Matt Damon

Matt Damon (born 8.10.1970)

Matt Damon is an American, Oscar-winning actor.

Matt Damon: Childhood

Matt Damon was born in Massachusetts, to Kent Telfer Damon and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. His father was a stockbroker and his mother was a professor in early childhood education at Lesley University.

When Kent and Nancy divorced, Damon moved with his mother and brother to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Matt's brother, Kyle, is an artist and sculptor.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were childhood friends and have since collaborated on a number of films. Damon was also friends with the historian Howard Zinn and as an adult, narrated the audio version of Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

Matt Damon graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in 1988 and went on to study at Harvard University. He attended Harvard between 1988 and 1992 but never graduated, choosing instead to pursue his acting career. He appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend, whilst still at university. The filmmakers' expectations of its success are said to have been a contributing factor to his decision to drop out of university.

Matt Damon: Film Career

Matt Damon's first film role came in 1988 when he was 18 years old. He had a single line of dialogue in Mystic Pizza, the rom-com that starred Julia Roberts. After Geronimo: An American Legend, Matt Damon appeared in Courage Under Fire, playing a soldier with a heroin addiction. The film also starred Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington.

Damon and Affleck had written a screenplay entitled Good Will Hunting and, after seeking advice from friends such as Kevin Smith and Rob Reiner, the film was produced, earning them both an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Matt Damon also won the Best Actor Oscar and Robin Williams won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the film.

On the set of Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon met the director Steven Spielberg, who then offered him a role in Saving Private Ryan, the highly-acclaimed World War II film starring Tom Hanks and Tom Sizemore.

Matt Damon co-founded LivePlanet with Ben Affleck, Chris Moore and Chris Bailey. They created the reality series Project Greenlight, which sought film projects from fledgling filmmakers and helped fund the projects.

In 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley, Matt Damon stars as a bisexual murderer opposite Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett. He then went on to play a fallen angel in Kevin Smith's Dogma, in which Ben Affleck also starred.

In Stuck On You, Matt Damon played a conjoined twin. Then, he wrote Gerry with Ben Affleck's brother, Casey Affleck and Gus Van Sant.

Two of Matt Damon's biggest hits have both been film franchises. Firstly, he starred in the Jason Bourne trilogy - The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. The Bourne trilogy also starred Franke Potente, Clive Owen, Julia Stiles and Paddy Considine. Secondly, he worked opposite George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in the remake of the 1960's film Ocean's Eleven. The remake, by Steven Soderbergh, was so successful that they made two sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen.

Damon then went on to play the role of Wilhelm Grimm in the Terry Gilliam-directed The Brothers Grimm and in Syriana, he teamed up with George Clooney again, this time playing an energy analyst.

In 2002, Matt Damon featured in Martin Scorsese's The Departed. The film, which received huge amount of critical acclaim, also starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Ray Winstone, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen.

Matt Damon: Personal Life

Matt Damon has been involved a number of high-profile actresses in the past. He was in a relationship with Winona Ryder for two years. He also dated Minnie Driver, his co-star in Good Will Hunting.

It has been rumoured in the past that Matt Damon was dating Eva Mendes, though both Damon and Mendes deny the claims.

Matt Damon married Luciana Bozan Barroso in 2005 in New York. Barroso already had a daughter from a previous marriage and they had their first child together - a daughter, Isabella - in 2006. Their second child, Gia was born in August 2008.

In January 2008, the comedian Sarah Silverman aired a video as a 'birthday present' to her boyfriend, Jimmy Kimmel, of a song she had written entitled 'I'm F*cking Matt Damon'. In response, Kimmel then made his own video, entitled 'I'm F*cking Ben Affleck'. A number of stars, including Perry Farrell, Harrison Ford, Cameron Diaz and Meat Loaf appeared in the riposte.