Affleck won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the screenplay for Good Will Hunting (1997), which he co-wrote with Matt Damon, and has appeared in lead roles in such popular hits as Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), Changing Lanes (2002), The Sum of All Fears (2002), Daredevil (2003), Hollywoodland (2007) and State of Play (2009). His family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, when he was very young and his parents divorced in 1984. They also both starred in the film. Project Greenlight was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

Ben Affleck: How My Kids Inspire Me Plus, Affleck launches a Facebook page to share his charity-work trips to Africa [link]

He has worked with his younger brother, actor Casey Affleck, on several projects, including Good Will Hunting and Gone Baby Gone. They also both starred in the film. The film opened to a mixed to negative reception, but was a box office success, earning $449 million worldwide. Affleck said Daredevil was his favorite comic book as a kid, and explained why he took the role by saying “Everybody has that one thing from childhood that they remember and that sticks with them. This story was that for me.” He also said “I didn’t want someone else to do it, because I was afraid that they would go out and do it different from the comic and screw it up.” Roger Ebert, in review of Daredevil, wrote that both Affleck and co-star Jennifer Garner, were suitable for their roles. Affleck starred in the critically acclaimed George Reeves noir biopic Hollywoodland, directed by HBO TV-series veteran Allen Coulter. He knows this character from the inside: the surface charm, the hidden vulnerability, the ache of watching a career become a joke and being helpless to stop it.” Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote that Affleck gives a “strong performance”.

Ben Affleck: How My Kids Inspire Me Plus, Affleck launches a Facebook page to share his charity-work trips to Africa [link]

Affleck is a critically acclaimed filmmaker. He dated the actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 1998. Affleck’s mother graduated from Harvard University and was a freedom rider in the 1960s; she teaches in Cambridge Public Schools. Affleck has Irish, Scottish, English, and German ancestry (the surname “Affleck” is Scottish). Along with Damon and producers Chris Moore and Sean Bailey, Affleck founded the production company LivePlanet, through which the four created the documentary series Project Greenlight, as well as the failed mystery-hybrid series Push, Nevada, among other projects. The film opened to a mixed to negative reception, but was a box office success, earning $449 million worldwide. Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote, Affleck and Freeman “create a believable chemistry”.

Gwyneth Paltrow to Bless Us With a Song Once More Yes indeedy, the blonde wisp-angel is performing at this year’s Oscars. Also today: turns out The Walking Dead actually does need writers, Ben Affleck might be headed to Tehran, and MTV finally says no to Lauren Conrad. More » [link]