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Matthew Paige Damon (b. October 8, 1970, Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter,actor, and celebrity. Damon is well known for his action role in the Bourne Identity film series and as a part of the all star cast of the Ocean's Eleven films. He won an Academy award for Best Original Screenplay in 1998 for his screenwriting alongside close friend Ben Affleck for the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. He was also nominated for his acting in the film's lead role. Damon has become increasingly prominent in charity causes and is involved in the ONE Campaign to end poverty and disease globally and the H2O Africa Foundation which he founded to raise awareness about clean water initiatives in Africa. Damon married Luciana Barroso in 2005 and they have one daughter together in addition to Barroso's daughter from her previous marriage.
Damon was born to stockbroker and realtor Kent Telfer Damon and professor Nancy Carlsson Paige. He has one elder brother, Kyle, an artist and sculptor. After his parents divorce, he moved to Cambridge with his mother, having previously lived in Newton. He grew up next door to Ben Affleck with whom he shared a passion for drama, trashy movies and baseball. He participated in several local productions in his youth and at 16 landed his first, very minor film role in Mystic Pizza starring Julia Roberts.
Career
Following high school, Damon attended Harvard University. He took several breaks to appear in various films including Rising Son and his first starring role in School Ties. He studied English but left university short of graduation believing the film Geronimo: An American Legend would be his big break. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Damon got in touch with Ben Affleck and the two worked on Damon's unfinished screenplay Good Will Hunting. Their attempts to get it made into a film proved successful and Miramax picked up the project directed by Gus Van Sant and costarring Robin Williams.
Good Will Hunting opened in 1997. By then, Damon had modestly increased his profile in Courage Under Fire, Glory Daze and Kevin Smith's, Chasing Amy with Ben and brother Casey Affleck. For Courage Under Fire he lost forty pounds risking his health but despite his critically praised performance, the film was overshadowed by the breakout success of Good Will Hunting which launched Damon and Affleck to the A-list, won them a pair of Oscars, and made them international celebrities.
Damon continued to appear in prominent and critically praised roles such as the title character in Saving Private Ryan, a fallen angel in Kevin Smith's Dogma and The Talented Mr. Ripley in which he starred as a psychotic bisexual murderer in a star cast that included Cate Blanchett, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law. A series of unremarkable films followed including a voice role in Titan A.E., The Legend of Bagger Vance with Will Smith, a small role in Finding Forrester starring Sean Connery and All the Pretty Horses.
In 2001, he returned to blockbuster production with Steven Soderbergh's remake of the ratpack classic Ocean's Eleven also starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. His followup roles were a mix of major releases and independent projects. He also participated in the HBO series Project Greenlight mentoring novice director Chris Smith. Though Smith's film was far from successful Damon did better at the box office in his first appearance in The Bourne Identity in 2002. He followed up with odd choices in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Eurotrip, and Stuck on You in which he played one half of a pair of conjoined twins alongside Greg Kinnear.
With the opening of the Bourne Identity sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, Damon solidified his action star status and also appeared in Ocean's Twelve and the much less successful fantasy The Brothers Grimm alongside Heath Ledger. He also took on meaningful dramatic roles in Syriana with Clooney, The Good Shepherd with Angelina Jolie, The Departed with Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio and the much praised final Bourne film The Bourne Ultimatum.
Damon's recent and upcoming roles include Margaret with Anna Paquin, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, and The Human Factor.
Quotes
"Success is not something I've wrapped my brain around. If people go to those movies, then yes, that's true, big-time success. If not, it's much ado about nothing."
"I was never that much a focus of interest that I became a 'thing' at an earlier point in my career. I'm aware of having become a 'thing' now, which doesn't give me a lot of pleasure."
"I think it's still hard for me to turn down work if it's really good because for so many years I was so desperate to get a job and couldn't and so it's kind of an anathema for me to turn down work."
It's a fairy tale about the guys who wrote fairy tales, through the eyes of Terry Gilliam, ... This film was actually an excuse for Terry to create an entire world. He does this so well with wide-angle lenses. Terry's frames are so densely packed with information that you can't take it all in the first time." (on The Brothers Grimm)
External Links
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