with Reiner in that the script should lose its early thriller focus.[citation needed] This script eventually became Good Will Hunting, which earned both Damon and Affleck Oscars for Best Original Screenplay. Damon was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for the same film (which netted an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for co-star Robin Williams). Damon parodied this as a fictional version of himself in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Damon founded Project Greenlight with Affleck and Chris Moore to find and fund worthwhile film projects from novice filmmakers.[9] The televised documentary about the making of the film projects has been nominated for an Emmy three times.
Damon has been known to choose a wide variety of film roles, from his portrayal of bisexual murderer Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor, to a fallen angel who discusses pop culture as intellectual subject matter in Dogma, in which he co-starred with Affleck (1999); from a conjoined twin in Stuck on You, to a film he co-wrote with friend Casey Affleck and Gus Van Sant with limited dialogue--the low budget experimental film Gerry. Damon has been part of two major film franchises. He played amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne in the successful action movies The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum and starred as the youthful, optimistic thief, Linus Caldwell, opposite George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts in Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack's 1960 caper classic Ocean's Eleven. The successful crime dramedy spawned two sequels: Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen.
Martin Scorsese and Damon on the set of The Departed
Among other high profile roles, Damon played a fictionalized version of Wilhelm Grimm in Terry Gilliam's fantasy adventure The Brothers Grimm and an energy analyst in Syriana. He was recently onscreen in Robert DeNiro's The Good Shepherd as a career CIA agent, and played an undercover mobster working for the Massachusetts State Police in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed, a remake of the Hong Kong police thriller Infernal Affairs. He also has a supporting role in Kenneth Lonergan's film Margaret and an uncredited cameo in Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth, both due in 2007.
In 2007, rumors stated that producer J.J. Abrams was trying to get Damon to play James T. Kirk in the eleventh Star Trek feature film. Damon told IGN on July 20, 2007 that he would not be in the film, as the director was casting someone significantly younger, and speculation about his casting had been solely based on Internet rumors.[10]
Upcoming films
Damon's future projects include four films that will debut between 2007 and 2009. In 2007, he will portray Mr. Aaron in the drama Margaret. In 2009, Damon will join the boxing drama The Fighter and Imperial Life in the Emerald City, based on the novel of the same name. He also has signed on for The Informant, which currently does not have release date. The film will have Damon rejoin Steven Soderbergh and is based on the true story of Mark Whitacre, a corporate whistleblower who wore a wire for two and a half years for the FBI. Whitacre was a high-level executive at a Fortune 500 company, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), in one of the largest price-fixing cases in history.[11] Filming is expected to commence on 15 April, 2008.[12] However, the script for the movie was written by Scott Z. Burns using Kurt Eichenwald's book, The Informant. Kurt Eichenwald is the investigative reporter who recently lost his credibility and his career in journalism because of unethical payments, and possibly illegal, in a recent child pornography case.[13][14] The debate continues whether the filming will continue because of the Eichenwald child pornography controversy and his lack of credibility.[13][14] James Lieber, a lawyer who authored Rats in the Grain, painted a much different picture about Whitacre than Eichenwald, portraying Whitacre as an American hero who was overpowered by ADM's vast political clout.[15] Dean Paisley, formerly 25 years with the FBI and supervisor of the ADM case, has supported a Whitacre Pardon for several years which is more in line with Lieber's conclusion than Eichenwald's.[16]
Awards and honors
- Damon won multiple awards for Good Will Hunting, a film he co-wrote with Ben Affleck. He was nominated for the Academy Award "Best Actor in a Leading Role" and won "Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen".[17] *Additionally, Damon has been nominated three times for an Emmy for his work on his show Project Greenlight.[17]
- On July 25, 2007, Damon became the 2,343rd person to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[18] Damon reacted to the award, stating: "A few times in my life I've had these experiences that are just kind of too big to process and this looks like it's going to be one of those times."[19]
Philanthropy
Damon, along with frequent co-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt, supports ONE, a campaign fighting AIDS and poverty in Third World countries. He has appeared in their print and television advertising.
Damon is a board member of GreenDimes.com, an organization that attempts to halt the tons of junk mail delivered to American homes each day.[20][21] Appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 20, 2007, Damon promoted the organization's efforts to prevent the trees used for junk mail letters and envelopes from being chopped down. Damon stated: "For an estimated dime a day they can stop 70 per cent of the junk mail that comes to your house. It's very simple, easy to do, great gift to give, I've actually signed up my entire family. It was a gift given to me this past holiday season and I was so impressed that I'm now on the board of the company."
Damon is one of the founders of Not On Our Watch, an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities such as in Darfur, along with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub.[22] He is also the founder of H2O Africa, the charitable arm of the Running the Sahara expedition.[23]
Personal life
Damon with his wife, Luciana.
Damon has had relationships with several actresses throughout his career. Damon had a three-year relationship with actress Winona Ryder.[24] He also dated Odessa Whitmire, who has worked as a personal assistant for Billy Bob Thornton and Ben Affleck, from 2001 to 2003.[25] His relationship with Good Will Hunting co-star Minnie Driver reportedly ended when Damon announced their break-up on The Oprah Winfrey Show, though both actors have repeatedly denied this. Damon later stated that he was "sick and tired" of hearing the story, saying it was false. Driver's sister allegedly told Cosmo that the couple had broken up before the show was taped.[26]
Damon met Argentine-born Luciana Bozan Barroso in Miami, where she was working as a bartender.[27] They married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, in New York City Hall. Damon became stepfather to Barroso's young daughter, Alexia, from her previous marriage. The couple's first child together, daughter Isabella, was born on June 11, 2006.[28]
Damon, along with his best friend Ben Affleck, are Boston Red Sox fans.
Interests and notable events
Handprints and footprints of Damon in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel often says: "Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time" near the end of his ABC television show Jimmy Kimmel Live, a gag lampooning instances where shows cannot feature their last guest due to time constraints. On September 12, 2006, after a segment highlighting the running gag and a lengthy introduction by Kimmel, Damon finally appeared on the show, only for Kimmel to apologetically cut his interview and head to credits. Damon told him "to go and fuck himself" and cursed Kimmel out during the credits. Kimmel later confirmed to USA Weekend that the skit was entirely planned and Damon willingly played along.[29] Kimmel's girlfriend, comedian Sarah Silverman, also used this line at the end of the the 2007 MTV movie awards. This gag was also used again when Guillermo interviewed Matt at the Ocean's 13 premiere, with Damon asking "Are you with Kimmel?"
Damon appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews in December 2006 and discussed the ongoing war in Iraq. Responding to Chris Matthews, Damon stated: "I don't think that it's fair, as I said before, that it seems like we have a fighting class in our country that's comprised of people who have to go for either financial reasons, or, I don't think that that is fair and if you're gonna send people to war ... then that needs to be shared by everybody."[30]
Filmography
Year
Film
Role
Notes
1988
Mystic Pizza
Steamer
One line
1992
School Ties
Charlie Dillon
1996
Glory Daze
Edgar Pudwhacker
Cameo
Courage Under Fire
Specialist Ilario
1997
Good Will Hunting
Will Hunting
Also co-writer
The Rainmaker
Rudy Baylor
Chasing Amy
Shawn Oran
Cameo
1998
Rounders
Mike McDermott
Saving Private Ryan
Private James Francis Ryan
1999
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Tom Ripley
Dogma
Loki
2000
Finding Forrester
Steven Sanderson
Cameo
All the Pretty Horses
John Grady Cole
The Legend of Bagger Vance
Rannulph Junuh
Titan A.E.
Cale Tucker
Voice
2001
The Majestic
Luke Trimble
Voice only
Ocean's Eleven
Linus Caldwell
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Himself
Cameo
2002
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Matt, bachelor #2
Cameo
The Bourne Identity
Jason Bourne
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
Spirit
Voice
Gerry
Gerry
Also co-writer
2003
Stuck on You
Bob
2004
Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
Narrator
Voice
Ocean's Twelve
Linus Caldwell
The Bourne Supremacy
Jason Bourne
Jersey Girl
PR Exec #2
Cameo
Eurotrip
Donny
Cameo
2005
Syriana
Bryan Woodman
The Brothers Grimm
Will Grimm
2006
The Good Shepherd
Edward Wilson
The Departed
Colin Sullivan
2007
The Bourne Ultimatum
Jason Bourne
Running the Sahara
Narrator, Executive Producer
Post-production
Margaret
Mr. Aaron
Post-production
Ocean's Thirteen
Linus Caldwell
2009
The Fighter
Dick Eklund
Pre-production
Imperial Life in the Emerald City
Pre-production
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Matt Damon
^ Hollywood.com. Matt Damon Full Biography. Retrieved on September 5, 2007.
^ Animation Magazine. Matt Damon Animated for Arthur. Retrieved on September 5, 2007.
^ a b ActingBiz. Matt Damon. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
^ Horowitz, David. Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam And The American Left. Regnery Publishing, 102. ISBN 089526076X.
^ IMDB.com. Biography for Matt Damon. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ AskMen.com. Matt Damon Biography. Retrieved on September 5, 2007.
^ Tribute.ca. Matt Damon bio: The Bourne Ultimatum Actor. Retrieved on September 3, 2007.
^ a b c YahooIndia. Weight loss left Damon feeling like a "wreck". Retrieved on September 3, 2007.
^ Project Greenlight. About Project Greenlight. Retrieved on September 3, 2007.
^ RottenTomatoes.com. Matt Damon Sets the Star Trek Record Straight. Retrieved on September 6, 2007.
^ Hollywood.com. The Informant. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ CHUD.com. THE MATT DAMON ULTIMATUM. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ a b PJStar.com. Justice comes late for key players in ADM scandal. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ a b TheNewYorkObserver.com. Kurt Eichenwald Resigns from Portfolio. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ Find Articles. Rats In the Grain. - Review - book review. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ GEN.com. Mark Whitacre, Ph.D. Joins Management Team at Cypress Systems, Inc.. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ a b Internet Movie Database. Awards for Matt Damon. Retrieved on September 7, 2007.
^ Xinhua.com. Matt Damon gets star on Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved on September 3, 2007.
^ FOXNews.com. Matt Damon Gets Hollywood Walk of Fame Star. Retrieved on September 3, 2007.
^ GreenDimes.com. Green Dimes. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ Oprah.com. Matt Damon's Crusade to Stop Junk Mail. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ NotOurWatchProject.org. Not On Our Watch. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ GWC.org. Actor Matt Damon aims to create public awareness of the water crisis with H20 Africa. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ Tiscali.film & tv. WINONA RYDER BIOGRAPHY. Retrieved on September 6, 2007.
^ IMDB. Matt Damon Has New Girlfriend. Retrieved on September 6, 2007.
^ FortuneCity.com. Answers to commonly asked questions. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ GlenPower.com. Quietest Celebrity Wedding - Matt Damon and Luciana Bozan Barroso. Retrieved on September 6, 2007.
^ People.com. Matt Damon, Wife Have a Girl. Retrieved on September 6, 2007.
^ USAWeekend.com. Who's News. Retrieved on September 1, 2007.
^ OperationYellowElephant. Matt Damon Joins Operation Yellow Elephant. Retrieved on September 8, 2007.
External links
- Matt Damon at the Internet Movie Database
- Matt Damon at Yahoo! Movies
- Matt Damon at TV.com
- Matt Damon at the Notable Names Database
- Matt Damon at People.com
- Matt Damon on Moviefone
- Matt Damon News Column
- Matt Damon interview
- Matt Damon on Hardball
- GreenDimes Matt Damon, board member
- Not On Our Watch: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Jerry Weintraub