Ben Affleck: biography

Actor, screenwriter. Born Benjamin Geza Affleck, on August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California, to Chris and Tim Affleck. His parents separated soon after he was born and divorced when he was 11. Affleck grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first acting experience was in The Dark End of the Street (1979), an independent film produced by a friend of the family. At the age of eight, Affleck appeared in a PBS production, The Voyage of the Mimi. That same year, he met his future best friend, Matt Damon, a 10-year-old who lived two blocks away. The boys later attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where they both took drama classes. While still in high school, Affleck appeared in several network TV dramas.
Affleck briefly attended the University of Vermont and California's Occidental College, but left when Hollywood beckoned too strongly. His first major film was School Ties (1992), which also featured Matt Damon and Brendan Fraser. He appeared as a bully in Richard Linklater's paean to 1970s sex, drugs and rock & roll, Dazed and Confused (1993). Ben was part of an ensemble cast for Kevin Smith's Mallrats (1995) and was the romantic lead in Smith's Chasing Amy (1997).

In 1992, Affleck and Damon began collaborating on a screenplay, Good Will Hunting, about a troubled young math genius working as a janitor in the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After a long struggle to get the script produced, Miramax purchased rights to the film in 1996. Starring Damon and Robin Williams (Affleck costarred as the best friend to Damon’s character) and directed by Gus Van Sant, Good Will Hunting was released in 1997 to critical and popular acclaim. Affleck and Damon won Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay. Affleck began getting a great deal of media coverage after the Oscars, especially when he began a high-profile romance with another rising young film star, Gwyneth Paltrow.

Affleck’s profile shot up even higher when he starred alongside Bruce Willis and Liv Tyler in the blockbuster disaster spectacle, Armageddon, which became the top-grossing movie of that year, earning over $520 million worldwide. He also had a supporting turn in the acclaimed film Shakespeare in Love, which won a number of Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress (Paltrow). He had less success in 1999 with Kevin Smith's irreverent comedy Dogma, costarring Damon and Chris Rock, and the poorly reviewed romantic comedy, Forces of Nature, costarring Sandra Bullock.

In 2000, he turned in a supporting performance in the slick stock-market drama Boiler Room, and headlined the fast-paced action thriller Reindeer Games, costarring Charlize Theron and Gary Sinise. He also costarred opposite Paltrow in the romantic drama Bounce. In the summer of 2001, Affleck reteamed with Armageddon director-producer team Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer for the extravagantly marketed World War II-era action epic, Pearl Harbor, costarring Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, and Cuba Gooding Jr., and budgeted at $135 million.

Affleck has a younger brother, Casey, who is also an actor—he appeared with his brother in Good Will Hunting and 200 Cigarettes (1999), and starred opposite Heather Graham in Committed (2000). Affleck and Paltrow announced their breakup in late 1998, but remain good friends.

In August 2001, Affleck checked himself into an exclusive rehabilitation center in Malibu, California, to undergo treatment for alcohol abuse. The son of an alcoholic (his father, Tim, has been sober since 1990), Affleck announced through a spokesman that he has "decided that a fuller life awaits him without alcohol."