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Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-winning American screenwriter and Academy Award-nominated actor.
Early life
Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Kent Telfer Damon, a realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. His maternal grandfather was of Finnish descent. Damon has a brother, Kyle, who is an accomplished sculptor and artist.
Damon graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in 1988, the only public high school in Cambridge. He began Harvard University in the fall of 1988 and should have graduated with the class of 1992, but kept leaving classes to pursue acting projects, including the TNT original movie 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 theatre generally, but did appear in A... My Name is Alice (in one of the two male roles usually performed by women). Although Damon was 11 credits shy of graduating (not quite three semesters), he dropped out of 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 with one line 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. The war film was an opportunity for Damon to show his dedication by undergoing an extensive weight loss to help portray his character, as he was required to lose 40 pounds (18 kg) in 100 days (for only two days of filming). After following a self-prescribed diet and fitness regimen to lose the weight, Damon was advised after the filming that he was fortunate his heart did not shrink. Damon was required to be on medication for several years to correct the stress inflicted on his adrenal gland, but maintains it was worthwhile to properly reflect his character's anguish and to show the industry how committed he was to the role.
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, 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. 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 also founded Project Greenlight with Affleck and Chris Moore to find and fund worthwhile film projects from novice filmmakers. The televised documentary about the making of the film projects has been nominated for an Emmy three times.
Damon has been known to stray from the mainstream in his choice of roles, such as his portrayal of bisexual murderer Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. He has also played a fallen angel who discusses pop culture as intellectual subject matter in Dogma, in which he costarred with Affleck (1999), a conjoined twin in Stuck on You, and he co-wrote with friend Casey Affleck and Gus Van Sant the minimalist dialogue for the low budget and experimental film Gerry. Damon's been part of two major film franchises. He played amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne in the successful action movies The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, with another Bourne sequel, The Bourne Ultimatum, expected on August 3, 2007. He also starred as a youthful, optimistic thief opposite, among others, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, a frothy crime dramedy which was successful and has spawned two sequels: Ocean's Twelve and the upcoming Ocean's Thirteen.
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.
Damon is expected to start filming in October, 2007 Steven Soderbergh's true story, "The Informant". Damon will play the role of Mark Whitacre, a corporate whistleblower that wore a wire for 2 & 1/2 years for the FBI as a high-level executive at a Fortune 500 company, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), in one of the largest price-fixing cases in history. Whitacre Ivy League Ph.D. and President of ADM's fastest-growing Division], in turn, cracked under pressure after being an untrained undercover operative for too long and exhibited some bizarre behavior. Damon often plays roles that include lots of stress and that result in psychological issues such as his Jason Bourne role and his earlier role in "Good Will Hunting".
It has recently been rumored that producer J.J. Abrams is trying to get Damon to play James T. Kirk in the eleventh Star Trek feature film, which has been rumored to be either a prequel to, or a reboot of, the original Star Trek series. Damon told journalists at a press conference on September 16, 2006 that he has not been approached about the film. (Previously rumored for the part was Damon's long-time friend Ben Affleck.) Damon has said that he would accept the role of Kirk if he liked the script.
Personal life
While filming Stuck on You in 2003, Damon met Argentine-born Luciana Bozan Barroso in Miami, where she was working as a bartender. They married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005 in New York City Hall. Damon became stepfather to Bozan's young daughter, Alexia, from her previous marriage. The couple's first child together, daughter Isabella, was born on June 11, 2006, in Miami, where they live when not filming on location.
Prior to meeting Bozan, Damon had dated actresses Claire Danes, Minnie Driver and Winona Ryder, as well as model Bridget Hall and Ben Affleck's former personal assistant, Odessa Whitmire. He wrote the female lead character of Skylar in 1997's Good Will Hunting based on his real-life former girlfriend, Skylar Satenstein (who married Metallica's Lars Ulrich a few years later), whom he dated while attending Harvard University.
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.
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 appeared on the show, only to be turned away by Kimmel as part of a skit. Kimmel told USA Weekend that it was planned for Kimmel to run out of time as Damon sat down and for Damon to curse him.
Most recently, Damon appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews and in the interview 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."
Damon grew up next door to historian and author Howard Zinn. 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 and an audio version of A People's History of the United States.
Selected 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 Junah
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 Wilhelm Grimm
2006 The Good Shepherd Edward Wilson
The Departed Colin Sullivan
2007 The Bourne Ultimatum Jason Bourne Filming
Running the Sahara Narrator, Executive Producer Filming
Margaret Mr. Aaron Post-production
Ocean's Thirteen Linus Caldwell Post-production
| Latest news about Matt Damon |
Curbed: CurbedWire: Climbing Lady Lib, Matt Damon in FiDiFIDI—Luxury rental 20 Exchange Place got a brush with come celebrities today, a building resident writes: "Matt Damon and Emily Blunt are filming a new movie at our rental building at 20 Exchange Place. Exciting, it seems that many film ... Continue reading
"Matt Damon" Shows Women Where Men's Brains Are Once Again ...This Gizmodo reader says his name is Ryan Kennedy, but you ain't fooling us, Matt Damon! And you are not going to get anywhere near pretty pixelated face girl for some makeouty as long as you wear your pixeljunk outfit. Continue reading
Weekly Posters: Matt Damon Does Bourne In New Green Zone Poster ...This is getting ridiculous. Universal's strategy of marketing the upcoming war movie Green Zone as another outing of Bourne will either hit the mark or misfire badly. The trailer which exactly looked like Bourne set in the Middle East ... Continue reading
Green Zone Starring Matt Damon » KinedaMatt Damon starts in thriller about a pair of CIA agents on the trail of certain Weapons of Mass Destruction and a foreign correspondent following their mission. Inspired by Imperial Life in the Emerald City. Release date March 12, ... Continue reading
"Matt Damon!" New Trailers for 'Invictus' and 'Green Zone ...August gave us the voice of Matt Damon in Ponyo, September gave us the inner voice of Matt Damon in The Informant!, and now October has brought us a look at his next two performances. Clint Eastwood's Invictus is one of the last big ... Continue reading
Matt Damon Green Zone : Teaser Trailer“n 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his team of inspectors are on a mission to find Iraq's reported stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Traveling from one dangerous site to the other, Miller and his team ... Continue reading
First Matt Damon's “Green Zone” Poster - FilmoFiliaThe first poster for the upcoming war film "Green Zone," based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran's nonfiction book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone," has been released. Continue reading
Will Matt Damon's politics cost him at the box-office? | EW.commatt-damon_l After the trailer for Matt Damon's Green Zone premiered on the Web yesterday, packaged to resemble the next installment of the Bourne franchise, initial feedback to our PopWatch post about it was generally enthusiastic. ... Continue reading
Matt Damon, State Dept. Create Global Warming Propaganda PSA ...Recently, actor Matt Damon narrated a video for the State Department, addressing the problem of chronic worldwide hunger. The video is extremely well made; those who watch it can't help but be... View Original Post. Continue reading
Photos of Matt Damon and Emily Blunt Filming The Adjustment Bureau ...Emily Blunt joined Matt Damon Monday for a long afternoon on the NYC set of The Adjustment Bureau. After working on a few scenes, they took a quick lunch break before heading home afterward in the dark. Emily had another late night ... Continue reading
Hollywood Actors Jessica alba Matt Damon pictures and Matt Damon biography
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