Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck

Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter and philanthropist. His accolades include two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Affleck gained wider recognition when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for writing Good Will Hunting. He starred in the psychological thriller Gone Girl, in the superhero films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, and in the action thrillers The Accountant and Triple Frontier.

About Ben Affleck in brief

Summary Ben AffleckBenjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter and philanthropist. His accolades include two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Affleck gained wider recognition when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for writing Good Will Hunting. He starred in the psychological thriller Gone Girl, in the superhero films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, and in the action thrillers The Accountant and Triple Frontier. He is the co-founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, a grantmaking and advocacy-based nonprofit organization. He was inspired by drama teacher Gerry Speca, whom he had known since the age of eight. He spent a few months studying Spanish at the University of Vermont, chosen because of its proximity to his girlfriend of four years, Matt Damon. He has a son, Casey, and a daughter, Violet. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Jennifer Garner, and their son, Ben, and his daughter’s boyfriend, Benicio Del Toro. He and Damon are co-owners of the production company Pearl Street Films. His father, Timothy Byers Affleck, was an aspiring playwright who made a living as a carpenter, auto mechanic, bookie, electrician, bartender, and janitor at Harvard. He lived at a rehabilitation facility for twelve years to maintain his sobriety, and worked there as an addiction counselor. He also worked as a counselor at a rehab facility in Indio, California.

He learned to speak Spanish during a year spent travelling the country with his mother and brother. As a Cambridge student, Affleck spent a year travelling around the country, travelling the children’s children’s country. His mother saved his wages in a college trust fund, and hoped her son would ultimately become a teacher, worrying that acting was an insecure and “frivolous” profession. He had high SAT scores, but he was an unfocused student with poor attendance. He felt a sense of relief when his parents divorced and his father left the family home when he was 11. He grew up in a politically active, liberal household, surrounded by people who worked in the arts, regularly attended theater performances with their mother, and were encouraged to make their own home movies. He became friends with Matt Damon, with whom he was two years older, and traveled to New York together for acting auditions and train tickets for auditions. He then directed, co-wrote and starred in The Town and directed and stars in the political thriller Argo ; both were critical and commercial successes. He received praise for his performance as a recovering alcoholic in the sports drama The Way Back. He is also a stalwart supporter of the Democratic Party, and is a member of the board of directors of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., and the Sierra Club, a nonprofit that promotes social justice.