Matt Damon 10.8.13 Thought of the Day

“Eventually stardom is going to go away from me. It goes away from everybody and all you have in the end is to be able to look back and like the choices you made.”

English: Matt Damon at the 66th Venice International Film Festival Nederlands: Matt Damon op het 66e Venice International Film Festival Français : 66ème Festival du Cinéma de Venise (Mostra), 6ème jour (07/09/2009) Photocall avec Matt Damon et Steven Soderbergh pour le film : The Informant (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Matthew Paige Damon was born on this day in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in 1970. He is 43 years old.

He is the second son born to Kent and Nancy Damon. His big brother Kyle is an artist. The family lived in Newton, Mass. until his parents divorced, then Nancy and the boys moved back to Cambridge.

When Matt was 10 he met his neighbor (and very distant cousin) Ben Affleck.

The pair did everything together. They played baseball (both are die-hard Boston Red Sox fans) and the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. They attended trashy movie double-features, and they both attended the pricey Rindge & Latin prep school. And it was here that Matt really took to acting. [Biography.com]

Matt attended Harvard, studying English, but left to pursue his acting career. He landed his first movie  role in Mystic Pizza (1988) — a one line bit part. He had a much larger, dramatic role in the ensemble movie School Ties (1992) (School Ties is one of those movies that made just about every one in it a star.)  Another excellent example of Damon’s early work is his role of a heroine addicted service man after the First Gulf War in Courage Under Fire (1996).

He had his first starring role in The Rainmaker (1997), a film based on a John Grisham novel.

Then came the movie that “made”  him as an actor and screenwriter, Good Will Hunting. Damon and Affleck wrote the screenplay for the drama (and won an Oscar and Golden Globe for their effort.) Damon’s co-star  Robin Williams won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but Matt lost Best Actor to Jack NIcholson (for his lead role in As Good As It Gets).

He had the title role (although not the largest role) in the World War II drama Saving Private Ryan. (1998).

Other Roles include:

• Jason Bourne in the Bourne Identity francise
• Bryan Woodman in Syriana
• Colin Sullivan in The Departed
• Edward Wilson in The Good Shepherd
• Mark Whitace in The Informant
• Francois Pienaar in Invictus
• David Norris in The Adjustment Bureau
• Mitch Emhoff in Contagion
• Steve Butler in Promised Land
• Mike McDermont in Rounders
• Tom Ripley in the Talented Mr. Ripley

Damon  looking underweight and strung out in Courage Under Fire. [Image couresty: lemondrop.com]

 

Looking healthier in Saving Private Ryan [ Image courtesy: blogwillhunting.com]