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Benjamin Geza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an Academy Award-winning American film screenwriter, director and actor. He became known in the late 1990s, after his involvement in the film Good Will Hunting, and has since become a Hollywood leading man, having starred in several big budget films. Actor, writer, and director Ben Affleck hit the Hollywood radar in 1997 as the co-writer and co-star of “Good Will Hunting,” earning an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay along with childhood best friend Matt Damon. In fact, the seemingly overnight ascent to stardom in tandem with Damon, became one of the great “Hollywood” stories” of all time – right up there with Lana Turner being discovered at Schwab’s Drugstore. Flying past the more understated Damon in terms of initial popularity and box office, the handsome, chiseled Affleck went on to achieve box office gold in uneven blockbusters like “Armageddon” (1998), “Pearl Harbor” (2001) and “Daredevil” (2003), as well as quirky Kevin Smith comedies “Chasing Amy” (1997) and “Dogma” (1999). But it was his extracurricular activities – dating famous actresses and ending up in rehab – that made him a magnet for media attention. His overexposed romance with actress-singer Jennifer Lopez – collectively known as “Bennifer” – and a string of flops threatened to banish Affleck to B-film status until concerted efforts to reclaim his private life and his celebrated directorial debut “Gone Baby Gone” (2007) proved that perhaps Affleck’s most underused talent was his ability to write his own happy ending. Ben Affleck was born on Aug. 15, 1972, in Berkeley, CA. He was raised in the liberal academic city of Cambridge, MA, where his mother Chris taught elementary school. His father Tim was active with the influential Theater Company of Boston and made a living as a bartender, mechanic, and janitor, among other jobs. The couple gave birth to another future actor Caleb, better known as Casey, in 1975 before divorcing in 1984. Both talented sons began their acting careers while they were young, with the elder brother debuting in a local independent film at the age of 11. Around the same time, he had already become best friends with his neighbor Matt Damon, who also loved Red Sox baseball and dreamed of becoming a movie star himself. Before he was even a teenager Affleck went on to appear in commercials for Burger King and in 1984, was cast in "The Voyage of Mimi" (PBS, 1984), an educational show filmed aboard a whaling ship in Mexico that gave Affleck his first taste of the exotic life of an actor on location. In 1986, he starred in the ABC Afterschool Special, "Wanted: The Perfect Guy" (1986), playing a son trying to find a suitable husband for his single mother (Madeline Kahn). At Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, Affleck became known as “that kid on TV,” and, to his teachers, “that kid who isn’t interested in doing schoolwork.” Affleck was an admittedly unfocused student, though he was a voracious reader with nearly perfect SAT scores. Damon’s good grades, on the other hand, got him into Harvard, but when Affleck graduated in 1990, he lasted barely one semester at the University of Vermont before heading to Hollywood. The move netted him a role as Patrick Duffy's son in "Danielle Steel's ‘Daddy’" (NBC, 1991) and his big screen debut in "School Ties" (1992), in which he was one of the football-playing anti-Semitic gang. Still baby-faced enough to play high school age, he made several appearances as a strapping football-player in "Against the Grain" (NBC, 1993) and was cast as a Texas high school senior who terrorizes freshman students in Richard Linklater's classic, "Dazed and Confused" (1993). His early roles as a teen bully belied Affleck’s quick-witted, bantering, buddy persona that would soon win over movie audiences of both genders. Affleck worked as a child actor, appearing on the PBS kids' series The Voyage of the Mimi as well as in several made-for-television movies. Throughout the 1990s, Affleck had a role in LifeStories: Families in Crisis as a steroid abusing athlete as well as several notable films, including 1992's School Ties (with Matt Damon and Brendan Fraser), 1993's Dazed and Confused, 1995's Mallrats and 1997's Chasing Amy; Mallrats and Amy began his collaboration with writer/director Kevin Smith. Affleck has appeared in every film Smith has made with the exception of Kevin Smith's first film Clerks. Affleck had a one-line speaking role as a high school basketball player in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. He and fellow Boston Red Sox fanatic Matt Damon had roles as extras in the movie Field of Dreams when characters played by Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones go to Fenway Park. Affleck came to national attention working with best-friend Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997). They shared credit and both received the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Along with Damon and producers Chris Moore and Sean Bailey, Affleck founded the production company LivePlanet, through which the four created the documentary series Project Greenlight, as well as the failed mystery-hybrid series Push, Nevada amongst other projects. Project Greenlight was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002, 2004 and 2005. Following Good Will Hunting, Affleck had starring roles in many successful movies, including Armageddon, Forces of Nature, Pearl Harbor, Changing Lanes, The Sum of All Fears and Daredevil, establishing himself as a Hollywood leading man throughout the early 2000s. However, after the release of several critically panned, box office flops, including Gigli (2003) and Surviving Christmas (2004), Affleck's career waned considerably. He did not appear in any films until 2006 when he appeared in Clerks II. In addition to being a fan of the Daredevil comics (Frank Miller's run specifically), he wrote the introduction to the trade paperback Daredevil: Guardian Devil which reprints Daredevil (Volume 2) #1 – 8 (written by Kevin Smith). Affleck made what can be considered a comeback with the September 2006 release of the critically acclaimed George Reeves biopic-noir Hollywoodland, directed by HBO TV-series veteran Allen Coulter. His performance was impressive enough that he was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and has also won the Supporting Actor of the Year award at the Hollywood Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. Affleck had his directorial debut with Gone, Baby, Gone, for which he also co-wrote the screenplay, about two Boston area detectives investigating a little girl's kidnapping and how it affects their lives. In between films, Affleck embarked on a lower-profile, slightly less controversial romance with “Daredevil” co-star Jennifer Garner. Despite questions of when the first spark occurred, it was apparent to all who knew Affleck – this Jennifer was a better match for the down-to-earth actor. Soon, Garner was appearing alongside her beau at Red Sox games. It was not long before the couple ultimately became pregnant and were married in June 2005. Their daughter, Violet Anne was born Dec. 1, 2005. With his new domesticated life, Affleck seemed on his way to putting those embarrassing years behind him. His acting career received a much-needed boost with a strong performance in the celebrity biopic/crime noir, “Hollywoodland” (2006). In it, Affleck played original “Superman” actor George Reeves, whose own fall from grace ended in an apparent suicide surrounded by mysterious circumstances. Affleck took the De Niro approach, packing on a few pounds to give his character the necessary heft and world-weary appearance, and for the first time in years, his acting was recognized with a Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Affleck followed up with a supporting role in the wannabe hip action-comedy “Smokin’ Aces” (2007), but that role was quickly forgotten in the face of “Gone Baby Gone” (2007), Affleck’s directorial debut for which he also adapted the screenplay from bestselling Boston writer Dennis Lehane’s novel. In the film, brother Casey Affleck was cast as the detective lead in the thriller about the disappearance of a young girl. Critics gave the dark, moody film overwhelmingly positive reviews, many echoing the sentiment that apparently Affleck’s greatest talent was behind the camera. Film critic Richard Roeper said of the pairing of the Affleck brothers, “It’s a career highlight for both of them.” While promoting the film’s fall 2007 release, Affleck was again eager to address the 2008 presidential elections, voicing support for Democratic candidate Barack Obama and critiquing the incumbent administration on Fox News, MSNBC, and “Real Time with Bill Maher” (HBO, 2003- ), among others. In fact, in various interviews, Affleck began expressing interest in one day running for Congress in his home state – and it was not hard to see that among Hollywood talents – Affleck was one of the few taken seriously as a knowledgeable, articulate interview subject by many of the cable hard news outlets. Based on the book by Dennis Lehane, it opened to rave reviews in October, 2007, and has led to speculation of Academy Award nominations for Affleck and his brother Casey (who plays the leading role). Writes Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News: "Ben Affleck won an Oscar for the Good Will Hunting script he co-wrote with Matt Damon, but this is his first outing behind the camera. Whatever you think of his acting, he's got real chops as a filmmaker. The movie has energy, pace, some insanely well-choreographed action sequences, outstanding performances and a couple of speeches that belong in the pulp fiction hall of fame." Claudia Puig in USA Today remarks: "Ben Affleck has come of age as a director." And Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post comments that Affleck "shows that even if he never developed a memorable performance when he was in front of the camera, he was paying attention to what was going on behind it." Affleck had a high-profile romance with actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 1998, following her breakup with actor Brad Pitt. In 2002, he began dating actress/singer Jennifer Lopez, whom he had met prior to filming Jersey girl. The same year, his engagement to Lopez was announced, and the relationship between the two received a lot of attention by the entertainment media who dubbed the couple "Bennifer." The couple broke up in 2004 while they were due to get married on the 14th of September of that year, both blaming the media attention - including an alleged incident in which Affleck partied with Christian Slater and some lap dancers in Vancouver. This negative publicity and media attention was also brought along to the 2004 Jersey Girl, which also was a box office failure. Affleck subsequently dated his Daredevil co-star, actress Jennifer Garner, and the two were engaged after nine months of seeing each other. In May 2005, it was announced that Garner was pregnant and the couple were married on June 29, 2005 on the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos. Garner gave birth to a daughter, Violet Anne Affleck, on December 1, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. Affleck has a holiday home in Savannah, Georgia. The family was in Cambridge for the summer while Affleck was directing Gone, Baby, Gone. Affleck is an avid poker player, regularly entering local events. He has been tutored by poker professionals Amir Vahedi and Annie Duke, and won the California State Poker Championship on June 20, 2004, taking home the first prize of $356,000, which qualified him for the 2004 World Poker Tour final tournament. Affleck is a fan of the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots and Boston Celtics. Affleck quit smoking after starring in the 2007 film Smokin' Aces, in which he was required to smoke heavily, and lost his taste for it after a week of chain-smoking for his role. Affleck supports a non-profit organization called the A-T Childrens Project. He started supporting the A-TCP after meeting Joe Kindregan when filming Forces of Nature. Kindregan, who was then 9 years old, has a rare disease called ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T). Affleck has attended benefits and spoken to Congress to advocate for the A-T Childrens Project. The disease, described as like having muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, immune deficiency and cancer all at once, is progressive; children with A-T usually do not live beyond their late teens. In 2007, Affleck was the keynote speaker at the Graduation Ceremony for Falls Church High School at the GMU Patriot Center. Of his best friend and graduating senior Joe Kindregan, Affleck mentions that though Kindregan is bound to a wheelchair, through his perseverance he has taught Affleck, "How to stand." |
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