Oscar Profile #297: Matt Damon

Born October 8, 1970 in Boston, Mass. to a stockbroker father and college professor mother, Matthew Paige (Matt) Damon and his older brother were raised by his divorced mother beginning when he was just two years old. Ben Affleck was a childhood friend.

Damon performed in theater productions while in high school and attended Harvard University as an English major but kept skipping classes to pursue acting projects. He made his film debut in a minor role in 1988’s Mystic Pizza and made uncredited appearances in the same year’s The Good Mother and 1989’s Field of Dreams. Second billed in 1992’s School Ties, he left Harvard and moved to Hollywood later that year to play a co-starring role in 1993’s Geronimo, which had been expected to become a big hit. His role in 1996’s Courage Under Fire led to his starring role in 1997’s The Rainmaker, but it was his other 1997 film, Good Will Hunting, that made him a major star.

The actor originally wrote a treatment of Good Will Hunting for a class exercise while at Harvard. He and childhood friend Ben Affleck polished the script for the film in which they co-starred, with Damon receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and both of them receiving a nomination and a win for the screenplay. The Oscar was presented to them by Harvard alum Jack Lemmon. Robin Williams also won an Oscar for his supporting turn as Damon’s psychologist in the film.

Damon won kudos for his portrayals of the title character in 1998’s Saving Private Ryan, the amoral protagonist of 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, and a fallen angel in Dogma, but he proved unsuccessful as a romantic hero in two 2000 flops, All the Pretty Horses and The Legend of Bagger Vance. He successfully rebounded with his starring roles in two films that led to franchises in the new millennium, 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven and 2002’s The Bourne Identity. Other films of the decade include 2005’s The Brothers Grimm and Syriana; 2006’s The Departed and The Good Shepherd; and 2009’s The Informant! and Invictus, the latter earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Moving from his supporting turn in 2010’s True Grit back to leads in 2011’s We Bought a Zoo and 2012’s Promised Land among others, Damon continues to keep himself relevant with his many TV appearances, especially on late night talk shows. He had one of his best roles ever in 2015’s The Martian for which he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, his fourth nomination overall and his first in the lead category in eighteen years.

Damon has been married to wife Luciana since 2005 with whom he has three daughters and a step-daughter. Ever busy, the actor is currently filming Alexander Payne’s Downsizing, scheduled for release in December 2017.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997), directed by Gus Van Sant

Damon originally wrote a treatment of his story about a brilliant M.I.T. janitor with psychological problems as an exercise for one of his classes at Harvard. The final filmed script by Damon and childhood friend Ben Affleck who plays his character’s best friend in the film, created a back story as compelling as the script itself when the two up-and-coming actors won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Damon’s equally brilliant star-making turn also earned him a nomination for Best Actor while co-star Robin Williams won an Oscar for his portrayal of his psychologist.

THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1999), directed by Anthony Minghella

Damon turned his good guy image on its head as the protagonist in this third version of Patricia Highsmith’s novel about a deceitful social climbing charmer who turns to murder to get what he wants. It was previously filmed by Franklin J. Schaffner for TV in 1956 and by René Clement as Plein soleil (a.k.a. Purple Noon) in 1960, making an international star of Alain Delon. Minghella’s equally fascinating five-time Oscar nominee proved fortuitous not just for Damon, but for Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jack Davenport as well.

THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002), directed by Doug Liman

Robert Ludlum’s thriller was previously filmed as a successful 1988 TV miniseries with Richard Chamberlain as the amnesiac spy, but Damon’s film was even more thrilling, setting up a role for the actor to play in two sequels, 2004’s The Bourne Supremacy and 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum. Jeremy Renner took over the franchise as another character in 2012’s The Bourne Legacy, but Damon is back for a fourth time in the highly anticipated 2016 film Jason Bourne. If the multi-talented Damon can be identified by just one role, this is the one.

THE DEPARTED (2006), directed by Martin Scorsese

This remake of the international 2002 hit, Infernal Affairs, moves the action from Hong Kong to Boston in the film that finally won Martin Scorsese his Oscar for Best Director. The year’s Best Picture winner as well, it provided Leonardo DiCaprio, Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg with strong roles. DiCaprio, Nicholson and Wahlberg were all nominated for Golden Globes, but only Wahlberg was nominated for an Oscar. In my opinion, both DiCaprio and Damon should have been nominated for Best Actor as the two main cops and Nicholson should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor as the crime boss.

THE MARTIAN (2015), directed by Ridley Scott

Damon received his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his largely tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the stranded astronaut in Ridley Scott’s space-age thriller. Damon’s performance was so light-hearted that the Golden Globes considered the film a comedy and gave Damon their Best Actor in a Comedy award for his performance. He also won the National Board of Review award for Best Actor, but lost the Oscar to the heavily favored Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant. Jessica Chastain, Kristin Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kata Mara, and Sebastian Stan co-star.