Hollywood superstar Matt Damon turns 54

Some might be surprised to learn that one of the highest-paid actors of this century, Matt Damon, won his only Oscar for co-writing the screenplay, along with Ben Affleck, of "Good Will Hunting," a film about a genius mathematician. Incidentally, he also starred in the film, for which he was nominated but lost.

But this surprise will be dispelled by the news that Damon attended Harvard, where one of his roommates was a future adviser to Barack Obama (Damon, like many in Hollywood, is a Democratic supporter), and the other was a future historian and writer.

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His Harvard education, one might say, shines through in Damon's eyes even when he plays cops and spies, as in one of the best spy franchises in cinematic history, the Jason Bourne franchise. Damon insisted on performing his own stunts in the film, spending three months learning martial arts.

The franchise also provided an opportunity to explore a common question on popular film shows: what would have happened if the main character had been played by a different actor? (It's well known, for example, that Al Pacino and Gene Hackman were last on the list of candidates for The Godfather and The French Connection.) In the fourth film in the franchise, Bourne was played by a different actor, which significantly diminished his character, forcing Damon to return for the fifth film.

Despite his good-natured appearance, Damon also excels at playing villains, as seen in The Departed and The Talented Mr. Ripley. However, he has so many roles, some of them quite unexpected, such as his portrayal of a medieval knight in Ridley Scott's The Last Duel.

Damon is only 54 years old, yet he remains a Hollywood superstar, as evidenced by Christopher Nolan's casting him as Odysseus in the upcoming blockbuster.

Photo: Wikipedia