MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY
Date of Birth: November 4, 1969
With Lone Star and A Time To Kill, Matthew McConaughey blew in from nowhere to become the Official Hunk of 1996.
In the two years that followed, Matthew's face was plastered across every magazine cover on the
continent and a lot was written about him. The same adjectives crop up over and over
again: sincere, honest, truthful. Richard Linklater, McConaughey's director on Dazed And
Confused and The Newton Boys has simply said of him, "He knows who he is." However you
describe it, the one phrase that sums his qualities up best is "star power."
Matthew stumbled into his big break when he spent the night drinking with some guy he met
in a hotel bar in Austin, Texas. The guy happened to be the casting director for Richard
Linklater's film Dazed And Confused, and McConaughey found himself cast as the film's
resident stoner, Wooderson.
Landing in Hollywood, Matthew paid the rent by appearing in Angels In The Outfield and
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (the film's producers wisely held back its
release until McConaughey and co-star Renee Zelwegger became big stars). He played the
beefcake in Boys On The Side. Then he beat out Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer and Woody Harrelson
to nab the lead in John Grisham's A Time To Kill. Landing on the cover of Vanity Fair, he was being hailed as The Next Big Thing. Meanwhile, the film finished No. 1 at the box office.
Then came Bill Murray's Larger Than Life, Contact with Jodie Foster, Steven Spielberg's
epic, Amistad and The Newton Boys. He took on a lead in Ron Howard's 1999 comedy
EDtv and a starring role in the thriller about Americans taking over a stranded German submarine,
U-571 (2000). He went on to play the romantic lead in the hit comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), co-starring Kate Hudson, then expanded his repertoire with the action flick Sahara (2005).
McConaughey has continued to enjoy roles in popular big-screen blockbusters in a variety of different genres. For instance, he played a young coach to a troubled football team in We Are Marshall (2005), an eternal bachelor in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009), a sleazy defense attorney in The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), a lawyer again in Bernie (2012), a retired male stripper/club owner in Magic Mike (2012) and a contract killer in Killer Joe (2012).
On July 7, 2008, Matthew and his girlfriend, Camila Alves, became the parents of their first child, a boy named Levi Alves McConaughey. Their second child, a girl named Vida Alves McConaughey, was born January 3, 2010. The couple married on June 9, 2012.
Filmography:
Killer Joe(2012)
The Paperboy(2012)
Mud(2012)
Magic Mike(2012)
The Lincoln Lawyer(2011)
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past(2009)
Surfer, Dude(2008)
Fool's Gold(2008)
We Are Marshall(2006)
Failure to Launch(2006)
Two for the Money(2005)
Sahara(2005)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days(2003)
Tiptoes (2003)
Reign of Fire(2002)
Frailty(2002)
13 Conversations About One Thing (2001)
The Wedding Planner(2001)
U-571(2000)
EDtv (1999)
Making Sandwiches (1998)
The Newton Boys(1998)
The Rebel (1998)
Amistad (1997)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1997)
Contact (1997)
Scorpion Spring (1997)
A Time To Kill (1996)
Glory Daze (1996)
Larger Than Life (1996)
Lone Star (1996)
Boys On The Side (1995)
Judgement (1995)
Submission (1995)
Angels In The Outfield (1994)
Dazed And Confused (1993)
My Boyfriend's Back (1993)