Ben Affleck was born Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt on August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California. The award-winning actor and director moved to Massachusetts with his family at age three. Ben’s mother, Christopher Anne, was an elementary school teacher. His father, Timothy Byers, was a man of many trades. He worked sporadically as a carpenter, auto mechanic, bookie, electrician, bartender, and janitor at his wife’s Alma mater, Harvard. In the mid-1960s, Timothy was an actor and stage manager with the Theater Company of Boston.
Ben’s Difficult Childhood
However, during Ben’s childhood, his father was dealing with a severe alcoholism problem. He would later struggle with alcohol himself, going to rehab a few times for it and using it as a coping mechanism during his divorce from Jennifer Garner. Ben’s parents divorced when he was 12 years old. He later recalled their marriage as being “so bad” and feeling that it was a “relief” that it was over. After being homeless for two years, it took two more years before his father went to rehab in California; he lived at the facility for twelve years to maintain his sobriety and worked there as an addiction counselor.
Ben and his younger brother Casey Affleck regularly attended theater performances with their mother. The two brothers auditioned for roles in local commercials and film productions because of their mother’s connection with a casting director in the area. At age seven, Ben landed his first professional acting role in The Dark End of the Street (1981). For the next few years, Ben would go back and forth from Mexico and Massachusetts to film the PBS educational children’s television program, The Voyage of the Mimi. He learned to speak Spanish while living in the country for a year straight at 13. Ben shocked fans he's fluent in Spanish when he did an interview promoting Air in April.
Ben met his longtime friend Matt Damon when they went to school together. They’ve known each other since Ben was eight years old. Though Damon is two years older, they shared “identical interests” of wanting to pursue acting careers. So, they’d travel to New York together for auditions and even open a joint bank account together. By 1993, Ben appeared in the cult classic Dazed and Confused. After befriending and working with Kevin Smith on a few projects, the Clerks filmmaker cast him in his breakthrough role, 1997’s Chasing Amy. Then, he reunited with Matt Damon for the role that really put him on the map, Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote and starred in. With 87 acting credits, 33 credits as a producer, nine as a director, and seven as a writer, Affleck has cemented his name in Hollywood forever.
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Take a look below at Ben Affleck through the years. He may have gotten older, but his facial expressions have remained true iconic Ben.
