MATT DAMON
The 27-year-old actor and screenwriter Matt Damon was
born on October 8, 1970 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard
University where he majored in English. Matt has been romantically linked to a
number of women including two of his past co-stars the actresses Claire Danes
and Minnie Driver as well as Winona Ryder.
Matt's mother is a child psychologist. His parents are
divorced. Damon has a brother named Kyle. He made his feature film debut in
1988 with a small role in the critically acclaimed 'Mystic Pizza'. In
1990 he portrayed a medical school dropout in the TNT movie 'Rising
Son.' Matt gained further attention in the movies as one of the fascist
preppies in 'School Ties'. In 1996 Damon gave a vivid performance in 'Courage
Under Fire', in which he portrayed a guilt-ridden Persian Gulf Soldier.
Prior to that he had a supporting role in 'Geronimo: An American
Legend.' In 1995 Damon appeared in 'The Good Old Boys,' for TNT.
His first big starring role in 1997 was as the
fledgling attorney in "the Rainmaker", based on John Grisham's best-selling
novel. He has been nominated for an Oscar as "Best Actor" for his leading role
in "Good Will Hunting", in which he plays Will Hunting, who comes to terms with
his life and genius through the relationship he develops with a therapist and
his love interest. Damon has been nominated for a second Oscar for co-writing
the screenplay for 'Good Will Hunting', with his co-star and
real-life longtime friend Ben Affleck. The two have been friends since third
grade and shared the same acting career aspirations during and after high
school. After the struggling actors poured over at least 500 scripts a year
they decided they should take a crack at writing one themselves. Matt and Ben
educated themselves about writing about a person such as Will Hunting and made
Will a heroic character that was also flawed. Says Damon 'Instead of a
thriller, we decided to use this character as the basis for a story that really
said something about engaging in life, experiencing it to the fullest and
allowing yourself to be vulnerable to people who you care about, and learning
how to be smart in life.' Damon and
Affleck began writing 'Good Will Hunting' when Damon was 22 and
Affleck was 20. The movie garnered a total of nine Oscar nominations including
'Best Picture.' The writing of the screenplay took five years out of
their lives and was rejected by many studio people. When the script was finally
accepted by Miramax it took a great deal of resolve on the studio's part to
stick with Matt Damon rather than going with a big name star. Damon will
appear with Tom Hanks in the motion picture 'Saving Private Ryan', a
World War II saga shot on location in London under the direction of Steven
Spielberg set for a July release by DreamWorks SKG. He will also star in the
Miramax motion picture Rounders with John Malkovich and Ed Norton scheduled for
release in August. This is all pretty exciting for someone that was virtually
unknown up until several months ago.
