|
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.
|
General
Details
Matt
Damon - Generator
- Biography