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Born on 8th October 1970 in the Cambridge area of Boston, Matt Damon’s parents
separated when he was two years old and he and his brother moved to nearby
Cambridge. A bright youngster, Matt was a ‘straight A’ student with a love of
baseball.
When he was 10, Matt befriended a local boy by the name of Ben Affleck and the pair became life-long friends. Both
boys developed a fascination with acting and Matt would often be found trying out
as an extra in any movies shot in his local area.
Aged 16, and much to their parent’s disapproval, Matt and Ben moved to New York in
search of fame and fortune. Things got off to a good start for Matt when he was
cast alongside Julia Roberts in ‘Mystic Pizza’.
However, this promising start wasn’t to continue and before long Matt decided to
take up a place at Harvard with an eye to moving onto the Yale School Of Drama
after graduation. Ever the bright student, he received one of the first varsity
letters in dramatics, before quitting Harvard with 12 credits still needed for
graduation.
Still chasing that all-illusive big break, Matt did the rounds of auditions losing
out on some parts and turning down others that went on to become hits for other
young hopefuls such as Leonardo DiCaprio and
Joaquin Phoenix.
Matt next turned his attentions to re-working a screenplay that he and Ben had
written whilst studying at Harvard. The play, ‘Good Will Hunting’, initially picked
up interest from a leading studio, although doubts were cast as to whether Damon or
Affleck were right for the lead roles.
Whilst tirelessly searching for the deal for the screenplay, Matt’s profile was
growing steadily thanks to parts in such films as Francis Ford Coppola's ‘The
Rainmaker’, based on the John Grisham book.
Soon after this, Miramax decided to pay Matt and Ben $500,000 for ‘Good Will
Hunting’ and Robin Williams joined the project. Released on the 25th of December
1997, ‘Good Will Hunting’ was a instant hit, easily topping the $100 million mark
and picking up nine nominations at the 1998 Academy Awards. Robin Williams walked
away with the Best Supporting Actor award while Matt and Ben became the proud
winners of a Best Original Screenplay award.
Matt Damon’s star had well and truly risen now and over the next few years he
appeared in hits such as ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘Rounders’, ‘All The Pretty Horses’
and ‘Dogma’.
Choosing his projects wisely, Matt managed to
steer a distinguished career path without opting for high-earning, quick
turnaround movies favoured by some. Displaying his sinister side in ‘The
Talented Mr Ripley’, alongside Jude Law in 1999, he won a new legion of fans
proving his talents lay above and beyond his clean-cut, boy-next-door
looks.
‘Ocean's Eleven’ in 2001 was another monster hit that
allowed Matt the creative freedom to work on ventures such as ‘Project Greenlight’,
which provided a creative vehicle for new movie-making talent. The television show
behind the project was a great success and earned Matt and Ben Affleck an Emmy
nomination. The pair continued to work on a number of productions having formed
Pearl Street Productions together with Chris Moore In 1998.
It was with ‘The Bourne Identity’ in 2002 that Matt
made a return to the big screen – a role that earned him a massive $10 million. The
film was a worldwide smash and spawned the sequels ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘The
Bourne Ultimatum’.
‘Ocean's Twelve’ marked another landmark in the young
actor’s career as did ‘The Brother’s Grimm’ with Heath Ledger about two con-men who
convince villagers they're being persecuted by evil monsters and then get paid as
exorcists.
On the personal front Matt has dated a number of his
co-stars including Winona Ryder and Minnie Driver, whom he famously ditched during
an appearance on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’. However, the eligible bachelor married
interior designer, Luciana Barroso, in a secret ceremony in New York in December
2005, after meeting during the filming of his movie 'Stuck on You'.
On 11th June 2006 Matt and Luciana's first child
together, Isabella, was born in Miami. Luciana has one other child, Alexia, from a
previous marriage.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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