Matt Damon
☼ Born on 8 December 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Biography
Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Kent Damon, a stockbroker, realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. Matt has an older brother, Kyle, a sculptor. His father was of English and Scottish descent, and his mother is of Finnish and Swedish ancestry. The family lived in Newton until his parents divorced in 1973, when Damon and his brother moved with his mother to Cambridge. He grew up in a stable community, and was raised near actor Ben Affleck.
Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and he performed in a number of theater productions during his time there. He attended Harvard University as an English major. While in Harvard, he kept on skipping classes to pursue acting projects, which included the TNT original film, Rising Son (1990), and prep-school drama, School Ties (1992). It was until his film, Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), was expected to be a big success that he decided to drop out of university completely. Arriving in Hollywood, Matt managed to get his first break with a part in the romantic comedy, Mystic Pizza (1988). However, the film did not do too well and his film career failed to take off. Not letting failure discourage him from acting, he went for another audition, and managed to get a starring role in School Ties (1992). Up next for Matt was a role as a soldier who had problems with drug-addiction in the movie, Courage Under Fire (1996).
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Matt had, in fact, lost forty pounds for his role which resulted in health problems.
The following year, he garnered accolades for Good Will Hunting (1997), a screenplay he had originally written for an English class at Harvard University. Good Will Hunting (1997) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, one of which, Matt won for Best Original Screenplay along with Ben Affleck. In the year 1998, Matt played the title role in Steven Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan (1998), which was one of the most acclaimed films in that year. Matt had the opportunity of working with Tom Hanks and Vin Diesel while filming that movie. That same year, he starred as an earnest law student and reformed poker player in Rounders (1998), starring opposite Edward Norton and John Malkovich. The next year, Matt rejoined his childhood friend, Ben Affleck and fellow comedian, Chris Rock, in the comedy Dogma (1999).
Towards the end of 1999, Matt played "Tom Ripley", a working-class young man who tastes the good life and will do anything to live it. Both Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow also starred in the movie. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) earned mixed reviews from critics, but even so, Matt earned praise for his performance. Matt lent his voice to the animated movie, Titan A.E. (2000) in the year 2000, which also earned mixed reviews from the public. He also starred in two other movies, All the Pretty Horses (2000) and the golf comedy-drama, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), starring alongside Will Smith. In the year 2003, he signed on to star in The Informant! (2009) by Steven Soderbergh and the Farrelly Brothers' Stuck on You (2003). He also starred in Gerry (2002), a film he co-wrote with his friends, Gus Van Sant and Casey Affleck. One of Matt's most recognizable work to date is his role in the "Bourne" movie franchise. He plays an amnesiac assassin, "Jason Bourne", in The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Another praised role is that as "Linus Caldwell" in the "Ocean's" movie franchise. He had the opportunity to star opposite George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Don Cheadle in Ocean's Eleven (2001). The successful crime comedy-drama eventually had two other sequels, Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). Among other highly acclaimed movies that Matt has been a part of are Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm (2005), George Clooney's Syriana (2005), Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) and Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006).
In his personal life, Matt is now happily married to Argentine-born Luciana Damon, whom he met in Miami, where she was working as a bartender. They married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. The couple have four daughters Alexia, Luciana's daughter from a previous relationship, as well as Isabella, Gia and Stella. Matt is a big fan of the Boston Red Sox and he tries to attend their games whenever possible. He has also formed great friendships with his Ocean's co-stars, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, whom he works on charity projects with. He and actor Ben Affleck have remained lifelong friends and collaborators.
In the role of actor
The Instigators (03/08/2024)
Two Boston thieves find themselves on the run after a heist goes awry in The Instigators. Cash-strapped ex-Marine Roy (Matt Damon) is brought on, along with Cobby (Casey Affleck) and Scalvo (Jack Harlow) to do a heist for Mr. Besegai (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his associate Richie Dechico (Alfred Molina). Mr. Besegai wants the crew to […]
Drive-Away Dolls (29/02/2024)
Two lesbian friends on a road trip accidentally take an important package wanted by a group of criminals in Drive-Away Dolls. A group of criminals led by The Cheif (Colman Domingo), intercepts a very important briefcase from nervous collector Santos (Pedro Pascal) and prepares to have his goons Arliss (Joey Slotnick) and Flint (C.J. Wilson) […]
Oppenheimer (23/07/2023)
The story of the man who created the atomic bomb is told in Oppenheimer. As a young man, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) was responsible for helping bring the study of quantum physics to the United States. This results in Oppenheimer being recruited by General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to lead the Manhattan Project and […]
Air (20/04/2023)
The floundering Nike basketball decision hopes to recruit star prospect Michael Jordon for a new line of shoes in Air. In 1984, Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) is a talent scout for the endangered basketball division of Nike, headed by Howard White (Chris Tucker), which also includes Marketing VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman). The division was […]
Stillwater (29/07/2021)
An Oklahoma oil worker travels to France to help his imprisoned daughter in Stillwater. Bill Baker (Matt Damon) is a roughneck oil driller from the town of Stillwater, Oklahoma, who travels to Marseille, France to visit his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin), who has been in prison for the last five years for the murder of her […]
Ford v Ferrari (20/11/2019)
The Ford Motor Company sets out to build a racecar that can beat Ferrari in Ford v Ferrari. In 1963, following a failed acquisition attempt, Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) commits himself to build a racecar that can beat Ferrari in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Vice President Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) hires Carroll […]
Downsizing (31/12/2017)
A man gets shrunk down in the hope for a better life in Downsizing. Norwegian scientist Dr. Jorgen Asbjørnsen (Rolf Lassgård) has discovered a method to shrink the human body down to a height of only five inches, in an effort to combat overpopulation. Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) is a cash-strapped man living in Omaha, who decides […]
Jason Bourne (31/07/2016)
The amnesiac assassin returns in Jason Bourne. A decade after remembering who he is and exposing the CIA’s Blackbriar project, former assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has been keeping a low profile overseas. However, when former CIA tech Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) hacks into the agency’s database and finds some new information about Bourne, she travels to […]
The Martian (07/10/2015)
An astronaut finds himself stranded on the surface of Mars in The Martian. Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is a botanist on the Ares III mission to Mars, lead by commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain). When a storm results in an emergency evacuation, Mark is hit with debris and presumed dead. However, it turns out that Mark survived […]
Informant (13/08/2013)
The world of activism is supposed to be all about “fighting the man” and trying to make the world a better place in a way governments are unable or unwilling to do. As such, it is probably the gravest capital sin for an activist to be found out as an informant for the FBI. That […]
Elysium (10/08/2013)
Neill Blomkamp follows up his acclaimed debut film District 9 will the sci-fi/action film Elysium. The film takes place in the year 2154, at which time the Earth has become practically unliveable, due to pollution and overpopulation. In response to this, the Earth’s wealthy decided to leave the planet and relocate to the space station […]
Behind the Candelabra (04/06/2013)
Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra is notable for two things. First, the film has been heavily hyped as being Soderbergh’s final film as a director. It remains to be seen whether this truly will be his final film or if Soderbergh will merely end up taking a sabbatical for a few years. The […]
Radioman (01/05/2012)
You may not know Craig “Radioman” Castaldo by his name, but I am almost certain that you have seen the guy. Radioman is known for appearing at the film sets around New York City, always with his bike and trusty radio. Often this results in him getting a brief cameo role in the production. In […]
Contagion (06/10/2011)
I initially missed Contagion when it was released a month ago, since it conflicted with the Toronto Film Festival. However, I managed have some free time today, so I finally checked it out. In this film, an American woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) is infected with a new type of virus while on a trip to Hong Kong. […]
The Adjustment Bureau (06/03/2011)
The Adjustment Bureau is the latest of many films based on a story by science fiction author Philip K. Dick. The film is about a young politician, who accidently finds out that all of humanity’s path through life are controlled by a group of fedora-wearing agents that will go to any extreme to make sure that […]
Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project (12/02/2011)
Being both a film fan and a documentary fan, I love it when there are documentaries about films. Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project just opened today for a run at the Bell Lightbox and it’s a, Canadian-produced, documentary about the infamous Hollywood figure Harvey Weinstein. As the title suggests, the film wasn’t made with Weinstein’s full […]
True Grit (24/12/2010)
I’m not too familiar with the original 1969 film, other than the fact that it won John Wayne his only Oscar. However, for this version, the Coen Brothers decided to use more to the original book, than the film, so this can be seen more as a readaptation than a remake. The film is more […]
Hereafter (24/10/2010)
I never really knew too much about the latest film by Clint Eastwood other than it featured Matt Damon as someone who can communicate with the dead. It turns out that this is only one of three stories that the film tells, all of which are joined by the theme of death. I personally thought […]
Invictus (14/12/2009)
Invictus tells the story of how Nelson Mandela attempted to bring together a divided South Africa by supporting the South African rugby team on their journey to win the Rugby World Cup. The film works both as a drama about post-apartheid South Africa as well as an inspirational sports movie. It could be hard to […]
The Bourne Ultimatum (03/08/2007)
This film is the latest in the “summer of threequels.” However, unlike the other “threequels” I never really saw the previous two films in theatres (I only saw them of video and/or TV in the last year — I now regret not seeing them in theatres). However, I do say that seeing the previous films […]