--- THE GRANDMA'S LOGBOOK ---: MATT PAIGE DAMON, ONE OF THE MOST BANKABLE STARS

Today, The Grandma has been watching some movies. She has chosen Matt Damon's ones, the American actor, film producer, and screenwriter, who was born on a day like today in 1970.

Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter.

Ranked among Forbes' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North American box office, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.

He has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awards, six Screen Actors Guild Awards, and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

Damon began his acting career by appearing in high school theater productions. He made his professional acting debut in the film Mystic Pizza (1988). He continued acting in Courage Under Fire (1996) and The Rainmaker. He soon gained prominence in 1997 when he and Ben Affleck wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting, which won them the Academy and Golden Globe awards for Best Screenplay.

He attracted further praise from critics for his performances in Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Syriana (2005), The Departed (2006), The Informant!, Invictus (both 2009), True Grit (2010), Contagion (2011), Downsizing (2017), Ford v Ferrari (2019), Stillwater, and The Last Duel (both 2021). He received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his leading role as Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars, in The Martian (2015).

Damon is also known for his starring roles as Jason Bourne in the Bourne franchise (2002–2007; 2016), and as con man Linus Caldwell in the Ocean's trilogy (2001–2007; 2018). He also portrayed the fallen angel Loki in the View Askewniverse films Dogma (1999) and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), and Loki actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).

More information: Kaufmann

He is also known for his performances in television, including his portrayal as Scott Thorson in the HBO biopic Behind the Candelabra (2013) for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

He received Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nominations for his performances on 30 Rock in 2011 and Saturday Night Live in 2019. He also produced the reality series Project Greenlight (2001-2015) as well as the film Manchester by the Sea (2016).

Damon has performed voice-over work in both animated and documentary films, and has established two production companies with Affleck. He has been involved in charitable work with organizations including the ONE Campaign, H2O Africa Foundation, Feeding America, and Water.org.

Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 8, 1970, the second son of Kent Telfer Damon (1942-2017), a stockbroker, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige (b. 1946), an early childhood education professor at Lesley University.

His father had English and Scottish ancestry, while his mother is of Finnish and Swedish descent; her family surname had been changed from Pajari to Paige. Damon and his family moved to Newton for two years. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and he and his brother returned with their mother to Cambridge, where they lived in a six-family communal house. His brother, Kyle, is a sculptor and artist. As a lonely teenager, he has said that he felt he did not belong Due to his mother's by the book approach to child-rearing, he had a hard time defining his own identity.

Damon attended Cambridge Alternative School and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he was a good student. He performed as an actor in several high school theater productions.

More information: GQ

Damon, alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, David Pressman, and Jerry Weintraub, is one of the founders of Not On Our Watch Project, an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities such as in Darfur.

Damon supports One Campaign, which is aimed at fighting AIDS and poverty in Third World countries. He has appeared in their print and television advertising. He is an ambassador for ONEXONE, a nonprofit foundation committed to supporting, preserving, and improving the lives of children at home in Canada, the United States, and around the world.

Damon is a spokesperson for Feeding America, a hunger-relief organization, and a member of their Entertainment Council, participating in their Ad Council public service announcements. He is a board member of Tonic Mailstopper, a company that attempts to halt junk mail delivered to American homes each day.

Damon was the founder of the H2O Africa Foundation, the charitable arm of the Running the Sahara expedition, which merged with WaterPartners to create Water.org in July 2009.

Water.org has partnered with corporate sponsors to promote awareness and raise funds to support its mission of bringing safe, clean, cost-effective drinking water and sanitation to developing countries.

In this context, Damon has been the face of advertising campaigns to promote Water.org in conjunction with products from major sponsors.

More information: Look to the Stars