Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck was born on August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California, and was raised largely in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a child actor, he appeared in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi, first in 1984 and again in its 1988 sequel. His early screen work also included the 1992 film School Ties and Richard Linklater’s 1993 ensemble comedy Dazed and Confused. Affleck’s breakthrough came with Good Will Hunting, which he wrote with childhood friend Matt Damon. The 1997 drama, directed by Gus Van Sant, stars Damon as a troubled South Boston mathematics prodigy and Robin Williams as his therapist. Affleck and Damon won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, while the film received nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Affleck played Chuckie Sullivan, the loyal friend who tells Will that leaving the neighborhood would be the best outcome for his gifts. After leading roles in Armageddon, Shakespeare in Love, and Pearl Harbor, Affleck portrayed CIA analyst Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears (2002). He later played George Reeves, the actor identified with television’s Superman, in Hollywoodland, earning a Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup for Best Actor. His directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone (2007), adapted Dennis Lehane’s novel and starred Casey Affleck as Boston private investigator Patrick Kenzie. Affleck followed it with The Town (2010), a Boston crime film in which he also played bank robber Doug MacRay. Argo (2012), his third feature as director, dramatized the CIA’s 1979–1980 rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran by disguising the operation as a science-fiction film production. Argo won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Affleck received Oscars as a producer of the film; he also won the Golden Globe for Best Director. In 2014, he starred in David Fincher’s Gone Girl as Nick Dunne, whose wife Amy disappears on their wedding anniversary. Affleck entered the DC Extended Universe as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), then reprised the role in Justice League (2017) and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021). He played the title character’s father in The Last Duel (2021), which he co-wrote with Damon and Nicole Holofcener. Affleck married actor Jennifer Garner in 2005; they have three children together and divorced in 2018. In 2023, he directed Air, centered on Nike’s pursuit of a landmark deal with Michael Jordan and the creation of Air Jordan footwear for basketball players in 1985.