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![Dropkick Murphy's - I'm Shipping Up To Boston [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110520031149im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9BMv4kecwEQ/0.jpg "Dropkick Murphy's - I'm Shipping Up To Boston [OFFICIAL VIDEO]")
![Department of Conservation signs of this format are commonly seen around New Zealand national parks. The department was formed in 1987, when the Conservation Act 1987[2] was passed to integrate part of the Department of Lands and Survey, the Forest Service and the Wildlife Service.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110520031149im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/fa/34/4e0e8dd7b9b2ba11437d0f1df4a2_grande.jpg "Department of Conservation signs of this format are commonly seen around New Zealand national parks. The department was formed in 1987, when the Conservation Act 1987[2] was passed to integrate part of the Department of Lands and Survey, the Forest Service and the Wildlife Service.")
| Name | The Departed |
|---|---|
| Director | Martin Scorsese |
| Producer | |
| Screenplay | William Monahan |
| Story | |
| Starring | |
| Music | Howard Shore |
| Editing | Thelma Schoonmaker |
| Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus |
| Studio | |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. |
| Released | |
| Runtime | 151 minutes |
| Country | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90 million |
| Gross | $289,847,354 The film was directed by Martin Scorsese, written by William Monahan, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga and Alec Baldwin. It won four Academy Awards at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and an Academy Award for Best Director win for Scorsese. |
| Name | The Departed |
| Type | Soundtrack |
| Artist | Various Artists |
| Cover | Departedcover.jpg |
| Released | November 7, 2006 |
| Genre | RockCountryPop |
| Label | Warner Sunset |
| Producer | Jason Cienkus |
| Reviews | * Allmusic [ link] |
The film opens with "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones and prominently plays "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" by Dropkick Murphys with lyrics written by Woody Guthrie, which gained the band some popularity. The film features the live cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" by Roger Waters, Van Morrison, and Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Garth Hudson of The Band from the 1990 Berlin Wall Concert.
Although "Gimme Shelter" is featured twice in the film, the song does not appear on the album soundtrack. Also heard in the movie but not featured on the soundtrack is "Thief's Theme" by Nas, "Well Well Well" by John Lennon, "Bang Bang" by Joe Cuba, and the Act II Sextet from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (Which is also Costello's ringtone in the film).
The movie closes with a cover of Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams," by Roy Buchanan.
Track Listing # "Comfortably Numb" (Roger Waters Feat. Van Morrison and The Band, version from The Wall – Live in Berlin) – 7:59 # "Sail On, Sailor" (The Beach Boys) – 3:18 # "Let It Loose" (The Rolling Stones) – 5:18 # "Sweet Dreams" (Roy Buchanan) – 3:32 # "One Way Out" (The Allman Brothers Band) – 4:57 # "Baby Blue" (Badfinger) – 3:36 # "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" (Dropkick Murphys) – 2:34 # "Nobody but Me" (The Human Beinz) – 2:18 # "Tweedle Dee" (LaVern Baker) – 3:10 # "Sweet Dreams (Of You)" (Patsy Cline) – 2:34 # "The Departed Tango" (Howard Shore, Marc Ribot) – 3:32 # "Beacon Hill" (Howard Shore, Sharon Isbin) – 2:33
| Name | The Departed |
|---|---|
| Type | Soundtrack |
| Artist | Howard Shore |
| Cover | Howardshoredeparted.jpg |
| Released | December 5, 2006 |
| Genre | SoundtracksFilm music |
| Label | New Line |
| Producer | Jason Cienkus |
| Reviews | * Allmusic [ link] |
The film score for The Departed was written by Howard Shore and performed by guitarists Sharon Isbin, G. E. Smith, Larry Saltzman and Marc Ribot. The score was recorded in Shore's own studio in New York State.
Track Listing # "Cops or Criminals" – 2:01 # "344 Wash" – 2:03 # "Beacon Hill" – 2:36 # "The Faithful Departed" – 3:01 # "Colin" – 2:09 # "Madolyn" – 2:14 # "Billy's Theme" – 6:58 # "Command" – 3:15 # "Chinatown" – 3:16 # "Boston Common" – 2:53 # "Miss Thing" – 1:45 # "The Baby" – 2:48 # "The Last Rites" – 3:05 # "The Departed Tango" – 3:38
In June 2010, Wahlberg and Monahan still expressed interest in a sequel, which is said to be projected for a 2012 release date.
Category:2006 films Category:American films Category:English-language films Category:2000s crime films Category:American crime drama films Category:American crime thriller films Category:Best Picture Academy Award winners Category:Boston, Massachusetts in fiction Category:Culture of Boston, Massachusetts Category:Edgar Award winning works Category:Film remakes Category:Films about organized crime in the United States Category:Films directed by Martin Scorsese Category:Films set in Massachusetts Category:Films shot in Massachusetts Category:Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award Category:Films whose director won the Best Director Golden Globe Category:Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award Category:Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award Category:Irish-American culture Category:Mafia films Category:Media Asia films Category:Warner Bros. films
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Sully Erna |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Salvatore Paul Erna |
| Born | February 07, 1968 |
| Origin | Lawrence, Massachusetts |
| Instrument | Vocals, guitar, harmonica, drums, piano, keyboards, percussion |
| Genre | Hard rock |
| Occupation | Musician, singer-songwriter |
| Voice type | Baritone |
| Years active | 1986 - present |
| Label | Universal Records |
| Associated acts | Godsmack, Meliah Rage, Strip Mind |
| Url | Godsmack.comSully Erna.com |
| Notable instruments | Gibson Les Paul GuitarsZemaitis Guitar |
Erna has also worked with his local music scene. In April 2005, Sully participated in New Hampshire's Battle of the Bands Competition. The winner (a band called Zion who hails from Salem) had the opportunity to record a demo at Sully's California studio.
Regarding how he went about selecting the material used for his solo show, Erna said, "I wanted to stick a couple of originals in and try them out because there was a couple of songs that were done on the piano or the guitar that I wrote that I don't think I would use on a GODSMACK record," he said. "For example, 'Eyes of a Child' and 'Until Then'. It was a great opportunity to showcase that and see if I can hit home with the people on those two pieces. Those songs are the most emotional pieces of the evening. One song is about children born with or dying from AIDS and the other is about a tribute to the troops of the United States Armed Forces."
Erna told The Pulse of Radio that playing some new material live is a good way for him to test out songs that might not work for Godsmack. "We're all musicians and we like to write music and not necessarily rock all the time," he said. "So, you know, if I sit home and I'm writing on the piano and sometimes just cool songs are written that don't necessarily fit maybe what you do with Godsmack, but you don't wanna not record them."
Erna stated at the time that he planned to work on his first solo album,
On March 4, 2009, Blabbermouth.net reported that Erna had completed work on his first solo album, Avalon, coming out September 14, 2010. Although, the single Sinner's Prayer will be on radio stations and on sale everywhere August 3, 2010. Erna described the album as being "a very different kind of sounding record," and "a huge departure from anything I've ever done."
The album includes Lisa Guyer on vocals, Tim Theriault on guitars and vocals, Chris Decato on keyboards, midi and vocals, Chris Lester on acoustic guitars and bass, classically trained Irina Chirkova of Bulgaria on Cello, Niall Gregory of Ireland Dead Can Dance on drums and percussion and David Stephanelli on drums and percussion.
Three days later, Rockerrazzi.com posted an interview with Erna in which he said that the record "should be out in the next two months." In further describing the album's sound, Erna said that "it's very eclectic," and "tribal" with "a lot of hand drumming" and "beautiful piano compositions."
It was later revealed that the song would not be featured in the film or the soundtrack because the original scene that the song was meant to play in was re-edited and the final product didn't fit with the song.
Sully Erna is also featured in Mötley Crüe music video "White Trash Circus" released on February 25, 2009.
"The book is basically just my life from the time I was born until Godsmack started," Erna said. "I wanted to write about the whole experience of trying to get there, and hopefully that will inspire some people that maybe are still in the ghettos or trying to dig their way out of a hole. I mean, we're all human and we weren't born rock stars. So I think there's an interesting story to tell of the pain and struggling. You know, being poor and being raised in crazy neighborhoods. If kids can see that they’ll be able to relate to anything they have a dream for."
The book sold 100,000 copies in its first month of release, and to date has shipped 300,000 copies worldwide.
Erna also played in the 2007 World Series of Poker main event. After the elimination of Tobey Maguire, Erna was the final celebrity remaining. He placed in 237th out of a field of 6,358, earning $45,422. To complement his placing at the World Series of Poker, he placed 2nd in a preliminary event at Bellagio's 5 Diamond World Poker Classic, where he lost to J.C Tran but earned $307,325 as a consolation.
Sully also competed in the 2007 VH1 Celebrity Rock and Roll Tournament with Ace Frehley, Vinnie Paul, Scott Ian, and Dusty Hill. Erna took second, losing to Scott Ian of Anthrax.
Erna said in a statement, "Since I can't be there to help in person, I want to make my contribution as a fellow human being to give what I can while I'm in the fortunate situation that I am to help those that are so unfortunate in this time of tragedy."
Taylor was sitting in the back seat of a dark blue Toyota Camry that reversed back into the H3 driven by Erna. The driver of the vehicle that Taylor was in had been drinking that night, and had the car in reverse when the light turned green. When the light turned green, Erna naturally drove forward, while the Camry drove backwards, into Erna. The driver of the Camry, not realizing what happened, put the car back in drive, sped up to get away and plowed into a Honda Odyssey driven by a Londonderry, New Hampshire woman. The crash occurred on a dark night, around 7 p.m. on the ramp leading from I-93 south to Route 213.
Taylor was initially reported to be in a coma and on life support with critical injuries as a result of the crash into the Odyssey, and was upgraded to serious status after she was flown to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and has since returned home, reportedly with brain injuries. On March 31, 2008, Taylor filed an auto negligence lawsuit against Erna in Federal Court. It was thrown out, with the judge citing no wrongdoing on Erna's part.
Hardware:
Cymbals:Sabian
Vic Firth Sticks
Category:1968 births Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:American heavy metal guitarists Category:American neopagans Category:American Wiccans Category:American rock singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American heavy metal singers Category:American baritones Category:American male singers Category:Godsmack members Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:Musicians from Massachusetts Category:Nu metal singers Category:People from Lawrence, Massachusetts Category:People from Essex County, Massachusetts
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| Name | Leonardo DiCaprio |
|---|---|
| Caption | DiCaprio at the Body of Lies premiere in London, November 6, 2008. |
| Birth name | Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio |
| Birth date | November 11, 1974 |
| Birth place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, film producer |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Website | Official site |
A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism.
DiCaprio's parents met while attending college together and subsequently moved to Los Angeles. DiCaprio was raised Catholic. His parents divorced when he was a year old and he lived mostly with his mother, although his father was around intermittently. During his childhood, DiCaprio was interested in baseball cards, comic books, and frequently visited museums with his father.
DiCaprio and his mother lived in several Los Angeles neighborhoods, such as Echo Park, and at 1874 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Feliz district (which was later converted into a local public library), while his mother worked several jobs to support them. Budgeted at US$11.0 million, the film became a financial and critical success, resulting in a domestic box office total of US$9.1 million and various accolades for DiCaprio, who was awarded the National Board of Review Award and nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his portrayal. New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised DiCaprio's performance, writing "the film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio, who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end."
DiCaprio's first effort of 1995 was Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, a western film in which he appeared alongside Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, and Russell Crowe, playing the role of Hackman's alleged son named Kid. Sony Pictures was dubious over DiCaprio's casting, and as a result, Stone decided to pay for the actor's salary herself. The film was released to a dismal box office performance, barely grossing US$18.5 million in the United States, and received mixed reviews from critics. Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader observed that "Raimi tries to do a Sergio Leone, and though The Quick and the Dead is highly enjoyable in spots, it doesn't come across as very convincing." Afterwards DiCaprio starred in Total Eclipse, a fictionalized account of the homosexual relationship between Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, played by David Thewlis. He replaced River Phoenix in the role of Rimbaud, who had died during pre-production on the project. A minor arthouse success, the film grossed US$0.34 million throughout its domestic theatrical run.
DiCaprio appeared alongside friends Kevin Connolly and Tobey Maguire in the mostly improvised short film called Don's Plum as a favor to aspiring director R.D. Robb. When Robb decided to expand the black-and-white film to feature length however, DiCaprio and Maguire obtained its blocking, arguing that they never intended to make it a theatrical release as it would have commercial value thanks to their stardom. DiCaprio's last film of the year 1995 was The Basketball Diaries, a biopic about Jim Carroll.
Later that year, he starred in Jerry Zaks' family drama Marvin's Room, reuniting with Robert De Niro. Based on Scott McPherson's screenplay adaptation of his own 1991 stage play of the same name, the film revolves around two sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy after 17 years of estrangement. DiCaprio portrayed the character of Hank, Streep's troubled son, who has been committed to a mental asylum for setting fire to his mother's house. On his Chlotrudis Award-winning performance, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly commented: "The deeply gifted DiCaprio [..] keeps right up with these older pros [Keaton and Streep]. The three are so full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent." Against expectations, the film went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time (it was surpassed in 2010 by Cameron's directorial follow-up, Avatar), grossing more than US$1.843 billion in box-office receipts worldwide, and transformed DiCaprio into a commercial movie superstar, resulting in fan worship among teenage girls and young women in general that became known as "Leo-Mania." He was nominated for most of the high-profile awards, including a second Golden Globe nomination.
The following year, DiCaprio made a self-mocking cameo appearance in Woody Allen's caustic satire of the fame industry, Celebrity (1998). That year, he also starred in the dual roles of the villainous King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in Randall Wallace's The Man in the Iron Mask, based on the same-titled 1939 film. Despite receiving a rather mixed to negative response, the film became a box office success, grossing US$180 million internationally. Though DiCaprio's performance was generally well-received, with Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman writing that "the shockingly androgynous DiCaprio looks barely old enough to be playing anyone with hormones, but he's a fluid and instinctive actor, with the face of a mischievous angel," he was awarded a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for both incarnations the following year. but as with DiCaprio's previous project, the film was largely panned by critics. Todd McCarthy of Variety noted that "Richard [DiCaprio's role] is too much the American Everyman and not enough of a well-defined individual to entirely capture one's interest and imagination, and DiCaprio, while perfectly watchable, does not endow him with the quirks or distinguishing marks to make this man from nowhere a dimensional character." The next year, he was nominated for another Razzie Award for his work on the film. Catch Me If You Can received favourable reviews and proved to be an international success, becoming Dicaprio's highest-grossing film since Titanic with a total of US$351.1 million worldwide. Roger Ebert praised his performance, and noted that while "DiCaprio, who in recent films [...] has played dark and troubled characters, is breezy and charming here, playing a boy who discovers what he is good at, and does it." The following year, DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his work on the film. Nonetheless production on the film was plagued by blown-out budgets and producer-director squabbles, resulting in a marathon eight-month shoot and, at US$103 million, the most expensive film Scorsese had ever made. DiCaprio's acting was well-received but remained overshadowed by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance among most critics.
Forging a collaboration with Scorsese, the two paired again for a biopic of the eccentric and obsessive American film director and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004). Centering on Hughes' life from the late 1920s to 1947, DiCaprio initially developed the project with Michael Mann, who decided against directing it after back-to-back film biographies in Ali and The Insider. Altogether, DiCaprio reportedly spent more than a year and a half in preparation for the film which was not necessarily shot in continuity because of actors and locations schedules. DiCaprio received rave reviews for his performance and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, also receiving another Academy Award nomination. and DiCaprio was praised for the authenticity of his South African Afrikaner accent, known as a difficult accent to imitate. In Scorsese's The Departed he played the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper working undercover in an Irish Mob in Boston. Highly anticipated, the film was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews and became one of the highest-rated wide release films of 2006. Budgeted at US$90 million, it also emerged as DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to date, easily beating The Aviator´s previous record of US$213.7 million. DiCaprio's performance in The Departed was applauded by critics and earned him a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film received mixed reviews from critics, and at a budget of US$67.5 million, became moderate box office success, grossing US$115 million worldwide.
The same year, DiCaprio reunited with Kate Winslet to film the drama Revolutionary Road (2008), directed by Winslet's then-husband Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to Titanic, it was Winslet who suggested that both should work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates after reading the script by Justin Haythe, knowing that plot had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster. Once DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production. He noted that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment." Portraying a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet watched period videos promoting life in the suburbs to prepare themselves for Revolutionary Road, which earned them favorable reviews. For his portrayal DiCaprio garnered his seventh nomination from the Golden Globes.
Also in 2010, DiCaprio starred in director Christopher Nolan's science-fiction film Inception. Inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation,. DiCaprio portrays the character of Dom Cobb, an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. DiCaprio, the first actor to be cast in the film, was "intrigued by this concept — this dream-heist notion and how this character's gonna unlock his dreamworld and ultimately affect his real life." Released to critical acclaim, the film grossed over US$21 million on its opening day, with an opening weekend gross of US$62.7 million.
DiCaprio is also set to star in Clint Eastwood's Hoover, a biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, the controversial first director of the FBI of the United States. He was cast in the title role in Oliver Stone's film Travis McGee, in which he is expected to play a salvage consultant who helps his clients on recover lost property, and is attached to star as a father who kidnaps and tortures the man who kidnapped his daughter in the thriller Prisoners. On November 1, 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio's production company had acquired the rights to the Erik Larsen novel, The Devil in the White City. The novel tells the true story of Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer responsible for the death of hundreds of women during the Chicago World's Fair. It has also been announced that DiCaprio will star in the film, playing the role of serial killer H. H. Holmes. He was also cast in the role of Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming adaptation of the novel The Great Gatsby.
On November 19, 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio will produce and star in the expected 2013 movie based on the book Legacy of Secrecy by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann, examining the facts of the early 1960s combined forces of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Mafia were also conspirators initiating and executing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. DiCaprio is expected to play FBI informant Jack Van Laningham. The book asserts that Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello confessed to Van Laningham to having ordered JFK's assassination while the CIA and the Mafia were conspiring together to try to assassinate the Cuba Communist Premier, Fidel Castro. After the assassination, as part of a dangerous and long-secret undercover operation, the FBI positioned Van Laningham to become a confidant to Marcello, who ruled organized crime in Louisiana and most of Texas for decades.
.]] His romantic relationships have been widely covered in the media. DiCaprio has dated women including model Kristen Zang on-and-off for several years, and British model and socialite Emma Miller. In 2001, he met Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen with whom he had an on-and-off relationship until their separation in 2005. In the course of their trip to Israel in March 2007, the couple met with Israeli president Shimon Peres and visited Refaeli's hometown of Hod HaSharon. The relationship was on hold for a period of 6 months starting in June 2009. But, as of early 2010, the romance has rekindled.
DiCaprio owns a home in Los Angeles, California, and an apartment in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York. In 2009, he bought an island in Belize on which he is planning to create an eco-friendly resort. He also owns an apartment in Riverhouse, an eco-friendly building overlooking the Hudson River in Manhattan.
At the 2007 Oscar ceremony, DiCaprio and former vice-president Al Gore appeared to announce that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, thus affirming their commitment to the environment, and on July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth. In 2010, his environmental work earned DiCaprio a nomination for the VH1 Do Something Award. The awards show, produced by VH1, is dedicated to honoring people who do good and is powered by Do Something, an organization that aims to empower, celebrate, and inspire young people.
In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a state-of-the-art “Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center” at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library (1874 Hillhurst Avenue), which happens to be the site of his childhood home. It was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and opened in early 1999. During the filming of Blood Diamond, DiCaprio worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and was said to be extremely touched by his interactions with the children. In 2010, he donated $1,000,000 to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.
During the 2004 Presidential election, DiCaprio campaigned and donated to John Kerry's presidential bid. FEC showed DiCaprio gave $2300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the maximum contribution an individual can give in an election cycle.
In November 2010, DiCaprio donated $1,000,000 to WCS at Russia's tiger summit. DiCaprio arrived late after two near-miss air flights, causing the Russian Prime minister, Vladimir Putin, to describe him as a "muzhik" or "real man".
Category:1974 births Category:Actors from California Category:American child actors Category:American environmentalists Category:American film actors Category:American soap opera actors Category:American television actors Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:California Democrats Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American actors of German descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Russian descent Category:Living people Category:People from Los Angeles, California
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| Alt | Head shot of Damon looking into the camera smiling slightly. He is wearing a black polo shirt. |
|---|---|
| Caption | Damon in 2009 |
| Birth date | October 08, 1970 |
| Birth name | Matthew Paige Damon |
| Birth place | Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
| Spouse | |
| Occupation | Actor, screenwriter, producer |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (attended) |
| Years active | 1988–present |
Damon has since starred in commercially successful films such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), the Ocean's trilogy, and the Bourne series, while also gaining critical acclaim for his performances in dramas such as Syriana (2005), The Good Shepherd (2006), and The Departed (2006). He garnered a Golden Globe nomination for portraying the title character in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and was nominated for an Academy Award as a supporting actor in Invictus (2009). He is one of the top forty highest grossing actors of all time. In 2007, Damon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.
Damon has been actively involved in charitable work, including the ONE Campaign, H2O Africa Foundation, and Water.org.
Damon attended Harvard University from 1988 to 1992 but did not graduate. While at Harvard, he studied English and lived in Lowell House. He took part in student theater, appearing in plays such as Burn This in Winthrop House and A... My Name is Alice (in one of the three male roles usually performed by women). Damon dropped out of the university to pursue his acting career in Los Angeles because he mistakenly expected to become a big success. "By the time I figured out I had made the wrong decision, it was too late. I was living out here with a bunch of actors, and we were all scrambling to make ends meet," Damon has said.
Also in 1997, Damon was the lead in the critically-acclaimed drama The Rainmaker, where he was recognized by the Los Angeles Times as "a talented young actor on the brink of stardom." After meeting Damon on the set of Good Will Hunting, director Steven Spielberg cast Damon as the titular character in the 1998 World War II film Saving Private Ryan. to the low budget experimental film Gerry (2002), which he co-wrote with Casey Affleck and Gus Van Sant. Damon garnered generally positive critical reaction for his Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of Ripley, with Variety stating, "Damon outstandingly conveys his character's slide from innocent enthusiasm into cold calculation."
Damon's attempts at essaying leading characters in romantic dramas such as 2000's All the Pretty Horses and The Legend of Bagger Vance were commercially and critically unsuccessful. He was similarly deemed "uncomfortable being the center" of Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance.
From 2001 to 2007, Damon gained wider international recognition as part of two major film franchises. He co-starred as thief Linus Caldwell, alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts, in Steven Soderbergh's 2001 remake of the Rat Pack's 1960 caper film Ocean's 11; the successful crime dramedy spawned two sequels, Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). In August 2007, financial magazine Forbes created a list of actors who generated the best box office performance related to their salaries; the list placed Damon as the most bankable star of the actors reviewed, revealing that Damon had averaged U.S.$29 at the box office for every dollar he earned for his last three films.
in Berlin in February 2007 for the premiere of The Good Shepherd]] Damon played a fictionalized version of Wilhelm Grimm in Terry Gilliam's fantasy adventure The Brothers Grimm (2005), which was a critically panned commercial failure; Later that year, he appeared as an energy analyst in Syriana. In 2006, Damon joined Robert De Niro in The Good Shepherd as a career CIA officer, and played an undercover mobster working for the Massachusetts State Police in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, a remake of the Hong Kong police thriller Infernal Affairs. The Departed was a success amongst critics and audiences alike.
Damon had an uncredited cameo in Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007) and another cameo in the 2008 Che Guevara biopic Che. He lent his voice to the English version of the animated film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which was released in the United States in August 2009. He also made a guest appearance in 2009 on the sixth season finale of Entourage as himself, where he tries to pressure Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) into donating to his charity OneXOne—a real foundation for which Damon is an ambassador—and gets increasingly irritated when Chase does not seem to comply.
Damon next appeared in Steven Soderbergh's dark comedy, The Informant! (2009), in which his Golden Globe-nominated work was described by Entertainment Weekly as such: "The star – who has quietly and steadily turned into a great Everyman actor – is in nimble control as he reveals his character's deep crazies." Also in 2009, Damon portrayed South Africa national rugby union team captain François Pienaar in the Clint Eastwood-directed Nelson Mandela film Invictus, which is based on the 2008 John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation and features Morgan Freeman as Mandela. Invictus earned Damon an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The New Republic observed, "It is not a demanding role, but the ever-more-actorly Damon brings it off with low-key charm and integrity."
In 2010, Damon re-teamed with director Paul Greengrass, who directed him in the Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum, for the action thriller Green Zone, which flopped commercially and received ambivalent reception from critics.
In motion pictures that feature him either as a leading actor or as a supporting co-star, his films have grossed a total of U.S.$1.94 to U.S.$2.42 billion (based on counting his roles as strictly lead or including supporting roles, respectively) at the North American box office, placing him in the top forty grossing actors of all time.
He has appeared as a guest star in an episode of Arthur, titled The Making of Arthur, as himself. During Season 5 of 30 Rock, he appeared as guest star in the role of Liz Lemon's boyfriend in the episodes "When It Rains, It Pours" and "Live Show".
Damon's 2010 projects included The Adjustment Bureau, Clint Eastwood's Hereafter, and the Coen Brothers' remake of the 1969 John Wayne-starring Western True Grit; the latter movie started filming in March 2010 and was released in December of that year.
Damon has taken part in philanthropy since the age of 12, deciding what to do with his $5 allowance. Damon was the founder of H2O Africa Foundation, the charitable arm of the Running the Sahara expedition, which merged with WaterPartners to create Water.org in July 2009. He, along with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub, is one of the founders of , an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities such as in Darfur. Damon supports the ONE Campaign, which is aimed at fighting AIDS and poverty in Third World countries. He has appeared in their print and television advertising. Damon is also an ambassador for OneXOne, a non-profit foundation committed to supporting, preserving and improving the lives of children at home in Canada, the United States, and around the world. Damon is also a spokesperson for Feeding America, the largest USA-focused hunger-relief organization, and a member of their Entertainment Council, participating in their Ad Council PSAs.
Damon is a board member of Tonic Mailstopper (formerly GreenDimes), a company that attempts to halt junk mail delivered to American homes each day. Appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 20, 2007, Damon promoted the organization's efforts to prevent the trees used for junk mail letters and envelopes from being chopped down. Damon stated: "For an estimated dime a day they can stop 70 per cent of the junk mail that comes to your house. It's very simple, easy to do, great gift to give, I've actually signed up my entire family. It was a gift given to me this past holiday season and I was so impressed that I'm now on the board of the company."
On September 10, 2008, a video was released on YouTube by the Associated Press in which Damon criticized the Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom he found unready to lead the country in case John McCain were to not make it through his first term. Damon referred to Palin as a "...bad Disney movie... 'I'm just a hockey mom from Alaska here to take on the White House'," and added, "It's absurd ... I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago. Because she’s gonna have the nuclear codes."
Damon narrated the audiobook version of historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, published in 2003.
Damon enjoys playing poker and has competed in several World Series of Poker (WSOP) events including the 2010 World Series of Poker main event. He dropped $25,000 at the WSOP while researching his role as a professional poker player in Rounders (1998) and after filming the movie Damon was busted out of the 1998 WSOP by poker professional Doyle Brunson.
Category:1970 births Category:American film actors Category:American screenwriters Category:Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners Category:Harvard University people Category:Living people Category:Actors from Massachusetts Category:People from Cambridge, Massachusetts
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![Department of Conservation signs of this format are commonly seen around New Zealand national parks. The department was formed in 1987, when the Conservation Act 1987[2] was passed to integrate part of the Department of Lands and Survey, the Forest Service and the Wildlife Service.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110520031149im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/fa/34/4e0e8dd7b9b2ba11437d0f1df4a2_thumb.jpg "Department of Conservation signs of this format are commonly seen around New Zealand national parks. The department was formed in 1987, when the Conservation Act 1987[2] was passed to integrate part of the Department of Lands and Survey, the Forest Service and the Wildlife Service.")
