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ben affleck
ben
affleck Tall and handsome in a meat-eating sort of way, ben
affleck has the looks of a matinee idol and the resume of
an actor who honed ben affleck craft as an indie film slacker
before flexing ben affleck muscles as a Hollywood star. A
staple of Kevin Smith films and such seminal indies as Dazed
and Confused, Affleck became a star and entered the annals
of Hollywood legend when he and best friend Matt Damon wrote
and starred in Good Will Hunting, winning a Best Original
Screenplay Oscar for their work.
Born in Berkeley, California
on August 15, 1972 to a schoolteacher mother and drug rehab
counselor father, Affleck was the oldest of two brothers.
ben affleck younger brother, Casey, also became an actor.
When he was very young, Affleck's family moved to the Boston
area, and it was there that he broke into acting. At the age
of eight, he starred in PBS's marine biology-themed The Voyage
of the Mimi, endearing himself to junior high school science
classes everywhere. The same year he made Mimi, Affleck made
the acquaintance of Matt Damon, a boy two years ben affleck
senior who lived down the street. The two became best friends
and, of course, eventual collaborators.
After a fling with
higher education at both the University of Vermont and California's
Occidental College, Affleck set out for Hollywood. He began
appearing in made-for-TV movies and had a small role in School
Ties, a 1992 film that also featured Damon. Further bit work
followed in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993)
and Kevin Smith's Mallrats (1995). Around this time, both
Affleck and Damon were getting fed up with the lack of substantial
work to be found in Hollywood, and they decided to write a
screenplay that would feature them as the leads. Affleck's
brother Casey introduced them to Gus Van Sant, who had directed
Casey in To Die For. Thanks to Van Sant's interest, the script
was picked up by Miramax, and in 1997 the story of a troubled
mathematical genius living in South Boston became known as
Good Will Hunting. Before the film's release, Affleck starred
in Smith's Chasing Amy that same year; the tale of a comic
book artist (Affleck) in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren
Adams), it received good reviews and showed Affleck to be
a viable leading man. The subsequent success of Good Will
Hunting and the Best Original Screenplay Oscar awarded to
Affleck and Damon effectively transformed both young men from
struggling actors into Hollywood golden boys. Having won ben
affleck own Golden Boy, Affleck settled comfortably into a
reputation as one of the industry's most promising young actors.
ben affleck status was further enhanced by widespread media
reports of an ongoing relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow.
The following year,
Affleck could be seen in no less than three major films, ranging
from ben affleck self-mocking supporting role in the Oscar-winning
period comedy Shakespeare in Love to the thriller Phantoms
to the big-budget box-office monster Armageddon. In 1999,
Affleck continued to keep busy, appearing in a dizzying four
movies. He could be seen as a dull bartender in 200 Cigarettes,
an errant groom in Forces of Nature, a stock market head hunter
in The Boiler Room, and a supporting cast member in Billy
Bob Thornton's sophomore directorial effort, Daddy and Them.
Finally, Affleck reunited with Smith and Damon for Dogma,
starring with the latter as a pair of fallen angels in one
of the year's more controversial films. In 2000, he would
appear as an ex-con trying to mend ben affleck ways in Reindeer
Games, with Charlize Theron. Re-teaming with Armageddon cohort
Michael Bay again in 2001 for another exercise in overbudgeted
excess, Affleck flew into action in Pearl Harbor. Despite
an almost unanimous lambasting by critics, Pearl Harbor nevertheless
blasted to number one at the box office by earning $75.2 million
on it's Memorial Day weekend opening, getting the summer movie
season off to a spectacular and eventful start. In addition
to acting and screenwriting, Affleck has also directed a short
feature, the provocatively titled, I Killed My Lesbian Wife,
Hung Her on a Meathook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal
at Disney
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