It’s hard to believe it was 25 years ago when Ben Affleck, then 25 years old, stood on the stage at the Beverly Hilton, together with longtime buddy and collaborator Matt Damon, and accepted their first Golden Globe award. It was a Best Screenplay award for Good Will Hunting.
Ben Affleck has become an accomplished actor, writer, and director, the recipient of three Golden Globes, two Academy Awards, and a Volpi Cup. Now that he’s turning 50, on August 15, he can look back at an impressive career in which he’s accomplished enough for several lifetimes.
Considered one of the most amicable and engaging actors in Hollywood, Affleck is effortlessly charming, has a great sense of humor and, despite his A-list status allowing him to be part of the social strata we call the one percent, he’s remained down to earth and appears unaffected by his immense success.
Perhaps it’s his humble upbringing that has helped him to remain that way. Affleck was born in California but his family moved to Boston when he was 8 years old. His parents divorced when he was aged 12. Along with his younger brother, Casey, Ben was raised by their mother on her teacher’s salary.
He began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi (1984, 1988). He later appeared in the independent coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused (1993) and indie fare such as Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), and Dogma (1999). But it was Good Will Hunting, in 1997, that changed the course of his career.
Blockbusters followed, such as Armageddon (1998), the war drama Pearl Harbor (2001), and action films The Sum of All Fears, and Changing Lanes, in 2002.
No career would be complete without a few hiccups along the way. For Affleck, they include Gigli and Daredevil, both in 2003. “I always understood right from the beginning of my career that there were peaks and valleys,” he said during an interview to promote his Golden Globe winner, Argo, in 2012.
Behind the camera, he has consistently excelled. He garnered positive reviews for his first directorial effort, Gone Baby Gone, in 2007. As for The Town, in 2010, in which he also starred, it raked great reviews and over US$155 million at the box office. When he directed and starred in Argo, in 2012, the accolades and awards catapulted him to another level altogether. In 2016 he wrote, directed, and starred in Live by Night.

His work as an actor is equally impressive. Affleck starred in Gone Girl (2014), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and reprised the role of Batman in Justice League the following year. Other films include The Accountant (2016), The Way Back (2020), and The Last Duel (2021). His most recent film, The Tender Bar, was very well received by both critics and audiences alike.
Given the stellar track record, his personal life has been dogged by constant tabloid attention. He was married to Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018. They have three children: Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10. He married Jennifer Lopez, to whom he was previously engaged, on July 16, this year. Upon turning 40, while promoting Argo, he said, “I finally feel like a grown-up.” 

Now, on the eve of turning 50, it looks like everything has come together for him, personally and professionally. He told the Los Angeles Times that he is finally done with caring about what people think of him and admits that he used to care too much.
As for the future, he’s come full circle and is collaborating again with Matt Damon, this time on a still-untitled film about the history of shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro and how he led Nike in its pursuit of Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes in the history of professional sports.
Affleck currently appears in a movie directed by director Adrian Lyne, Deep Water, available on Netflix. 
Take a look down memory lane by HFPA reporter Ramzy Malouki.