Ben Affleck

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BIRTHDAY

August 15, 1972

Berkeley, CA

RECENT CREDITS

Extract (FILM) Sep. 4, 2009

State of Play (FILM) Apr. 17, 2009

He's Just Not That Into You (FILM) Feb. 6, 2009

Larry King Live (TV) Nov. 2, 2007

Gone Baby Gone (FILM) Oct. 19, 2007

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BIOGRAPHY

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A child actor who shot to stardom in his twenties, Affleck is as well known for his off-screen antics high-profile romances, a stint in rehab and a perpetually suspicious hairline as his on-screen performances. In the '80s the athletic actor appeared in a number of TV-movies before making it to the big screen, notably as an anti-Semitic jock in the 1992 teen drama School Ties, costarring his future collaborator Matt Damon. In 1995 he appeared in Mallrats, his first of many Kevin Smith flicks, but 1997 was Affleck's breakthrough year (with a lot of help from his friends). First he won raves as a comic-book artist in love with a lesbian in Smith's Chasing Amy. Then he and Damon cowrote and costarred in the drama Good Will Hunting, which earned the duo an Oscar for best screenplay. The two went on to produce the popular filmmaking reality series Project Greenlight. Affleck then took on leading roles in films of all genres action (Armageddon), romantic comedy (Forces of Nature), drama (Pearl Harbor) but he was often pretty stiff. Yet he remained in the limelight thanks to a string of tabloid-ready relationships, first with Shakespeare in Love costar Gwyneth Paltrow, then with former fiancee Jennifer Lopez. Dubbed "Bennifer," the couple was stalked by the paparazzi until 2004, when they finally called it quits after starring together in two failed movies (Gigli and Smith's Jersey Girl). However, Affleck was able to recycle the Bennifer moniker when he began dating his Daredevil costar, Jennifer Garner, that same year. The two married and had a daughter in 2005.

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