Matt Damon

American actor Matt Damon (1970) studied English literature at Harvard while he started his film career. He and Ben Affleck co-wrote Good Will Hunting (1997), for which they won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Damon starred in such box office hits as Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Ocean's Eleven (2001). In 2002, Damon became an action hero in The Bourne Identity. In 2006, he starred alongside Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, which won four Oscars. He also worked on several blockbusters with directors Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan, including the latest mega-hit The Odyssey (2026).


British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. PC 8270. Photo: Armando Gallo. Caption: Matt Damon - Black T-shirt.


Chinese postcard. Matt Damon and Anna Paquin in Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011).

An essay in the form of a film treatment as an exercise for an English class

Matthew Paige 'Matt' Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1970. His parents were Nancy Carlsson Paige and her husband, Kent Telfer Damon. His mother was a professor of education at Lesley University in Boston, and his father was a stockbroker. Damon has an older brother named Kyle, a sculptor and artist. Damon is a distant cousin of actors Casey and Ben Affleck. When he was two years old, his parents divorced. With his mother and brother, he moved from Newton to Cambridge.

Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the same school as Ben Affleck. There, he frequently performed in various theatre groups before graduating in 1988. Damon went to study English literature at Harvard. He also registered with an audition agency and was offered a one-line part in the film Mystic Pizza (Donald Petrie, 1988) starring Julia Roberts. In the years that followed this debut, he played smaller roles in the television film Rising Son (John David Coles, 1990) and in prep-school drama School Ties (Robert Mandel, 1992) with Brendan Fraser and Ben Affleck.

He never earned a degree at Harvard, but continued to pursue acting and appeared in the play 'A... My Name is Alice'. When the film Geronimo: An American Legend (Walter Hill, 1993), with Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall, seemed to become a success, Damon knew for sure what he wanted. He dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles. His breakthrough came with Courage Under Fire (Edward Zwick, 1996), starring Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. For his role as a Gulf War vet, Damon had to lose ca. 20 kilos (44 or 47 pounds - the sources differ).

While at Harvard, Damon had written an essay in the form of a film treatment as an exercise for an English class. In 1995, he and Ben Affleck developed it into a screenplay about a young mathematics genius. For a long time, they tried to sell it to a studio, but they turned down several lucrative offers because the potential buyers weren't interested in casting both Damon and Affleck in the leading roles. It wasn't until Damon's first starring role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Rainmaker (1997) was a hit that Miramax acquired the rights. Good Will Hunting (Gus van Sant, 1997), starring Affleck, Damon, and Robin Williams, was a huge success and earned the two writers an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award. Damon also received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

In the following years, Matt Damon starred in various box-office smashes: the anti-war epic Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998) with Tom Hanks, The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999) opposite Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, the Heist comedy Ocean's Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001), and the sequels Ocean's Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, 2004), and Ocean's Thirteen (Steven Soderbergh, 2007). The last three had an ensemble star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle and Julia Roberts.


Poster postcard in the Cinemascope Collection, no. 345. Photo: Paramount / Miramax. Matt Damon and Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999).


Poster postcard, no. 6457. Image: Paramount / Miramax. Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999). Caption: How far would you go to become someone else?


Dutch freecard by Boomerang, Amsterdam, no. P25-04. Poster: Warner Bros. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle and Bernie Mac in Ocean's Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, 2004).

A well-received amnesiac assassin

In 2002, Matt Damon became an action hero. He took on the role of amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity (Doug Limon, 2002), based on the bestseller by Robert Ludlum. He underwent three months of training in eskrima and boxing. The film was so well received that Damon also starred in the sequels The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass, 2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass, 2007), and Jason Bourne (Paul Greengrass, 2016).

In between, he starred alongside Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's thriller The Departed (2006). The film won four Oscars and was well-received by both film critics and the general public. Damon also appeared in the Coen brothers' remake of the 1969 John Wayne-starring Western True Grit (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, 2010) with Jeff Bridges.

In 2014, he was nominated for an Emmy Award (Outstanding Actor) for his role as Scott Thorson in Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013). The film portrays the last ten years of pianist Liberace's life and his relationship with Scott Thorson. The story is based on Thorson's memoirs, 'Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace' (1988). The Emmy Award went to his co-star Michael Douglas, who played Liberace. Damon also produced the reality series Project Greenlight (2001–2015) and the film Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, 2016) starring Casey Affleck.

Matt Damon received a nomination for an Academy Award and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for The Martian (Ridley Scott, 2015). The film depicts an astronaut's struggle to survive on Mars after being left behind and NASA's efforts to return him to Earth. The Martian opened to critical acclaim, and grossed $630.6 million worldwide. His later films include Ford v Ferrari (James Mangold, 2019) with Christian Bale, the epic historical drama The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021), which he also co-wrote, and Air (Ben Affleck, 2023).

Christopher Nolan directed him in three hugely successful blockbusters: in a minor role as scientist Dr. Mann in Interstellar (2014), as Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project in Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023) and as Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, in The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan, 2026). In 2005, Damon married his Argentine girlfriend Luciana Barroso. Together they have three daughters, Isabella (2006), Gia (2008) and Stella (2010). Barroso also had a daughter, Alexia, from a previous relationship. Damon previously had relationships with Winona Ryder and Minnie Driver.


British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. PC 2109. Caption: Matt Damon - Portrait.


British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD., London, no. SFC 3288.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.