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Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey is an American actor.
He first gained notice for his breakout role in the coming of age comedy Dazed and Confused
, and went on to appear in films such as the slasher Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next
Generation , the legal thriller A Time to Kill , Steven Spielberg's historical drama
Amistad , the science fiction drama Contact , the comedy EDtv and the war film U-571 .
In the 2000s, he became best known for starring in romantic comedies, including The Wedding
Planner (2001), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Failure to Launch (2006) and Ghosts
of Girlfriends Past (2009). Since 2010 he has moved away from romantic comedies and
has had critically acclaimed roles in the films The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Bernie (2011),
Killer Joe (2011), Mud (2012), Magic Mike (2012) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
He achieved further success in 2013 for portraying a cowboy diagnosed with AIDS in the biographical
film Dallas Buyers Club, which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Drama
and an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, among other awards and nominations. He is
currently a co-star in the 2014 HBO crime drama True Detective, along with *** Harrelson.
Early life McConaughey, the youngest of three boys, was
born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen "Kay" (née McCabe), was a kindergarten teacher,
and later a published author, and his father, James Donald McConaughey, was a gas-station
owner who ran an oil pipe supply business and once played NFL football for the Green
Bay Packers. McConaughey's mother and late father divorced and re-married each other
several times. His ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, Swedish, and German. He is
a relative of brigadier general Dandridge McRae. McConaughey had a Methodist upbringing.
McConaughey moved to Longview, Texas, where he attended Longview High School. While in
high school, he was voted most handsome in the Longview Lobo Yearbook. He lived for a
year in Warnervale, New South Wales, Australia, as a Rotary exchange student in 1988. McConaughey
attended the University of Texas at Austin College of Communication at the University
of Texas at Austin, where he joined Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity and lived
at The Castilian residence hall. He began in fall of 1989 and graduated in the spring
of 1993 with a B.S. degree in Radio-Television-Film. Career
1991–2000 McConaughey began his acting career in 1991,
appearing in television commercials, before being cast in Richard Linklater's film Dazed
and Confused, which became a critical success, garnering largely positive reviews. After
some smaller roles in Angels in the Outfield, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation,
Boys on the Side, the television series Unsolved Mysteries, and as the male lead in the Trisha
Yearwood music video for the song Walkaway Joe, McConaughey's big break came as the lawyer
"Jake Brigance" in the 1996 film A Time to Kill, based on the John Grisham novel of the
same name. In the late '90s McConaughey was cast in leading roles in more movies, including
Contact, Amistad, The Newton Boys, EDtv, and U-571.
2000–2012 By the early 2000s, he was frequently cast
in romantic comedies, including The Wedding Planner and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,
both of which were successful at the box office. During this period, he appeared as a firefighter
in the low-budget film Tiptoes, with Rene Russo, in Two For The Money as a protégé
to Al Pacino's gambling mogul, and in Frailty, cast against type as a serial killer, with
Bill Paxton, who also directed. McConaughey starred in the feature film Sahara,
along with Steve Zahn and Penélope Cruz. Prior to the release of the movie, he promoted
it by repeating some trips he took in the late 1990s, including sailing down the Amazon
River and trekking to Mali. That same year, McConaughey was named People magazine's “Sexiest
Man Alive” for 2005. In 2006, he co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic
comedy Failure to Launch and as Marshall head football coach Jack Lengyal in "We Are Marshall".
McConaughey also provided voice work in an ad campaign for the Peace Corps in late 2006.
He replaced Owen Wilson in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder after Wilson's suicide attempt. On
January 21, 2008, McConaughey became the new spokesman for the national radio campaign,
"Beef: It's What's For Dinner", replacing actor Sam Elliot. In June 2010 it was announced
that McConaughey is teaming up with Marc Hyman to develop a scripted comedy for TV channel
FX based on material from J. R. Reed. In 2012, McConaughey starred alongside Channing
Tatum in Magic Mike, based on Tatum's early life, which was directed by Steven Soderbergh.
He returned to his East Texas roots, by working again with director Richard Linklater on Bernie,
the story of a small-town funeral director, played by Jack Black, who kills the town's
grande dame, played by Shirley MacLaine. McConaughey played real-life district attorney Danny Buck
Davidson, who had prosecuted the real Bernie Tiede in 1998. McConaughey's mother, KayMac,
played one of the town gossips in the film. The film premiered at the 2011 Los Angeles
Film Festival and hit theaters in April 2012. In June 2012, McConaughey was invited to join
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2013–present
In 2013 he played Ron Woodroof in the movie Dallas Buyers Club. The film gathered wide
critical acclaim and has earned McConaughey many acting awards, including the Golden Globe
Award for Best Actor – Drama and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. The role
in the film required him to lose 38 pounds. During this time, he recorded a public service
announcement in Austin, Texas for the LBJ Presidential Library.
He shares star billing with *** Harrelson in HBO's 2014 series True Detective. In early
2013, McConaughey was confirmed as the lead in Christopher Nolan's upcoming time travel
science fiction film Interstellar, which is set for release in November 2014.
Personal life McConaughey met Brazilian model and television
performer Camila Alves in 2006. The couple became engaged on December 25, 2011 and were
married on June 9, 2012 in Austin, Texas, where they reside. Together they have three
children: son Levi Alves McConaughey (born 2008), daughter Vida Alves McConaughey (born
2010), and son Livingston Alves McConaughey (born 2012).
McConaughey started the just keep livin foundation, which is "dedicated to helping teenage kids
lead active lives and make healthy choices to become great men and women". He also rescued
various pets stranded after the flooding of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. In 2006,
he rescued a cat from two youths in Sherman Oaks, California; the youths had doused the
cat in hairspray and were attempting to set it on fire.
Filmography Television