, December 7, 2001.
'''Matthew Paige Damon''' (born October 8, 1970 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter and actor.
Biography
Early life
Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Kent Telfer Damon, an investment banker and Realtor, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early-childhood education professor. Damon has distant Scottish, Finnish and English ancestry; his maternal great-grandmother, Impi Nieminen, was Finnish.http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ryder10&id=I71987http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=geolarson2&id=I012717 His brother Kyle is an accomplished artist and sculptor. He graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin in 1988, the only public high school in Cambridge, MA. Damon's first film job was one line in the romantic comedy ''
Mystic Pizza'' (1988).
He commenced studies at Harvard University as an English major in the fall of 1988 and should have graduated with the class of 1992, but kept leaving classes to pursue acting projects, including the TNT original movie ''Rising Son'' and ensemble prep-school drama ''
School Ties''. Although Damon needed only about twelve credits to graduate (about two semesters), he dropped out of university to pursue his acting career in Los Angeles after ''
Geronimo: An American Legend'' was expected (incorrectly) to be a big success.
Career
Damon appeared in small roles in a few movies before landing a big part in ''
Geronimo: An American Legend'' with Gene Hackman and Jason Patric. He next appeared as a heroin-addicted soldier in 1996's ''
Courage Under Fire''. The war film was an opportunity for Damon to show his dedication by undergoing an extensive weight loss to help portray his character, as he was required to lose 40 pounds in 100 days (for only two days of shooting). After following a self-prescribed diet and fitness regimen to lose the weight, Damon was advised after the filming that he was fortunate his heart did not shrink. Damon was required to be on medication for several years to correct the stress inflicted on his adrenal gland, but maintains it was worthwhile to properly reflect his character's anguish and to show the industry how committed he was to the role.
Damon and actor Ben Affleck, close personal friends as well as co-stars in several films, developed a thriller about a young math genius, which they pitched around Hollywood. Receiving advice from writer/director/actor Rob Reiner and screenwriter William Goldman, the two changed the script around to focus on a young math genius trying to make his way in the world. Goldman's only advice was to agree with Reiner in that the script should lose its early thriller focus. This script eventually became ''
Good Will Hunting'', which earned both Damon and Affleck Oscars for Best Original
