Ben Affleck

Happy Birthday to Ben Affleck! He has experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows possible over the course of a three-decade career. He went from child actor to indie darling to Oscar winner to action star to paparazzi pariah to walking punchline to respected filmmaker to superhero to cautionary tale, but somehow always managed to stay an integral part of the zeitgeist. Born in Berkeley, CA, Affleck's mother, Christopher Anne "Chris" Boldt, was a Harvard-educated elementary school teacher, while his father, Timothy Byers Affleck, was an aspiring playwright who held down a number of odd jobs over the years, including carpenter, auto mechanic, bookie, electrician, bartender, and most importantly, janitor at Harvard. When Affleck was three, his family moved from the West Coast back to Cambridge, MA, where younger brother and future co-star Casey was born. His childhood was far from happy: Affleck's father was a chronic alcoholic, and when his parents finally divorced in 1984, he recalled feeling a sense of "relief" that his father was out of the house (Timothy Affleck would eventually become homeless for two years due to his addiction, before entering rehab in Indio, CA, spending a full twelve years at the facility working as an addiction counselor). Around this time, 12-year-old Affleck began getting serious about pursuing a career in acting. He had already made an uncredited appearance in the indie drama The Dark End of the Street (1981) three years prior, but he soon landed his first big role in the PBS educational film The Voyage of the Mimi (PBS, 1984), thanks to his mother's friendship with a Cambridge-area casting director (though she secretly thought that acting was an insecure and "frivolous" profession, and hoped that her son would reconsider and become a teacher instead).

As a teenager, he appeared in the ABC after school special Wanted: A Perfect Man (1986) with Madeline Kahn. Before long, Affleck was traveling across the country for auditions, often alongside Matt Damon, a friend from elementary school who proved to be just as ambitious and driven as Affleck was. The two teens saved their earnings in a joint bank account and dreamed of one day moving to Los Angeles. After following a girlfriend to school at the University of Vermont but dropping out after a few months after a basketball injury, Affleck moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18, where he majored in Middle Eastern affairs at Occidental College for a year and a half. While at Occidental, he directed student films, and landed a few small roles here and there, including playing Patrick Duffy's son in the TV film Daddy (NBC, 1991), taking an uncredited role as a basketball player in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), and popping up as a prep school student in School Ties (1992). He was an extra with friend Matt Damon in Field of Dreams (1989). Affleck landed what would prove to be his breakout role, when he was cast in Richard Linklater's beloved high school stoner comedy Dazed and Confused (1993). Set on the last day of school in a Texas high school in 1976, Affleck played O'Bannon, an obnoxious, borderline psychotic jock who purposely flunks his senior year so that he can participate in the school's annual freshman hazing tradition. Though Dazed and Confused was a flop upon its initial release, it has since grown into a cult classic. Affleck's first leading role was an aimless sad sack art student in the indie drama Glory Daze (1995); that same year he collaborated with the first time with writer/director Kevin Smith, playing a violent yuppie creep who manages a menswear outlet in Smith's sophomore film, Mallrats (1995). Though he had enjoyed some success up to that point, 1997 would prove to be the year that put Affleck on the map: he received rave reviews for his performance as a Korean War vet in Going All the Way (1997) and reunited with Smith for the acclaimed romantic comedy Chasing Amy (1997), in which he played a cartoonist who is madly in love with a woman who identifies as a lesbian.

However, it was the success of Affleck's third film that year, Good Will Hunting (1997), that changed everything. What began as a 40-page assignment written by Damon for a playwriting class at Harvard, the pair decided to expand into a feature-length screenplay after becoming roommates in Los Angeles in 1992. Affleck and Damon sold the screenplay to Castle Rock Entertainment in 1994, but after a lengthy battle with the studio over finding a proper director, the rights were sold to Miramax, who hired indie auteur Gus Van Sant to direct. Affleck and Damon spent the next two years in Boston. Upon its release in the fall of 1997, Good Will Hunting was an instant sensation. Damon starred as Will Hunting, a janitor from South Boston working at Harvard who is secretly a genius-level prodigy (or, as Casey Affleck's character Morgan puts it at one point, "wicked smaaaht.") Come Oscar season, the film was nominated for nine awards, including Best Picture, and walked away with two: Best Supporting Actor for Robin Williams, and for Best Original Screenplay, 25-year-old Ben Affleck and 27-year-old Matt Damon. To this day, Affleck is the youngest person to ever win in that category. Practically overnight, Damon became a serious prestige actor, while Affleck went down the road of leading man. The following year, he starred in Armageddon (1998), director Michael Bay's sci-fi action spectacle about a group of oil drillers trained by NASA to blow up a meteor that could wipe out all life on Earth. Critics scoffed, but Armageddon was the highest grossing film of the year. He was also in the horror film Phantoms co-starring Peter O'Toole, based on a Dean Koontz novel. Affleck rounded out 1998 by appearing alongside then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow in that year's Best Picture Oscar winner, the period romance Shakespeare in Love (1998). Next up was a detour into romantic comedy alongside Sandra Bullock in Forces of Nature (1999), and an onscreen reunion with Damon, for Kevin Smith's highly controversial, satirical look at Catholicism, Dogma (1999), in which the Affleck and Damon played a pair of fallen angels on a mission to destroy Earth and gain re-entry into the kingdom of Heaven. Affleck then appeared opposite Courtney Love and Kate Hudson in the little-seen ensemble comedy 200 Cigarettes (1999). Meanwhile, Affleck was beginning to become interested in directing, and used the opportunity of appearing in the middling heist thriller Reindeer Games (2000) to shadow its vastly overqualified director, John Frankenheimer, on what turned out to be his final film before passing away in 2002. He also took a small turn as a corporate shark in Boiler Room (2000) and reunited with Paltrow for the romantic drama Bounce (2000), which was released right around the time the couple split up.

Affleck then reunited with Michael Bay for the historical epic Pearl Harbor (2001), which found our leading man in a love triangle with a nurse (Kate Beckinsale) and his childhood best friend (Josh Hartnett). While the film's action scenes were predictably impressive, Bay proved to be utterly non-equipped to handle a splashy three-hour doomed romance, and Affleck's unfortunate Southern accent didn't help matters. The film made money, but critics scoffed. After a very meta cameo in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), and an unsuccessful attempt at becoming the next Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears (2002), Affleck earned rave reviews for his performance as a morally compromised businessman pushed to the edge in the thriller Changing Lanes (2002). It would turn out to be the last accolades he would receive for a while. In 2003, Affleck began dating Jennifer Lopez. While he had always been a tabloid fixture, the paparazzi's interest in "Bennifer," as they became known, pushed his public exposure to a point of over-saturation, to the point that GQ magazine named him the "world's most over-exposed actor." What didn't help matters was a series of high-profile misfires and bombs: the ludicrous superhero flick Daredevil (2003), John Woo's futuristic thriller Paycheck (2003), and the dreaded Gigli (2003), one of the most notorious flops in Hollywood history, in which Affleck co-starred with Lopez, who by then was his fiancé. Affleck's bad luck continued into 2004, which found him appearing in Kevin Smith's ill-advised attempt at serious filmmaking, Jersey Girl (2004), and the critically panned family comedy, Surviving Christmas (2004). To make matters worse, Affleck and Lopez called off their wedding the night before the ceremony was to take place. A few months later, their relationship ended for good, and Affleck decided to take a much-needed break from acting. During this self-imposed hiatus, Affleck met and married actress Jennifer Garner, received rave reviews for his small role as "Superman" actor George Reeves in the neo-noir Hollywoodland (2006), and decided to take a dive into directing.

His debut behind the camera was Gone Baby Gone (2007), a police procedural set in working-class Boston, and starring his younger brother, Casey Affleck, as a private eye who uncovers a conspiracy surrounding the disappearance of a young girl. While it didn't light up the box office, the film was warmly received by critics, who noted Affleck's genuine talent as a director. While he continued to appear in small roles over the next few years, including turns in He's Just Not That into You (2009), State of Play (2009), Extract (2009), and The Company Men (2010), Affleck was clearly focused on his directorial career. His sophomore effort, The Town (2010), was a kinetic heist film set in South Boston, and starred Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, and Rebecca Hall. Critics praised it, and it was a surprise box office hit. For his third film, Argo (2012), Affleck starred as a CIA agent who devises a plan to rescue six stranded U.S. diplomats during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis by pretending to be location scouting for a big budget sci-fi epic. Argo was a major hit with both critics and audiences, and despite the surprise of Affleck being snubbed for a Best Director nomination at that year's Oscars, Affleck then starred in Terrence Malick's little-seen To the Wonder (2012) and the flop thriller Runner Runner (2013) before taking on one of his most acclaimed leading roles, as a husband suspected of murdering his missing wife in David Fincher's adaptation of the popular novel Gone Girl (2014). The film was a box office hit, and critics noted Fincher's smart decision to cast Affleck as a character who is dealing with intense media scrutiny into his private life. Affleck's next move surprised everyone: he was cast as none other than Batman for Zach Snyder's superhero epic Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). While many initially questioned whether Affleck was right for the role, when the film was released, critics had many complaints, but the uniform opinion was that Affleck's take on both the caped crusader and his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, was one of the film's rare high points.

Affleck would reprise the role for a cameo in Suicide Squad (2016), and as the lead of Justice League (2017), and there were plans for a stand-alone Batman film, which Affleck would also direct. However, the actor fell on some hard times. Despite receiving treatment for alcohol addiction in the past, Affleck fell off the wagon hard following the failure of his fourth directorial effort, the period gangster piece Live by Night (2016). 2017 saw Affleck take a break from the business and focus instead on getting sober. During this time, the Batman project fell apart, and he and Garner separated after more than a decade of marriage, allegedly due to Affleck having an affair with their nanny. Their divorce was finalized in 2018, and Affleck sadly spent the next few years in a very public fight for sobriety, relapsing a number of times. Despite his woes, Affleck continued to work, in films including Gavin O'Connor's sports drama The Way Back (2020), and Dee Rees's political thriller The Last Thing He Wanted (2020). Affleck had supporting roles in two 2021 releases. He played a hedonistic aristocrat in Ridley Scott's medieval drama The Last Duel; he also co-wrote the movie's screenplay with Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener. In December 2021, Affleck appeared as a substitute father figure in George Clooney's coming-of-age drama The Tender Bar.[200] The film premiered at the London Film Festival, with Clooney remarking that he cast Affleck because he is "very intelligent, and he can also come off as the big goomba." For the role, Affleck was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2022, Affleck and Ana de Armas starred in Adrian Lyne's thriller Deep Water, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel. He also made a cameo appearance in Kevin Smith's Clerks III. Affleck's fifth directorial project, Air, about Nike's signing of Michael Jordan, premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival to critical acclaim; it was given a wide theatrical release by Amazon Studios in April, then offered for streaming on Amazon Prime. Affleck portrayed the supporting role of Phil Knight, while other cast members include Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina and Jason Bateman. It marked the first release from Affleck and Damon's independent production company Artists Equity, which aims to share profits with all stakeholders. Affleck serves as the company's CEO and intends to work exclusively for Artists Equity as a filmmaker. Affleck starred as a detective in Robert Rodriguez's action thriller Hypnotic, which was released in theatres in May 2023. He also made a cameo appearance as Batman in The Flash.

Affleck first dated Jennifer Lopez from 2002 to 2004. They became friends on the set of Gigli in December 2001, but their planned wedding on September 14, 2003, was postponed with four days' notice because of "excessive media attention". They called off the engagement in January 2004. Affleck and Lopez remained in occasional contact in the years after their breakup and spoke highly of each other in public. Affleck and Lopez began dating again in April 2021, 20 years after they first met, and announced their second engagement in April 2022. They were married in Las Vegas on July 16, 2022, with Affleck becoming stepfather to Lopez's twins, Max and Emme Muñiz (born February 2008). He won $356,000 by winning the California State Poker Championships in June 2004 - defeating some of the best poker players in the world in the process. As part of USO-sponsored tours, Affleck visited marines stationed in the Persian Gulf in 2003, and troops at Germany's Ramstein Air Base in 2017. He is a supporter of Paralyzed Veterans of America. He filmed public service announcements for the organization in both 2009 and 2014. He has also volunteered on behalf of Operation Gratitude. Affleck is a supporter of the Los Angeles-based homelessness charity Midnight Mission, having volunteered at and donated to the charity. He has been quoted as saying "I feel like fame is wasted on me."