MATT DAMON (Cale) won an Academy Award in 1998 for Best Original Screenplay, with longtime friend Ben Affleck, for the critically acclaimed drama Good Will Hunting. Damon also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his work in the title role. In addition, both he and Affleck received a Golden Globe Award for their screenplay, and Damon garnered a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. The film, directed by Gus Van Sant, received seven additional Oscar® nominations, including one for Best Picture and a win for Robin Williams as Best Supporting Actor.
That same year, audiences saw Damon star in the title role of the World War II drama Saving Private Ryan for Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg and in John Dahl's Rounders. In 1997, Damon made a cameo appearance in Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy. In the same year, he starred as an idealistic young attorney in Francis Ford Coppola's The Rainmaker, based on the best-selling novel by John Grisham.
Damon first gained the public's eye in 1996 when he gave a vivid performance in Fox's Courage Under Fire. The versatile young actor made his feature film debut in 1988 in a small role in the critically well-received Mystic Pizza. He went on to play Brian Dennehy' s medical school dropout son in the TV movie Rising Son (TNT, 1990) and gained further attention when he returned to the big screen as a fascist preppy in School Ties (1992).
For director Walter Hill, Damon enjoyed a sizable supporting role as the green second lieutenant new to the West who narrates Geronimo: An American Legend (1993). In 1995, he appeared in The Good Old Boys, directed by Tommy Lee Jones for TNT.
In 1998, Damon and Affleck partnered with Good Will Hunting associate producer and longtime friend Chris Moore to form Pearl Street Productions. The same year, they also signed a multi-year, first-look agreement to develop and produce projects with Miramax Films. Their first project, The Third Wheel, stars Denise Richards, Luke Wilson and Jay Lacopo. Damon and Affleck will executive produce as well as appear in cameo roles.
Damon most recently starred in the title role of The Talented Mr. Ripley, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor in a Drama. Damon and pal Ben Affleck also rejoined director Kevin Smith in Dogma, a film about a pair of outcast angles. His upcoming projects include The Legend of Bagger Vance, with Will Smith and directed by Robert Redford; and All the Pretty Horses, for producer Mike Nichols and director Billy Bob Thornton.
Damon, who attended Harvard University, first gained acting experience at the American Repertory Theatre as well as other Boston-based theater venues.
Movie Database
In Theaters
(1002 votes)
(537 votes)
(211 votes)
(339 votes)
(159 votes)
(1 votes)