Table of Contents

Matt Damon

Middle Name

Paige is his middle name.1)

Birth

On October 8, 1970, he was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.2)

Parents

He is the second son of stockbroker Kent Telfer Damon and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a Lesley University early childhood education professor.3)

Parents' Origin

His father is of English and Scottish origin, while his mother is five-eighths Finnish and three-eighths Swedish (his mother's family surname was altered from “Pajari” to “Paige”).4)

Moving

Damon and his family spent two years in Newton. Damon's parents split when he was two years old, and he and his brother moved to Cambridge with their mother, where they resided in a six-family common home.5)

Kyle Damon

Kyle, his brother, is now a well-known sculptor and artist.6)

Not The Best Upbringing

He struggled to define his personal identity as a result of his mother's “by the book” approach to child-rearing.7)

Education

He was a strong student at Cambridge Alternative School (now Graham and Parks) and later Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.8)

Beginning As An Actor

Damon appeared in various high school theatrical plays as an actor.9)

Influence

He praised his theatre instructor, Gerry Speca, as a key aesthetic influence, despite the fact that his good friend and schoolmate, Ben Affleck, got the “largest roles and longest monologues”.10)

Harvard

Damon attended Harvard University, where he was a resident at Lowell House (Harvard College) and a member of the class of 1992, but left before graduating to play Geronimo: An American Legend.11)

Good Will Hunting

As an experiment for an English class at Harvard, he composed an early treatment of the screenplay for Good Will Hunting. Damon belonged to the Delphic Club, one of the University's elite Final Clubs.12)

Harvard Arts Medal

He received the Harvard Arts Medal in 2013.13)

Academy Award For Screenplay

Damon won an Academy Award in 1998 for his screenplay for Good Will Hunting, which was presented to him by Harvard alumni Jack Lemmon, who was also a member of Harvard's Delphic Club.14)

Mystic Pizza

Damon began his acting career in high school theater plays before making his professional debut in the film Mystic Pizza (1988).15)