Known for his impeccable acting skills, the 50-year old actor, Matt Damon has been in the industry ever since he dropped out of the world-class Harvard University. He is not only an amazing actor but also a screenwriter and film producer. Owing to his hard work, Damon has been able to get to the status of being one of the highest-grossing actors of all time and this has also helped him in creating a substantial net worth.
Early Years
Born on October 8, 1970, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Damon was deprived of his father when his parents divorced. At that time, Matt was only 2. His father, Kent Damon, was a stockbroker while his mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, was a professor. Matt has one elder brother, Kyle, along with whom he was raised in Cambridge by their mother.
Matt’s friendship with the fellow star, Ben Affleck, has been widely known as the two have been together since childhood and made their way towards their passion for becoming actors together. For his schooling, Damon attended the Cambridge Alternative School and the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, ultimately joining Harvard University in 1988.
An Early Start Of Acting Career
Damon was always focused on his goal and without missing any opportunities, he started acting in 1988 while he was still at Harvard. He took part in the “Mystic Pizza”,” Rising Son”, and “School Ties’”. He decided to drop out of Harvard in 1992 when he was short of 12 credits of a BA in English. He left to film “Geronimo: An American Legend” as he thought that this was going to be the breakthrough he had been hoping for.
The Big Break
However, his biggest chance came a few years down the road, in 1997, when he, along with his childhood friend, Ben Affleck, wrote and starred in “Good Will Hunting”. The script was initially for Damon’s school project, however, as the two friends worked on expanding it to a screenplay, they could have never imagined that this would end up leading to a massive fortune. As their work came to life with the screenplay, they both received an Academy Award and Golden Globe for the Best Screenplay. Moreover, Damon was also nominated for the Best Actor for the film.
Having had his big break, Damon started getting more roles in blockbuster hits including “The Rainmaker, “Saving Private Ryan”, and “The Talented Mr. Ripley”. In 2001, Damon was cast in the “Ocean’s Eleven” for the role of the conman “Linus Caldwell”. The movie was a huge success for Damon and he later starred in the sequels of the movie, “Ocean’s Twelve” and “Ocean’s Thirteen”.
Subsequent Roles
Following in 2002, the actor landed another affluent role as the protagonist “Jason Bourne” in the movie “The Bourne Identity”. He went ahead to star in the second and third Bourne films but chose to stay out of the fourth one which was released in 2012. The actor decided to come back for the fifth movie of the series in 2016. As a result of working in the four Bourne movies, Damon earned around $87 million for the movies.
Between 2010 and 2015, extended his acting skills to play roles in movies such as “Green Zone”, “Hereafter”, “True Gift”, “The Adjustment Bureau”, “Elysium”, and “The Martian”. Damon also made appearances on TV shows like “Saturday Night Live”, “Will & Grace”, “Arthur”, “Entourage”, “House of Lies”, and “Years of Living Dangerously”.
Producing Career
Apart from acting, Matt Damon also got into producing. He, along with Ben Affleck and others, produced the reality series, Project Greenlight, which gave new filmmakers the chance to create their own film projects. In order to produce the show, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris Moore, formed the production company “LivePlanet”. Damon and Affleck also formed another production company, known as, “Pearl Street Films”.
To pursue his career as a producer, he gave up the lead role in “Manchester by the Sea” so that he could take part in producing it. The lead role was then taken on by Ben Affleck’s little brother, Casey Affleck, who ended up winning an Oscar for the role.
Personal Life
Matt got married in 2005 to Luciana Barroso, whom he met at a local club while he was filming “Stuck On You” in Miami in 2003. Luciana was then a bartender and a single mom. The couple has three more children.
Honors & Achievements
Because of his passion, his work led him to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. He has won several awards and nominations over his career. He has received five Oscar nominations, five Screen Actors’ Guild nominations, and seven Golden Globe nods. He was also listed as the Sexist Man Alive in 2007 by People Magazine.
Matt Damon’s Net Worth & How He Earned It
As of 2020, the actor’s net worth stands at a vast $170 million. According to Business Insider, Damon earned $20 million per movie depending upon the role of each. Matt Damon was under Forbes list of Celebrity 100 in 2016 owing to his handsome earnings from “The Martian” that grossed an outstanding $630.1 million on a budget of $108 million. At the same time, he banked sizable checks from his return as “Jason Bourne” and from the movie “The Great Wall”, which rocketed his earnings to $55 million.
The actor missed out on a mighty opportunity by turning down the role of “Jake Sully” from the movie “Avatar”. Damon later revealed that the director James Cameron had offered him the role along with 10% of the movie’s profit. The movie ended up at $2.79 billion at the worldwide box office in 2009 which meant Damon could have earned around a quarter of a million dollars from this one movie alone.
At the end of 2018, Damon became the owner of the most expensive penthouse in Brooklyn that cost $16.7 million. He also does notable philanthropy work and supports 37 charitable organizations. He is also the founder of the H20 Africa Foundation and co-founder of the Not On Our Watch Project which aims to prevent mass genocide.
Damon is set to make a cameo appearance on the crime thriller “No Sudden Move”. The actor’s feature acting credits from all his roles have grossed around $10 billion at the global box office. With his excellent competence, Matt Damon’s net worth is bound to keep increasing in the future.
Disclaimer: All of the information mentioned above has been gathered from the sources mentioned below:
I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
