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.
