 Affleck at the premiere of his film Argo in 2012 | |
| Film | 67 |
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| Television film | 2 |
| Television series | 10 |
| Music videos | 3 |
American actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck began his career as a child, appearing in several television shows, including the PBS educational program The Voyage of the Mimi (1984). [1] He played an antisemite in the sports film School Ties (1992) and featured as a regular on the television drama Against the Grain (1993). [2] [3] He gained attention for playing the supporting part of a high-school senior in Richard Linklater's cult film Dazed and Confused (1993), after which he had his first leading role in Rich Wilkes's comedy Glory Daze (1995). [3] [4] In 1997, Affleck played a comics artist in Smith's art-house success Chasing Amy . He co-wrote the script and starred with Matt Damon in Gus Van Sant's drama film Good Will Hunting , for which they won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. [5] [6]
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Affleck emerged a star with Michael Bay's top-grossing science fiction film Armageddon (1998). [7] [8] In 2000, Affleck co-formed a production company named LivePlanet, which produced Project Greenlight (2001–05, 2015), a television series that provides training to first-time filmmakers. [9] [10] [11] Affleck starred in Bay's war film Pearl Harbor (2001), which despite negative reviews was a box office hit. [12] [13] His career subsequently went through a period of decline when he starred in a series of critical and commercial failures, including Gigli (2003). [14] [15] He made a comeback with the biopic Hollywoodland (2006), in which his portrayal of George Reeves earned him a Golden Globe nomination. [14] [16]
In 2007, Affleck made his feature film directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone , a thriller adapted by Affleck from the Dennis Lehane novel, which was critically praised. [17] [18] He went on to act in and direct two acclaimed features for Warner Bros. —the crime drama The Town (2010) and the thriller Argo (2012). [19] The latter, about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis in which he played the intelligence agent Tony Mendez, won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Affleck won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Director. [a] [16] [20] [21] In 2014, Affleck played a man accused of murdering his wife in David Fincher's thriller Gone Girl . [22] Two years later, he starred as Batman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), which grossed $873 million to rank as his highest-grossing release; he reprised the role in a few installments set in the DC Extended Universe. [8] [23] He subsequently gained praise for playing a recovering alcoholic in the sports drama The Way Back (2020), Peter II, Count of Alençon in the period film The Last Duel (2021), and a caring father-figure in the drama The Tender Bar (2021). [24] [25] Affleck returned to direction with the acclaimed sports drama Air (2023), in which he also portrayed Phil Knight. [26]