Biography

Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American actor and screenwriter. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his screenwriting in Good Will Hunting and was nominated for his lead performance in the same film. Growing steadily in popularity from the 1997 film, he has since matched up with A-list actors in mainstream films, and today is rated amongst the top actors in Hollywood.

With his wife, Luciana Bozán Barroso, Damon has a daughter, and also a stepdaughter from Barroso's prior marriage. He has won multiple awards for his film performances and is one of the top twenty-five highest grossing actors of all time. Damon has been actively involved in several charitable organizations, including the ONE Campaign and H2O Africa Foundation. Damon currently has four upcoming films that will debut between 2007 and 2009. In his most recent roles, he portrayed Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum, and had an uncredited cameo in Youth Without Youth. His next upcoming role will be in Margaret, due in 2007.

Early life

Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Kent Telfer Damon, a stockbroker, realtor, and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. In an interview with Mail on Sunday, Damon responded that his grandfather is probably the most "impressive person he knows," stating, "He's Finnish, a very proud man, who would never take help from anybody. He came to America when he was a little boy, grew up during the Depression and sold shoes. He always used to tell us the story about getting a raise of three and a half cents, and how that was an incredible moment of success. He's extraordinary." Damon has a brother, Kyle, who is an accomplished sculptor and artist. Damon and his family lived in Newton for the first two years of his life, but after his parents divorced, Damon and his brother moved with his mother to Cambridge.

Damon grew up next door to actor Ben Affleck and historian and author Howard Zinn, 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. Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the only public high school in Cambridge, and performed in several theater productions. He graduated from the school in 1988 and began attending Harvard University the same year. Damon could have graduated with the class of 1992, but kept leaving classes to pursue acting projects, including the TNT original film Rising Son and ensemble prep-school drama School Ties. While at Harvard, he studied English and lived in Lowell House. He did not take part in student theater generally, but did appear in A... My Name is Alice (in one of the three male roles usually performed by women). Damon dropped out of the university with twelve units left to graduate to pursue his acting career in Los Angeles after he expected Geronimo: An American Legend to be a big success.

Personal life

Damon has had relationships with several actresses throughout his career. Damon had a three-year relationship with actress Winona Ryder. He also dated Odessa Whitmire, who has worked as a personal assistant for Billy Bob Thornton and Ben Affleck, from 2001 to 2003. His relationship with Good Will Hunting co-star Minnie Driver reportedly ended when Damon announced their break-up on The Oprah Winfrey Show, though both actors have repeatedly denied this. Damon later stated that he was "sick and tired" of hearing the story, saying it was false. Driver's sister allegedly told Cosmo that the couple had broken up before the show was taped. Although the media often claimed Damon dated actress Eva Mendes, both have denied any relationship, with Mendes saying "it wasn't true."

Damon met Argentine-born Luciana Bozan Barroso in Miami, where she was working as a bartender. They married in a private civil ceremony on December 9, 2005, in New York City Hall. Damon became stepfather to Barroso's young daughter, Alexia, from her previous marriage. The couple's first child together, daughter Isabella, was born on June 11, 2006 in Miami, Florida.