Matt Damon Early Life, Acting Career, Family, Age, Affairs, Facts, Producing, Wiki, Political views, Bio, Personal Life, Awards, Filmography, Honors, Biography

NAME

Matt Damon

OCCUPATION

Screenwriter, Film Actor

BIRTH DATE

October 8, 1970 (age 47)

EDUCATION

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Harvard University

PLACE OF BIRTH

Cambridge, Massachusetts

AKA

Matthew Damon

Matt Damon

FULL NAME

Matthew Paige Damon

ZODIAC SIGN

Libra

Early life and education

Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the second son of stockbroker Kent Telfer Damon and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. His father had English and Scottish ancestry, and his mother is of five-eighths Finnish and three-eighths Swedish descent (his mother's family surname had been changed from the Finnish "Pajari" to "Paige"). Damon and his family moved to Newton for two years. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and Damon and his brother returned with their mother to Cambridge, where they lived in a six-family communal house. His brother Kyle is now an accomplished sculptor and artist.

As a lonely teenager, Damon has said that he felt that he did not belong. Due to his mother's "by the book" approach to child-rearing, he had a hard time defining a self identity. He attended Cambridge Alternative School (now Graham and Parks) and then Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he was a good student. Damon performed as an actor in several high school theater productions. He credited his drama teacher, Gerry Speca, as an important artistic influence, though Ben Affleck, his good friend and schoolmate, got the "biggest roles and longest speeches".

Damon attended Harvard University, where he was a resident of Lowell House and a member of the class of 1992, but left before receiving his degree to take a lead role in the film Geronimo: An American Legend. While at Harvard, he wrote an early treatment of the screenplay for Good Will Hunting as an exercise for an English class. Damon was a member of the Delphic Club, one of the University's select Final Clubs. In 2013, he was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal. Damon received an Academy Award for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting in 1998.

Acting career

Early years: 1988–1996

Damon entered Harvard in 1988, where he appeared in student theater plays, such as Burn This and A... My Name is Alice. Later, he made his film debut at the age of 18, with a single line of dialogue in the romantic comedy Mystic Pizza. As a student at Harvard, he acted in small roles such as in the TNT original film Rising Son and the ensemble prep-school drama School Ties. He left the university in 1992, a semester - 12 credits - shy of completion of his Bachelor of Arts in English to feature in Geronimo: An American Legend in Los Angeles, erroneously expecting the movie to become a big success. Damon next appeared as an opiate-addicted soldier in 1996's Courage Under Fire, for which he lost 40 pounds (18 kg) in 100 days on a self-prescribed diet and fitness regimen. Courage Under Fire gained him critical notice, when The Washington Post labeled his performance "impressive". 

Critically acclaimed roles: 2009–present

He made a guest appearance in 2009 on the sixth-season finale of Entourage as himself, where he tries to pressure Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) into donating to his real foundation ONEXONE. His next role was Steven Soderbergh's dark comedy The Informant! (2009), in which his Golden Globe-nominated work was described by Entertainment Weekly as such: "The star – who has quietly and steadily turned into a great Everyman actor – is in nimble control as he reveals his character's deep crazies."

Also in 2009, Damon portrayed South Africa national rugby union team captain François Pienaar in the Clint Eastwood-directed film Invictus, which is based on the 2008 John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation and features Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. Invictus earned Damon an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The New Republic observed that he brought "it off with low-key charm and integrity."

In 2010, he reteamed with director Paul Greengrass, who directed him in the Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum, for the action thriller Green Zone, which flopped commercially and received a score of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes and ambivalent reception from critics. He has appeared as a guest star in an episode of Arthur, titled "The Making of Arthur", as himself. During season 5 of 30 Rock, he appeared as guest star in the role of Liz Lemon's boyfriend in the episodes "I Do Do", "The Fabian Strategy", "Live Show", and "Double-edged Sword". Damon's 2010 projects included Clint Eastwood's Hereafter and the Coen brothers' remake of the 1969 John Wayne-starring Western True Grit.

In 2011, he starred in The Adjustment Bureau, Contagion, and We Bought a Zoo. In April 2012, Damon filmed Promised Land, directed by Gus Van Sant, which he co-wrote with John Krasinski. Damon's next film with frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh was Behind the Candelabra, a drama about the life of pianist/entertainer Liberace (played by Michael Douglas) with Damon playing Liberace's longtime partner Scott Thorson. The film premiered on HBO on May 26, 2013.

Damon starred in the science fiction film Elysium (2013), where he played former car-thief-turned-factory-worker Max DeCosta. He also appeared in the science fiction movie The Zero Theorem by Terry Gilliam in 2013. In 2014, he starred in George Clooney's The Monuments Men,[95] and played the minor role of scientist Dr. Mann, in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. In 2014, Damon appeared as a celebrity correspondent for Years of Living Dangerously.

He played the main character, astronaut Mark Watney, in Ridley Scott's The Martian (2015), based on Andy Weir's best-selling novel of the same name, a role that earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Having not returned for the fourth film in the Bourne film series, Damon reprised his role in 2016's Jason Bourne, reuniting with Paul Greengrass. In 2017, Damon played the lead role in Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall, a hit internationally and a disappointment at the domestic box office. The film, and Damon's casting, were not well received by critics. Later in 2017, he starred in two satires, George Clooney's 1950s-set Suburbicon, which was released in October, and Alexander Payne's comedy Downsizing, which was released in December.

Producing career
Along with Ben Affleck and producers Chris Moore and Sean Bailey, Damon founded the production company LivePlanet, through which the four created the Emmy-nominated documentary series Project Greenlight to find and fund worthwhile film projects from novice filmmakers. The company produced and founded the short-lived mystery-hybrid series Push, Nevada, as well as other projects. In March 2010, Damon and Affleck teamed up again to create Pearl Street Films, a Warner Bros. based production company.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel had a running gag at the end of his ABC television show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he apologized for not being able to interview Damon at the end of each show. It culminated in a planned skit on September 12, 2006, when Damon stormed off after having his interview cut short. Damon appeared in several of E! Entertainment's top ten Jimmy Kimmel Live! spoofs. On January 24, 2013, Damon took over his show and mentioned the long-standing feud and having been bumped from years of shows. It involved celebrities who were previously involved in the "feud", including Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, and Sarah Silverman.

Political views

Damon appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews in December 2006, and while discussing the ongoing war in Iraq, expressed concern about inequities across socioeconomic classes with regard to who in the United States is tasked with the responsibility of fighting wars. Damon is a supporter of the Democratic Party, and has made several critical attacks against Republican Party figures, but has also expressed his disillusionment with the policies of President Barack Obama. In 2012, Damon, Ben Affleck, and John Krasinski hosted a fundraiser for Democratic Senate nominee Elizabeth Warren.

Damon had a working relationship with the Obama administration, primarily due to his friendship with former Harvard roommate and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors to President Obama, Jason Furman. In 2010, Matt Damon narrated the documentary film Inside Job about the part played by financial deregulation in the late-2000s financial crisis.

On March 13, 2018, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck announced they will adopt the inclusion rider agreement in all their future production deals through their Pearl Street Films. 

Personal Life

Damon met Argentine Luciana Bozán Barroso in April 2003 while filming Stuck on You in Miami. They became engaged in September 2005 and married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. The couple has three daughters: Isabella (b. June 2006), Gia Zavala (b. August 2008), and Stella Zavala (b. October 2010). He also has a stepdaughter, Alexia Barroso (b. 1998), from Barroso's previous marriage. Since 2012 they have lived in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles; they previously lived in Miami and New York.

Damon is a fan of the Boston Red Sox. After the team won the 2007 World Series, he narrated the commemorative DVD release of the event. He has competed in several World Series of Poker (WSOP) events, including the 2010 World Series of Poker main event. He was eliminated from the 1998 WSOP by poker professional Doyle Brunson.

Awards And Honors

Aside from awards he has garnered for his role as actor and producer, Damon became the 2,343rd person to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 25, 2007. He reacted to the award by stating: "A few times in my life, I've had these experiences that are just kind of too big to process and this looks like it's going to be one of those times." 

Filmography

Films that garnered Damon the most recognition or awards include:

• Courage Under Fire (1996)
• The Rainmaker (1997)
• Good Will Hunting (1997)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
• Ocean's Eleven (2001)
• The Bourne Identity (2002)
• The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
• Ocean's Twelve (2004)
• Syriana (2005)
• The Brothers Grimm (2005)
• The Departed (2006)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
• Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
• Invictus (2009)
• The Informant! (2009)
• True Grit (2010)
• Hereafter (2010)
• The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
• Contagion (2011)
• Behind the Candelabra (2013)
• Elysium (2013)
• Interstellar (2014)
• The Martian (2015)
• Jason Bourne (2016)