Introduction
Matt Damon is known as an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. As per Forbes magazine, he is the highest-grossing and ranked the most bankable actor in the industry of all time. Matt received many awards which include Academy Awards out of five nominations, two Golden Globe Awards out of eight nominations, and was also nominated for three British Academy Film Awards and six Emmy Awards. He was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and began his acting career in high school theater productions. His debut was in “Mystic Pizza” in 1988.
Matt Damon’s career took an important, famous, and noticeable turn in 1997 when he wrote and acted with Ben Affleck in “Good Will Hunting”. This earned him a couple of recognized awards for Screenplay. He also did voice-over work in some documentary and animation movies and eventually, he established two production companies with Affleck. He is also associated with charitable work, which includes ONE Campaign, H2O Africa Foundation, Feeding America, and Water.org. Matt Damon got married to Luciana Bozán Barroso and has three daughters.
Early Life
Matt Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father Kent Telfer Damon was a stockbroker and his mother Nancy Carlsson-Paige was an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. He moved to Newton for two years with his family. Matt`s parents were divorced when he was 2 years old and moved to Cambridge with his mother along with his brother. His brother Kyle grew up to become a sculptor and artist. He was educated at Cambridge Alternative School and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School as a good student.
His acting skills started booming with his performances in High School Theater productions. He gave the credit to his drama teacher Gerry Speca for his artistic influence. He went to Harvard University, where he resided in Lowell House and became a member of the 1992 class but dropped out due to his debut break in “Geronimo: An American Legend”. He has also been a member of the Delphic Club which was a co-social group, one of the University's select Final Clubs at Harvard University. In 2013 Matt Damon won Harvard Arts Medal.
Acting Career
During 1988 – 1996 Matt Damon acted in theater plays and his first film debut was at the age of 18 with a single-line dialog in a romantic comedy movie. He acted in various small roles until 1992 until his first break in a debut lead role in a movie. His dedication was seen when he lost 40 pounds for his next movie in the role of an opium-addicted soldier in 100 days through a self-prescribed diet and fitness regime. He was noticed as an actor through his performance in 1996 in this movie and was labeled as “Impressive” by The Washington Post an American daily newspaper. During 1997 – 2000 his career went through significant changes. “Good Will Hunting” was something that he had written as an assignment at Harvard based on a young mathematics genius. He later wrote the screenplay when he moved to his friend Affleck's Los Angeles apartment. On completion, they sold the screenplay to Miramax in 1994.
He acted in this movie and earned critical praise, nine Academy Awards nominations, and Best actor in the Academy Awards. He and Affleck earned $600,000 each apart from the movie earning over $225 million worldwide. In 1997 Matt played a role in an American legal drama film based on John Grisham's novel for which the Los Angeles Times as "a talented young actor on the brink of stardom." In 1999 Matt played an antihero character named Tom Ripley in a psychological thriller film in which he wanted to bring out the character's humanity and honesty despite the criminal actions on screen.
Filmography
During 2001 -2007 Matt became a part of two lucrative movie series “Ocean's Trilogy” from 2001–2007 and “Bourne” from 2002–2016. He also became a television series producer in 2001 and put his hands in documentary movie productions with his friend Affleck, which were aired on HBO and Bravo. His series was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002, 2004, and 2005. He was critically acclaimed for some of his roles from 2009 till the present. In 2009 he played the role of captain François Pienaar in South Africa's national rugby union team in the Clint Eastwood-directed movie based on John Carlin`s book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.
Matt Damon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2011 Matt was seen in a couple of movies based on a romantic thriller and a family comedy-drama. On 26th May 2013 HBO featured a movie based on the life of a pianist named Liberace enacted by Michael Douglas and Matt played the role of Liberace's longtime partner Scott Thorson. In 2015 he was seen in a lead role as an astronaut Mark Watney directed by Ridley Scott based on science fiction. Matt has won 27 Awards and was nominated for 93 till the present.
