Matt Damon

Matt Damon
Head shot of Damon looking into the camera smiling slightly. He is wearing a black polo shirt.
Damon in 2009
Born Matthew Paige Damon
October 8, 1970 (1970-10-08) (age 40)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation Actor, screenwriter, producer
Years active 1988–present
Spouse Luciana Barroso (m. 2005–present) «start: (2005)»"Marriage: Luciana Barroso to Matt Damon" Location: (linkback:http://localhost../../../../articles/m/a/t/Matt_Damon_698e.html)

Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting (1997), from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck. The pair won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay for their work and Damon garnered multiple Best Actor nominations, including the Academy Award, for his lead performance in the film.

Damon has since starred in commercially successful films such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), the Ocean's trilogy, and the Bourne series, while also gaining critical acclaim for his performances in dramas such as Syriana (2005), The Good Shepherd (2006), and The Departed (2006). He garnered a Golden Globe nomination for portraying the title character in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and was nominated for an Academy Award as a supporting actor in Invictus (2009). He is one of the top forty highest grossing actors of all time. In 2007, Damon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.

Damon has been actively involved in charitable work, including the ONE Campaign, H2O Africa Foundation, and Water.org.

Contents

Early life

Matt Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Kent Telfer Damon, a stockbroker, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University.[1][2] Damon is of English, Scottish, Finnish, and Swedish ancestry, and is a distant cousin of actor Ben Affleck.[3][4] He has a brother, Kyle, who is an accomplished sculptor and artist.[2][5] He and his family lived in Newton for the first two years of his life. After his parents divorced, Damon and his brother moved with their mother to Cambridge,[2][6] where they lived in a six-family communal house.[7][8] Damon grew up near Ben Affleck, a close friend since childhood and collaborator on several films, and historian and author Howard Zinn,[9] whose biographical film You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train and audio version of A People's History of the United States Damon narrated.[8]

Damon took to role-playing as a child partly because his mother raised him by the book,[7] which made him feel as though "you couldn’t define yourself, because you already had been defined by her."[7] He attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he was a disciplined student[10] but had a "terrifying" first two years due to his short height at the time.[11] As a lonely adolescent, Damon has described feeling "such pain in wanting to belong somewhere and not belonging."[7] Damon performed as an actor in several high school theater productions;[2] he has credited his drama teacher at Rindge and Latin, Gerry Speca, as an important artistic influence, even though Damon recalls that, "Mr. Speca always seemed to trust Ben [Affleck] with the biggest roles and longest speeches."[10]

Damon attended Harvard University from 1988 to 1992 but did not graduate.[12] While at Harvard, he studied English and lived in Lowell House. He took part in student theater,[13] appearing in plays such as Burn This in Winthrop House and A... My Name is Alice (in one of the three male roles usually performed by women).[14] Damon dropped out of the university to pursue his acting career in Los Angeles because he mistakenly expected Geronimo: An American Legend to become a big success.[15] "By the time I figured out I had made the wrong decision, it was too late. I was living out here with a bunch of actors, and we were all scrambling to make ends meet," Damon has said.[16]

Acting career

Early years

Damon's first film role came in 1988 when he was eighteen, with a single line of dialogue in the romantic comedy Mystic Pizza.[17] As a student at Harvard University, he continued to pursue acting and performed small roles in projects such as the TNT original film Rising Son and the ensemble prep-school drama School Ties.[18] In 1992, he landed a big part in Geronimo: An American Legend with Gene Hackman and Jason Patric.[18] Four years later, he auditioned for a small role in Cutthroat Island, but was turned away.[19] Damon next appeared as an opiate-addicted soldier in 1996's Courage Under Fire. He was required to lose 40 pounds (18 kg) in 100 days (for only two days of filming).[20][21] After following a self-prescribed diet and fitness regimen to lose the weight, Damon was told after filming that he was fortunate his heart did not shrink. He took medication for several years afterwards to correct the stress inflicted on his adrenal gland. Courage Under Fire gained him some critical notice, as the Washington Post labeled his performance "impressive";[22] Damon has stated that it was worthwhile to risk his health in order to properly portray his character and show the industry how committed he was to his work as an actor.[17][21]

Breakthrough

During the early 1990s, Damon and Affleck wrote a screenplay about a young math genius, which they then pitched around Hollywood for a long time. Receiving advice from director Rob Reiner, screenwriter William Goldman, and their friend writer/director Kevin Smith, the two made changes to the script.[15] The script eventually became Good Will Hunting (1997), and received nine Academy Awards nominations, earning Damon and Affleck Oscars for Best Original Screenplay.[23][24] Damon was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for the same film, which also netted an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for co-star Robin Williams.[23] He and Affleck were each paid salaries of $500,000, while the film grossed over $225 million at the worldwide box office.[25][26] The two later parodied their roles from the film in Kevin Smith's 2001 movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Also in 1997, Damon was the lead in the critically-acclaimed drama The Rainmaker, where he was recognized by the Los Angeles Times as "a talented young actor on the brink of stardom."[27] After meeting Damon on the set of Good Will Hunting, director Steven Spielberg cast Damon as the titular character in the 1998 World War II film Saving Private Ryan.[15]

Hollywood star

Six actors, all but one wearing a leather jacket, are photographed on a stage with a blue curtain as a backdrop.
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Damon, Andy García, Julia Roberts (the cast of Ocean's Eleven), with director Steven Soderbergh in December 2001

Damon has become known for choosing a wide variety of film roles,[28] from his portrayal of Patricia Highsmith's anti-hero Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)[17] to a fallen angel who discusses pop culture as intellectual subject matter with Affleck in Dogma (1999); from a conjoined twin in Stuck on You (2003), which got a mixed critical reception,[29] to the low budget experimental film Gerry (2002), which he co-wrote with Casey Affleck and Gus Van Sant. Damon garnered generally positive critical reaction for his Golden Globe-nominated[30] portrayal of Ripley, with Variety stating, "Damon outstandingly conveys his character's slide from innocent enthusiasm into cold calculation."[31]

Damon's attempts at essaying leading characters in romantic dramas such as 2000's All the Pretty Horses and The Legend of Bagger Vance were commercially and critically unsuccessful.[25] Variety said of his work in All the Pretty Horses: "[Damon] just doesn't quite seem like a young man who's spent his life amidst the dust and dung of a Texas cattle ranch. Nor does he strike any sparks with [Penelope] Cruz."[32] He was similarly deemed "uncomfortable being the center" of Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance.[33]

From 2001 to 2007, Damon gained wider international recognition as part of two major film franchises. He co-starred as thief Linus Caldwell, alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts, in Steven Soderbergh's 2001 remake of the Rat Pack's 1960 caper film Ocean's Eleven; the successful crime dramedy spawned two sequels, Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007).[17] He played amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne in the hit action thrillers The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).[17] Entertainment Weekly placed Damon as an "action star" on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "When he first signed on as the ass-kicking amnesiac Jason Bourne in 2002, no one would've predicted that Damon would become the decade's best mixer of brawn and brains. Shows what we know."[34] In August 2007, financial magazine Forbes created a list of actors who generated the best box office performance related to their salaries; the list placed Damon as the most bankable star of the actors reviewed, revealing that Damon had averaged U.S.$29 at the box office for every dollar he earned for his last three films.[35][36]

Photo of Damon and De Niro, each wearing a tuxedo jacket and a dark blue shirt.
Damon with Robert De Niro in Berlin in February 2007 for the premiere of The Good Shepherd

Damon played a fictionalized version of Wilhelm Grimm in Terry Gilliam's fantasy adventure The Brothers Grimm (2005), which was a critically panned commercial failure;[25] The Washington Post concluded, "Damon, constantly flashing his newscaster's teeth and flaunting a fake, 'Masterpiece Theatre' dialect, comes across like someone who got lost on the way to an audition for a high school production of 'The Pirates of Penzance'."[37] Later that year, he appeared as an energy analyst in Syriana.[38] In 2006, Damon joined Robert De Niro in The Good Shepherd as a career CIA officer, and played an undercover mobster working for the Massachusetts State Police in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, a remake of the Hong Kong police thriller Infernal Affairs.[17] Assessing his work in the two films, Manohla Dargis of the New York Times wrote that Damon "does what few stars with his kind of billing do: he disappears."[28] The Departed was a success amongst critics and audiences alike.[39][25]

Damon had an uncredited cameo in Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007) and another cameo in the 2008 Che Guevara biopic Che. He lent his voice to the English version of the animated film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which was released in the United States in August 2009.[40] He also made a guest appearance in 2009 on the sixth season finale of Entourage as himself, where he tries to pressure Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) into donating to his charity OneXOne—a real foundation for which Damon is an ambassador—and gets increasingly irritated when Chase does not seem to comply.[41][42]

Damon next appeared in Steven Soderbergh's dark comedy, The Informant! (2009),[43] in which his Golden Globe-nominated work was described by Entertainment Weekly as such: "The star – who has quietly and steadily turned into a great Everyman actor – is in nimble control as he reveals his character's deep crazies."[44] Also in 2009, Damon portrayed South Africa national rugby union team captain François Pienaar in the Clint Eastwood-directed Nelson Mandela film Invictus, which is based on the 2008 John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation and features Morgan Freeman as Mandela.[45] Invictus earned Damon an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The New Republic observed, "It is not a demanding role, but the ever-more-actorly Damon brings it off with low-key charm and integrity."[46]

Hand and foot prints in cement dated of June 6, 2007
Handprints and footprints of Damon in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre

In 2010, Damon re-teamed with director Paul Greengrass, who directed him in the Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum, for the action thriller Green Zone, which flopped commercially[47] and received ambivalent reception from critics.[48]

In motion pictures that feature him either as a leading actor or as a supporting co-star, his films have grossed a total of U.S.$1.94[49] to U.S.$2.42 billion[50] (based on counting his roles as strictly lead or including supporting roles, respectively) at the North American box office, placing him in the top forty grossing actors of all time.

He has also appeared as a guest star in an episode of Arthur (TV series), titled The Making of Arthur, as himself.http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/7229

Upcoming films

Damon's projects set for release in 2010 include The Adjustment Bureau, Clint Eastwood's Hereafter, and the Coen Brothers remake of the 1969 John Wayne-starrer True Grit, which started filming in March 2010.[51] He will next work with frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh on two projects: as the longtime Liberace love interest, Scott Thorsen, opposite Michael Douglas in an upcoming film centered on the pianist's life[52] and as part of an ensemble cast in Contagion.[51] Damon has also performed a supporting role in Kenneth Lonergan's drama Margaret, which was scheduled for a theatrical debut in 2007 but is yet to be released due to production conflicts.

Producing career

Along with Affleck and producers Chris Moore and Sean Bailey, Damon founded the production company LivePlanet, through which the four created the documentary series Project Greenlight to find and fund worthwhile film projects from novice filmmakers.[53] The company produced and founded the short-lived mystery-hybrid series Push, Nevada, among other projects. Project Greenlight was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002, 2004, and 2005.[15]

In March 2010, Damon and Affleck teamed up again to sign a first-look production deal with Warner Bros..[54]

Humanitarian work

Damon, wearing a suit jacket with white shirt open at the collar, is talking into a microphone held by an unseen interviewer.
Damon at the OneXOne benefit in San Francisco, October 2008

Damon has taken part in philanthropy since the age of 12, deciding what to do with his $5 allowance.[55] Damon was the founder of H2O Africa Foundation, the charitable arm of the Running the Sahara expedition,[15][56] which merged with WaterPartners to create Water.org in July 2009.[57] He, along with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub, is one of the founders of Not On Our Watch, an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities such as in Darfur.[58] Damon supports the ONE Campaign, which is aimed at fighting AIDS and poverty in Third World countries. He has appeared in their print and television advertising. Damon is also an ambassador for OneXOne, a non-profit foundation committed to supporting, preserving and improving the lives of children at home in Canada, the United States, and around the world.[59]

Damon is a board member of Tonic Mailstopper (formerly GreenDimes), a company that attempts to halt junk mail delivered to American homes each day.[60] Appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 20, 2007, Damon promoted the organization's efforts to prevent the trees used for junk mail letters and envelopes from being chopped down. Damon stated: "For an estimated dime a day they can stop 70 per cent [sic] of the junk mail that comes to your house. It's very simple, easy to do, great gift to give, I've actually signed up my entire family. It was a gift given to me this past holiday season and I was so impressed that I'm now on the board of the company."[61]

In the media

Kimmel and Damon

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel at some point started stating near the end of his ABC television show Jimmy Kimmel Live, "My apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." The line is a gag lampooning instances where shows cannot feature their last guest due to time constraints. On September 12, 2006, after a segment highlighting the running gag and a lengthy introduction by Kimmel, Damon finally appeared on the show, only for Kimmel to apologetically cut his interview and head to credits, as Damon cursed him. It was later determined that the skit was entirely planned by Kimmel and Damon.[62] Kimmel's girlfriend at the time, comedian Sarah Silverman, also used this line at the end of the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.[63] Silverman then aired a clip of her singing a song entitled "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" on January 31, 2008, on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Damon appeared in the song with Silverman and at the end when she is apologizing to Jimmy, Damon interrupts her and says, "Jimmy, we're out of time. Sorry."[64] Kimmel responded by airing his own music video in which he announced, through song, that he is "fucking Ben Affleck". The video aired on February 24, 2008, and featured Affleck along with a host of celebrities, including Don Cheadle, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Harrison Ford, and Robin Williams.[65]

Political views

Damon appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews in December 2006 and, while discussing the ongoing war in Iraq, he stated: "I don't think that it's fair, as I said before, that it seems like we have a fighting class in our country that's comprised of people who have to go for either financial reasons, or ... if you're gonna send people to war, then that needs to be shared by everybody."[66]

On September 10, 2008, a video was released on YouTube by the Associated Press in which Damon criticized the Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom he found unready to lead the country in case John McCain were to not make it through his first term. Damon referred to Palin as a "...bad Disney movie... 'I'm just a hockey mom from Alaska here to take on the White House'," and added, "It's absurd ... I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago. Because she’s gonna have the nuclear codes."[67]

Damon narrated the audiobook version of historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, published in 2003.[68]

Personal life

Damon in a tuxedo and bow-tie, with his wife wearing a low-cut, silver gown.
Damon with wife Luciana Bozán Barroso at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival

Damon dated his Good Will Hunting co-star Minnie Driver.[69] He later had a two-year relationship with actress Winona Ryder.[17] From 2001 to 2003, he dated Odessa Whitmire, a former personal assistant of Billy Bob Thornton and Ben Affleck.[17]

While filming Stuck on You in 2003,[70] Damon met Argentine-born Luciana Bozán Barroso in Miami, where she was working as a bartender.[71] They married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau near New York City Hall.[71] Damon became stepfather to Barroso's young daughter, Alexia, from her previous marriage. The couple's first child together, daughter Isabella, was born in Miami, Florida on June 11, 2006.[72] On August 20, 2008, Barroso gave birth to the couple's second child, Gia Zavala Damon.[73] The couple is expecting their third child in fall 2010.[74] Damon and his family currently reside in Manhattan.[54]

Damon is a fan of the Boston Red Sox.[75] After the team won the 2007 World Series, he narrated the commemorative DVD release of the event.[76]

Awards and honors

Pink granite star on a black granite side-walk.
Matt Damon's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1988 Mystic Pizza Steamer
The Good Mother Extra
1992 School Ties Charlie Dillon
1993 Geronimo: An American Legend 2nd Lt. Britton Davis
1996 Glory Daze Edgar Pudwhacker
Courage Under Fire Specialist Ilario
1997 Good Will Hunting Will Hunting Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Ben Affleck
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Writers Guild of America Award with Ben Affleck
The Rainmaker Rudy Baylor
Chasing Amy Shawn Oran Cameo
1998 Rounders Mike McDermott
Saving Private Ryan Private James Francis Ryan Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast
1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley Tom Ripley Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
Dogma Loki
2000 Finding Forrester Steven Sanderson Cameo
All the Pretty Horses John Grady Cole
The Legend of Bagger Vance Rannulph Junuh
Titan A.E. Cale Tucker Voice
2001 The Majestic Luke Trimble Voice only
Ocean's Eleven Linus Caldwell
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Himself Cameo
2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Matt, bachelor #2 Cameo
The Bourne Identity Jason Bourne
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Spirit Voice
Gerry Gerry Also co-writer
2003 Stuck on You Bob Tenor
2004 Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train Narrator Voice
Ocean's Twelve Linus Caldwell
The Bourne Supremacy Jason Bourne
Jersey Girl PR Exec #2 Cameo
Eurotrip Donny Cameo
2005 Syriana Bryan Woodman
The Brothers Grimm Will (Wilhelm) Grimm
2006 The Good Shepherd Edward Wilson
The Departed Colin Sullivan Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast
2007 Ocean's Thirteen Linus Caldwell
The Bourne Ultimatum Jason Bourne
Youth Without Youth Ted Jones, Life Magazine Reporter Cameo
Arthur Himself Voice
2008 Che: Part Two Fr. Schwarz Cameo
2009 Ponyo Koichi Voice (English version)
The Informant! Mark Whitacre Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated — San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Invictus Francois Pienaar Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
2010 Green Zone Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller
30 Rock Carol TV series (episode: "I Do Do")
The Adjustment Bureau David Norris post-production
Hereafter George post-production
True Grit LeBoeuf post-production
Inside Job Narrator

References

  1. ↑ Luscombe, Belinda (December 19, 1999). "Matt Damon Acts Out". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,36294-1,00.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Givens, Ron; Michele McPhee (March 22, 1998). "Two Hollywood Prizefighters 'Hunting' for Stardom Pays Off for Matt Damon". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/03/22/1998-03-22_two_hollywood_prizefighters_.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  3. ↑ "Genealogical Chart Knowlton Line of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon". New England Historic Genealogical Society. 2009. http://www.newenglandancestors.org/pdfs/affleck_damon_connection.pdf. Retrieved 2010-02-02. 
  4. ↑ "Matt Damon". Rootsweb. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/damon.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-02. 
  5. ↑ Ball, Ryan. "Matt Damon Animated for Arthur". Animation Magazine. http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/7229. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  6. ↑ "Matt Damon: A true Hollywood player". London: The Independent. October 4, 2006. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/matt-damon-a-true-hollywood-player-418808.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Raider, Dotson (November 30, 2003). ""My Goals Have Changed" (Actor Matt Damon)". Parade. http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2003/edition_11-30-2003/featured_0. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Crust, Kevin (October 15, 2004). "'Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train,' 'Hair Show,' 'The Hillside Strangler,' 'The Dust Factory' and 'Stephen King's Riding the Bullet'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 04, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080604162332/http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-capsules15oct15,2,1749015.story. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  9. ↑ Horowitz, David (2004). Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam And The American Left. Regnery Publishing. pp. 102. ISBN 089526076X. http://books.google.com/books?id=azE5qoXTgoAC&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=matt+damon+howard+zinn+neighbor&source=web&ots=L-uGfPq5A5&sig=NaQBpDX55Gn7hFB_DEn2i2cSepY#PPA102,M1. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Arnold, Gary (December 26, 1997). "Boyhood friends are stars on the rise". The Washington Times. 
  11. ↑ "Ripley Believe It or Not". Entertainment Weekly. December 17, 1999. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,272093_2,00.html. Retrieved April 23, 2010. 
  12. ↑ McGrath, Charles (October 1, 2006). "6 Degrees of Harvard". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/weekinreview/01mcgrath.html?scp=1&sq=matt%20damon%20harvard%201992&st=cse. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  13. ↑ Chainani, Soman. "Matt Damon On Life, Acting and Harvard". The Harvard Crimson. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/12/12/matt-damon-on-life-acting-and/. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  14. ↑ Siegler, Elijah (November 2, 1990). "Ex Show Safe but Satisfying". The Harvard Crimson. http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=266489. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 Wills, Dominic. "Matt Damon Biography". Tiscali.ca. http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/matt_damon_biog.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  16. ↑ Koltnow, Barry (December 5, 1999). "Looking for Mr. 'Good' Guy". The Orange County Register . 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 17.7 "Matt Damon Biography". People. http://www.people.com/people/matt_damon/biography. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Stated in interview on Inside the Actors Studio
  19. ↑ Johnston, Sheila (November 8, 1998). "Interview: Matt Damon: The talented Mr Damon tries on the Emperor's new clothes for size". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/interview-matt-damon-the-talented-mr-damon-tries-on-the-emperors-new-clothes-for-size-1183460.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  20. ↑ Greenblatt, Leah (September 21, 2007). "Actorexia: A Brief History". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20057925,00.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 ANI (August 4, 2007). "Weight loss left Damon feeling like a "wreck"". YahooIndia. http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail/4666/Weight-loss-left-Damon-feeling-like-wreck.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  22. ↑ Kempley, Rita (November 8, 1998). "Hand-to-Heart Combat". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/review96/courageunderfirekemp.htm. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Wallace, Amy; Robert W. Welkos and Susan King (February 11, 1998). "'Titanic' Ties Record for Oscar Nominations". The Hartford Courant. http://www.courant.com/topic/cl-env-1998oscarnoms,0,2173092.story?page=1. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Waxman, Sharon; William Booth (March 23, 1998). "'Titanic's' 11 Oscars Ties Record; Night 'Good' for Nicholson, Hunt". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/movies/oscars/oscars98.htm. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 "Box Office Mojo - Matt Damon". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Actor&id=mattdamon.htm. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  26. ↑ "Matt Damon". The Biography Channel. http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/1685:2046/1/Matt_Damon.htm. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  27. ↑ Matthews, Jack (November 21, 1997). "John Grisham's The Rainmaker". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 28, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5qpFLz7Bh. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Dargis, Manohla (September 10, 2006). "The Boyish Mr. Damon, Not So Boyish After All". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/movies/moviesspecial/10darg.html. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  29. ↑ "Stuck on You reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stuck_on_you/. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  30. ↑ "HFPA - Awards Search". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. http://www.goldenglobes.org/browse/member/29686. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  31. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (December 13, 1999). "The Talented Mr. Ripley - film review". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117759854.html?categoryid=31&cs=1. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  32. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (December 13, 2000). "All the Pretty Horses - film review". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117796963.html?categoryid=31&cs=1. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  33. ↑ "The Legend of Bagger Vance - film review". New York. http://nymag.com/nymetro/movies/reviews/4029/. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  34. ↑ Geier, Thom; Jeff Jensen, Tina Jordan, Margaret Lyons, Adam Markovitz, Chris Nashawaty, Whitney Pastorek, Lynette Rice, Josh Rottenberg, Missy Schwartz, Michael Slezak, Dan Snierson, Tim Stack, Kate Stroup, Ken Tucker, Adam B. Vary, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Kate Ward (2009-12-11). "The 100 Greatest Movies, TV Shows, Albums, Books, Characters, Scenes, Episodes, Songs, Dresses, Music Videos, And Trends That Entertained Us Over The Past 10 Years". Entertainment Weekly: (1079/1080):74-84. 
  35. ↑ Pomerantz, Dorothy (August 6, 2007). "Ultimate Star Payback". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/03/celebrities-hollywood-movies-biz-cz_dp_0806starpayback.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  36. ↑ "A box-office banker: How Matt Damon became Hollywood's leading man". The Independent (London). August 8, 2007. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/a-boxoffice-banker-how-matt-damon-became-hollywoods-leading-man-460666.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  37. ↑ O'Sullivan, Michael (August 26, 2005). "A Disappointingly 'Grimm' Tale". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082500539.html. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  38. ↑ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (November 23, 2005). "EW review: 'Syriana' lacks humanity". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/11/23/ew.mov.syriana/index.html?iref=newssearch. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  39. ↑ "The Departed reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/departed/. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  40. ↑ Child, Ben (November 27, 2008). "English-language cast announced for Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff". The Guardian (London: guardian.co.uk). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/nov/27/hayaomiyazaki. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  41. ↑ Silverman, Stephen M. (July 13, 2009). "Matt Damon Fundraises on Entourage". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20290886,00.html. Retrieved November 5, 2009. 
  42. ↑ "We Hear: Tom Werner, Katy Davis, Matt Damon & more...". Boston Herald. October 11, 2009. http://news.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1203803&srvc=home&position=also. Retrieved November 5, 2009. 
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  44. ↑ "The Informant". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20304807,00.html. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  45. ↑ Leys, Nick (March 15, 2009). "Matt Damon takes rugby union to Hollywood". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25187212-5006010,00.html. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  46. ↑ "The Mini-Review: 'Invictus'". The New Republic. http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-plank/the-mini-review-invictus. Retrieved April 21, 2010. 
  47. ↑ Corliss, Richard (March 14, 2010). "Alice turns Damon a sickly Green". Time. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1971941,00.html. Retrieved April 16, 2010. 
  48. ↑ "Green Zone Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/1202804-green_zone/. Retrieved April 12, 2010. 
  49. ↑ "Actors #1-50". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/?view=Actor&sort=sumgross&p=.htm. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  50. ↑ "All Time Top 100 Stars at the Box Office". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/people/records/. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 Weintraub, Steve (2010-02-27). "Matt Damon talks Future Projects, Oscars and Directing His First Feature". collider.com. http://www.collider.com/2010/02/27/matt-damon-talks-future-projects-oscars-and-directing-his-first-feature-info-on-the-coen-brothers-true-grit-the-rfk-project-with-gary-ross-clint-eastwoods-hereafter-liberace-contagion-more/. Retrieved 2010-03-05. 
  52. ↑ Mikelbank, Peter (2009-09-15). "Michael Douglas To Play Liberace". People. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20303839,00.html. Retrieved 2009-09-15. 
  53. ↑ Zap2It.com (August 12, 2002). "'Greenlight' gets green light". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1ZINAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YnADAAAAIBAJ&pg=5492,2982593&dq=matt+damon+project+green+light. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 Donna Freydkin (March 11, 2010). "Busy actor, father Matt Damon is in the 'Green Zone'". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2010-03-11-Damon11_ST_N.htm. Retrieved March 14, 2010. 
  55. ↑ Damon, Matt (October 11, 2009). "We Can Move Mountains". Parade. http://www.parade.com/celebrity/2009/10/matt-damon-gives-back.html. Retrieved July 6, 2010. 
  56. ↑ DeCwikiel-Kane, Dawn (August 31, 2008). "Charlie Engle's office: the great outdoors". Greensboro News & Record. http://www.news-record.com/content/2008/08/31/article/carlie_engles_office_the_great_outdoors. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  57. ↑ "Water.org Working Toward Global Access to Safe Water". Water.org. 2009-07-14. http://water.org/2009/07/new-waterorg/. Retrieved 2009-07-24. 
  58. ↑ "Not On Our Watch". NotOurWatchProject.org. http://notonourwatchproject.org/who_we_are. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
  59. ↑ The Canadian Press (September 17, 2007). "T.O. benefit gala hosted by Matt Damon raises $1M". CTV. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/print/CTVNews/20070914/damon_charity_070914/20070914/?hub=SpecialEvent2&subhub=PrintStory. Retrieved April 5, 2009. 
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Preceded by
George Clooney		 People's Sexiest Man Alive
2007		 Succeeded by
Hugh Jackman
Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) 1990–1999

Bruce Joel Rubin (1990) · Callie Khouri (1991) · Neil Jordan (1992) · Jane Campion (1993) · Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary (1994) · Christopher McQuarrie (1995) · Joel and Ethan Coen (1996) · Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (1997) · Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (1998) · Alan Ball (1999)

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