Name: Ben AffleckBorn: 15 August 1972 (Age: 38)
Where: Berkeley, California, USA
Height: 6' 2"
Awards: Won 1 Oscar and 1 Golden Globe
Biography:
Ben Affleck's story is, without doubt, one of the great rags-to-riches tales in recent cinema history. Along with his childhood buddy, Matt Damon, he was a struggling actor, in the final stages of being consigned to Hollywood's dustpile. But together they fought back. Bucking the system, they wrote their own screenplay, attracted their own finance, and produced and starred in their own movie. Within a year, Good Will Hunting had taken off, in 1998 earning them both an Oscar and propelling them into major roles in such mega-blockbusters as Armageddon and Saving Private Ryan. Or so the story went. In fact, the saga stretched back a good twenty years. What really made Affleck's tale fascinating came later when, having squired pop star actress Jennifer Lopez and hit the absolute heights of tabloid fame, his offscreen life took centre stage, his career collapsed in ruins, and a second struggle for success was necessary. And this time he was on his own. This was why the awards and critical plaudits drawn by his performance in 2006's Hollywoodland were so very satisfying. He'd made it to the top twice.
Benjamin Geza Affleck was born on the 15th of August, 1972, in Berkeley, California, the family very soon moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, a rich area of Boston, near the prestigious Harvard college. He has one brother, Casey, also an actor. His father, Tim, was an actor and director who'd worked and partied with such luminaries as Dustin Hoffman, and joined the Theatre Company Of Boston. His mother, Chris, was a schoolteacher, and would be the dominant parental figure in his life (she was his guest when he picked up his Oscar). But it was his dad's influence and connections that got him started in TV, VERY early in his life. He appeared in ads for Burger King before hitting double-figures and, by 12, had appeared as CT Granville in the cute and educative mini-series The Voyage Of The Mimi. At the age of 12 though, he suffered an emotional setback with the divorce of his parents. Tim had "a severe, chronic problem with alcoholism" which eventually broke the couple up. He left for the Recovery Centre in Palm Springs, got back on his feet, and now works counselling others in Rehab.
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