Ben Affleck
Benjamin Geza Affleck was born August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California, but relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts with his family. Affleck’s parents, Tim — a former actor and director, and a drug rehab counselor, and Chris — a schoolteacher and now one of his biggest advisors — divorced not long after his birth, leaving Chris to care for sons Ben and Casey.
Acting was definitely in the family genes, as both Affleck brothers (Ben is 3 years older than Casey) wanted to become actors early on. By the age of 8, little Ben landed his first role, as a regular in the series The Voyage of the Mimi after an appearance in a Burger King commercial (thanks to his dad’s connections).
n addition to his first acting role, 8-year-old Ben also met his future partner in crime, Matt Damon, who lived a few blocks away in Cambridge. The two had more than little league in common; they both also wanted to become actors.
Affleck was receiving bit parts here and there, such as in 1986’s Wanted: The Perfect Guy, 1987’s Hands of a Stranger, 1988’s The Second Voyage of the Mimi, and the made-for-TV movie Daddy, in 1991. In the meantime, Affleck and Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School while taking drama lessons, and auditioning and answering casting calls while studying.
The bosom buddies parted ways when Damon went to prestigious Harvard, and Affleck attended the University of Vermont and the Occidental College Eagle Rock, where he studied Middle Eastern studies. Affleck never made it as far as graduation since his desire to act was more appealing than classrooms and exams.
He did get a small part as a student in a prestigious college in the 1992 film School Ties, in which Damon had a larger role. Affleck then appeared in Dazed and Confused in 1993, and co-starred with Claire Forlani and Shannen Doherty in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats, which marked the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Credit : Askmen.com
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[…] took his first lead role in Encino Man (1992). During the same year, he played opposite Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris O’Donnell in school Ties (1992). In 1994, he played alongside Adam Sandler in the […]