Who’s Older Ben Affleck or Matt Damon?
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were close friends long before they became Hollywood A-Listers. The two grew up together and were recognized in the entertainment industry alongside one another after winning an Academy Award for the film Good Will Hunting, which they co-wrote and starred in. Over the years fans have had general questions about the actors including who’s older and who has the higher net worth. Here are the answers to those questions, plus more on their friendship.
Which actor is older?
Damon was born on Oct. 8, 1970, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, to parents Nancy and Kent. His mother was an early childhood education professor at Lesley University and his father worked in finance and real estate. Damon has one sibling–a younger brother named Kylie. His family relocated to the nearby town of Newton but when Damon was 2 years old his parents divorced and he and Kylie moved back to Cambridge with their mother. When Damon was 10 he met a kid who lived in the neighborhood named Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt.
Affleck is two years younger than his pal as he was born on Aug. 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California, to parents Chris and Tim. When he was 3, the family moved to Falmouth, Massachusetts, where his younger brother Casey was born and eventually settled in Cambridge. Like Damon, Affleck’s parents also separated and divorced when he was a child. After meeting Damon, who lived just a couple of blocks away when he was 8 years old, they became fast friends.
Damon and Affleck were roommates when they first got into the business
Affleck and Damon attended the same high school and took drama classes together. The duo later headed to Los Angeles to pursue their acting careers and appeared in some movies and TV shows before becoming the huge stars they are today.
“We rented this house on the beach in Venice and 800 people came and stayed with us and got drunk,” Affleck previously recalled to Forbes. “Then we ran out of money and had to get an apartment. It was, like, everything was exciting. So we lived in Glendale and Eagle Rock and we lived in Hollywood, West Hollywood, Venice, by the Hollywood Bowl, all over the place. We’d get thrown out of some places or we’d have to upgrade or downgrade depending on who had money.”
“We were both in love with the same thing — acting and filmmaking,” Damon told Entertainment Tonight in 2016. “I think we fed on each other’s obsession during really formative, important years and that bonded us for life.”
Affleck and Damon became household names after the 1997 release of Good Will Hunting when they won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Who has a higher net worth today?
Pre-Good Will Hunting Affleck had some minor and supporting roles in a number of movies including Daddy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, School Ties, and Dazed and Confused. Post his Oscar win Affleck landed main and lead roles in the blockbusters Gone Girl, Armageddon, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to name a few. He has worked behind the camera as well producing and directing several films including The Town, which he also starred in, and Argo which earned him another Academy Award. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Affleck is worth $150 million.
But is he worth more than Damon?
The Talented Mr. Ripley star has his buddy beat in terms of net worth. Since winning the Oscar for Good Will Hunting, Damon has shown his versatility as an actor. He was in all three of the Ocean’s film series and played the title character Jason Bourne in the Bourne thrillers. Damon has starred in a number of other critically-acclaimed movies as well including The Departed, Invictus, The Martian, and True Grit. In addition to his acting projects, he co-founded a production with Affleck. Today, Celebrity Net Worth estimates that Damon is worth $170 million.
