Matt Damon: Snapshot
- Name
- Matt Damon
- Birth Date
- October 08, 1970
- Birth Place
- Cambridge, Mass.
While Affleck went on to commercial blockbusters like Armageddon, Damon aligned with award-friendly directors like Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan) and Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr. Ripley). More recently, Damon has balanced dramatic work in The Departed and The Good Shepherd with popular trilogies like Ocean's Eleven and The Bourne Identity.
Though he has dated starlets like Winona Ryder and Minnie Driver, PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive in 2007 has kept his love life private. In 2005, he quietly married Luciana Bozan Barroso before welcoming daughter, Isabella, in 2006. In 2008, the couple will be adding a third child to their brood.
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Matt Damon: Five Fun Facts
- Matt Damon's first big splurge was "his-and-his" Jeep Grand Cherokees for him and pal Ben Affleck. "I am ashamed to say," he told PEOPLE. "That was our dream car. We flipped a coin on the color. We both wanted Hunter green and I won. I got green; he got black."
- As a teen, Boston-native Matt Damon used to break-dance for money in Harvard Square.
- Matt Damon was an extra in Field of Dreams with friend Ben Affleck when they were just starting out.
- While shooting Bourne Ultimatum, Matt Damon got some help from his infant daughter Isabella. "It was really helping the characterization of Bourne that I wasn't sleeping, because I looked really haggard, like I was in some kind of existential pain," he told PEOPLE. "It was...because of my child. She's a method daughter!"
- Matt Damon appeared on Will & Grace in 2002 as Jack's rival for a coveted spot in a gay men's chorus.
Matt Damon: Biography 
- 1988
Young Ambition
Damon graduates from Cambridge Rindge & Latin High, where he was active in theatre and friends with Ben Affleck. The pair held "business lunches" in the cafeteria to plot their careers. Damon attends Harvard, majoring in English literature. Just 12 credits shy of getting his degree, he drops out to pursue acting. First gig: a one-liner in 1988's Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts.
- 1992
Up and Comers
School Ties, a film about a '50s prep school for boys and anti-Semitism, stars a group of hot young actors, including Brendan Fraser, Chris O'Donnell, Affleck and Damon.
- 1996
Going the Distance
Courage Under Fire starring Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington is released and features Damon in his breakthrough performance as a Gulf War veteran addicted to heroin. Damon drops 40 pounds in 100 days, eating only chicken, egg whites, steamed broccoli and plain baked potatoes, then running 12 miles a day. "By the end of it, if I stood up, I didn't have any energy," he tells PEOPLE.
Photo Credits
Top Left: Vera Anderson/WireImage
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Phil Penman/Splash News; PHOTOFEST; 20th Century Fox/Everett
