Damon, Matt(hew) Paige (1970– )

US film actor and screenwriter. Damon shot to stardom in the 1990s as a result of a series of critically acclaimed performances in the dramas Courage Under Fire (1996), The Rainmaker (1997), Good Will Hunting (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and The Talented Mr Ripley (1999).

His celebrity was consolidated when he and long-time friend and fellow actor Ben Affleck won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for their screenplay for Good Will Hunting; Damon was also nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in the film.

Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Damon studied English literature at Harvard University. An accomplished dramatic player, he also branched out into comedy in the late 1990s, appearing in Dogma (1999) and Stuck on You (2003). Other films include School Ties (1992), Rounders (1998), All the Pretty Horses (1999), The Legend of Baggar Vance (2000), Ocean's 11 (2001) and its sequels Ocean's 12 (2004) and Ocean's 13 (2007), The Bourne Identity (2002) and its sequels The Bourne Supremecy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), and The Brothers Grimm (2004).