About Ben Affleck

BIO, MOVIES, and CAREER

Affleck’s won two Academy Awards—one for Best Original Screenplay, for Good Will Hunting (1997), and another for Best Picture, for Argo (2012). But…he was also in Gigli (2003), one of the most universally panned movies of its generation. Affleck’s played Batman, Daredevil, Jack Ryan, and NBA legend Phil Knight, and he’s appeared in memorable supporting roles in cult classics like Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused (1993) and Kevin Smith’s Mallrats (1995). But he’s also suffered his fair share of flops, like Reindeer Games (2000). He may be the Ben in “Bennifer,” but he’s also a literal meme, immortalized as the unofficial face of Dunkin’.

Born August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California to a schoolteacher mother and social worker father, and then raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Affleck’s known for being like “one of us”—a salt-of-the-earth fellow who just happened to make it big in the movie business. He got his first acting gig at age seven, landing a small indie movie role through a family friend who happened to be a casting director. He then starred in a PBS children’s show in the mid-80s. In high school, he met Matt Damon, and the two became creative kindred spirits.

Affleck and Damon sold the script for Good Will Hunting in 1994, when Ben was just 22. A few years later, the film got made, and, although its acting performances were widely celebrated, it was the film’s script that received superior acclaim. Affleck shared the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with Damon, and, to this day, is the youngest to win the award. He was 25.

Good Will Hunting earned Affleck respect as a writer and actor, but it was his role in Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy (1997) that solidified his ability to charm audiences as a leading man. Then, Affleck’s rocket ship of success really took off. Armageddon (1998), Dogma (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001)—moviegoers quickly got used to seeing Affleck front and center at the turn of the century. They also saw him in memorable supporting roles in films like Shakespeare In Love (1998), Boiler Room (2000), and Changing Lanes (2002). And, even though his acting work hit a bit of a lull starting in 2003, Affleck made creative strides as a TV producer, with the Emmy-nominated documentary series Project Greenlight.

After a few years of tabloid over-exposure and some unfortunate movie flops, Affleck resurged as an actor, starring in hits like The Town (2010) and Gone Girl (2014). But he also broke out as a director. Gone Baby Gone (2007) was his directorial debut, and it received moderate acclaim. Five years later, he’d see Argo earn him industry praise of the highest order.

At 50, Ben Affleck is, undeniably, an icon. He’s a father of three (children he had with then wife and fellow movie star Jennifer Garner), and an energetic humanitarian, policital activist, and, when there’s time—and there’s always time—a fan of all things Boston, including Dunkin.

 

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