Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck (born August 15, 1972, Berkeley, California, U.S.) is an American actor and filmmaker who has played leading roles in action, drama, and comedy films but who is perhaps more renowned for his work as a screenwriter, director, and producer. His most acclaimed films include Good Will Hunting (1997), The Town (2010), and Argo (2012).

Early life and career

Affleck grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he formed a lasting friendship with his neighbor Matt Damon. Affleck’s first role was in a Burger King commercial, and in 1984 he appeared in the Public Broadcasting Service’s miniseries The Voyage of the Mimi. He continued acting as a teenager in the TV movie Hands of a Stranger (1987) and in The Second Voyage of the Mimi (1988). Affleck briefly attended both the University of Vermont and Occidental College but left before graduating, to focus on acting. During his early career his height and stature often got him cast as a bully, and he played minor characters in independent films such as the cult hits Dazed and Confused (1993) and Kevin Smith’s Mallrats (1995). Smith was impressed by Affleck and cast him as the lead in his next film, Chasing Amy (1997).

Academy Award for Good Will Hunting

Affleck and Damon, who were living together in Los Angeles, were frustrated by the roles offered them and decided to develop a one-act play by Damon into a script. The result was Good Will Hunting (1997), a drama that starred Damon as Will Hunting, a brilliant mathematician working as a janitor at MIT, and Affleck as his childhood friend; the film also featured Affleck’s brother, Casey, as well as Minnie Driver and Robin Williams. A critical and commercial success, the film received nine Academy Award nominations, with Affleck and Damon winning the Oscar for best original screenplay.

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Starring roles in Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and The Sum of All Fears

Good Will Hunting transformed Affleck’s career. He subsequently starred in the action film Armageddon (1998); Shakespeare in Love (1998), a period piece written by playwright Tom Stoppard; and another Smith film, Dogma (1999), in which Affleck and Damon portrayed fallen angels. In Pearl Harbor (2001) he played an enthusiastic American pilot fighting alongside the British in World War II. Although the film was largely panned by critics, it was a box-office success. Branching out, Affleck began working as a producer, most notably on Project Greenlight (2001, 2003, 2005), a reality show that documented aspiring filmmakers. In 2002 he appeared as CIA agent Jack Ryan in the successful film The Sum of All Fears, which was based on Tom Clancy’s espionage best seller. Affleck then starred opposite Jennifer Garner in Daredevil (2003), the film adaptation of the popular comic book series.

Return to prominence

In 2003 Affleck costarred with Jennifer Lopez in Gigli, which received scathing reviews. He and Lopez became engaged, and the intense tabloid coverage of their two-year relationship overshadowed his career. Although he continued acting, it was not until 2006 that Affleck returned to prominence, this time as the former Superman actor George Reeves in the biopic Hollywoodland, a role that earned him critical praise and a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 2009 Affleck starred in He’s Just Not That into You, a romantic comedy that also featured Jennifer Aniston; the crime thriller State of Play; and the workplace satire Extract.

Roles of the 2010s and beyond

Affleck’s credits from the 2010s included The Company Men (2010), a drama about corporate downsizing; Terrence Malick’s impressionistic romance To the Wonder (2012); and the online-gambling thriller Runner Runner (2013). In 2014 Affleck starred as a man implicated in his wife’s disappearance in David Fincher’s suspenseful Gone Girl, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn. He later donned superhero gear again, this time as Batman opposite Henry Cavill’s Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017); a different cut of the latter film was released in 2021 as Zack Snyder’s Justice League. In 2016 Affleck also portrayed a math savant who works as a bookkeeper for gangsters and drug cartels in the thriller The Accountant. Movies from 2019 included Triple Frontier, a thriller in which a team of former Special Forces operatives face a series of moral dilemmas after staging an elaborate heist.

In 2020 Affleck starred in The Last Thing He Wanted, a crime drama based on a novel by Joan Didion, and The Way Back, about an alcoholic who becomes a high-school basketball coach. He later reteamed with Damon, on Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel (2021). The medieval drama was based on a true story of a woman who accused a squire (Adam Driver) of rape, resulting in a trial by combat between the alleged attacker and her husband (Damon); Affleck played a debauched count. In addition to appearing in the film, Affleck and Damon wrote the script with Nicole Holofcener. Also in 2021 Affleck starred in The Tender Bar, portraying a bartender who becomes a father figure to his nephew; the drama, which was based on a memoir by J.R. Moehringer, was directed by George Clooney. Affleck later appeared alongside Ana de Armas in Deep Water (2022), a thriller inspired by Patricia Highsmith’s novel about a man accused of murdering his wife’s lovers.

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Film directing

In 2007 Affleck directed his first feature film, Gone, Baby, Gone. The crime drama, which was based on Dennis Lehane’s novel about two Boston detectives’ search for a missing girl, was a critical success. He mined similar terrain for his next effort behind the camera, The Town (2010), casting himself as the head of a crew of Boston bank robbers. Affleck later directed and starred in Argo (2012), the true story of a fake film production that provided cover for a CIA rescue mission during the Iran hostage crisis. For his direction of the critically acclaimed drama, Affleck won a Golden Globe Award, and the movie’s Academy Award for best picture netted him a statuette as one of its producers.

Affleck returned to the director’s chair for Live by Night (2016), a Prohibition-era drama that he adapted from a Lehane novel. Affleck also starred in the film, playing a gangster. In 2023 he received widespread praise for Air, a sports drama bout how Nike signed Michael Jordan to a historic endorsement deal. The movie featured a stellar cast that included Damon as a Nike salesman, Viola Davis as Jordan’s mother, and Affleck as Nike cofounder Phil Knight. Air was the first film released by Artists Equity, a production company formed by Affleck and Damon.

Politics, causes, and personal life

Affleck was active in politics, and he frequently appeared at Democratic rallies and as a guest on political talk shows, such as Real Time with Bill Maher. In addition, he was involved with a number of causes, including efforts to end the violence in Congo (Kinshasa).

Affleck’s personal life also continued to be fodder for the tabloids. After breaking up with Lopez, he began dating Garner, and they married in 2005. The couple had three children before divorcing in 2018. Affleck and Lopez later rekindled their relationship, and they wed in 2022. However, two years later the couple announced that they were divorcing.