Matt Damon’s career through the years

Here’s a look at where Boston-bred actor Matt Damon’s career began and what brought him to where he is today — from “Good Will Hunting’’ to the “Bourne’’ series to his latest roles.

Pictured: A bald, buff Damon in Neill Blomkamp’s “Elysium.’’

Before he was the Oscar-winning superstar we’ve come to know and love, Matthew Paige Damon was just a regular teenager. In 1987, he played Humpty Dumpty in a school production of “Bravo Cappuccio.’’

Damon was born in Cambridge and attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. He went on to attend Harvard University but never finished, as he left to pursue acting.

Here, he is kissed by his mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, as he’s honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 25, 2007.

In 1997’s “Good Will Hunting,’’ the film that put Damon on the map, he played a regular guy from Boston with incredible talent. Sound familiar? Robin Williams starred in the film as his psychiatrist and mentor, a role that earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Damon and actor Ben Affleck co-wrote “Good Will Hunting,’’ which won them the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1998. In total, it was nominated for seven Academy Awards and three Golden Globes.

Damon and Affleck played renegade angels in Kevin Smith’s cult-classic “Dogma’’ in 1999.

Damon, who is often praised for the wide diversity of roles he chooses, played a bisexual murderer alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law in “The Talented Mr. Ripley’’ in 1999.

Damon lent his voice to the character Cale in the 2000 animated film “Titan A.E.’’

In 2002’s spy thriller “The Bourne Identity,’’ Damon plays Jason Bourne, an amnesiac trying to figure out his true identity while in Paris. As he realizes he’s being hunted and goes on the run, he finds himself in the middle of two assassination plots constructed by the CIA. The film launched two sequels.

Damon and costar Greg Kinnear play conjoined twins in the 2003 Farrelly brothers comedy “Stuck on You,’’ the majority of which was set on Martha’s Vineyard.

Damon starred again as Jason Bourne in the espionage thriller “The Bourne Supremacy,’’ the second in the “Bourne’’ series, in 2004.

Damon (pictured with Brad Pitt) starred in all three “Ocean’s’’ films, including “Ocean’s Twelve’’ in 2004, which is about a group of high-class thieves and their friends.

Damon starred with George Clooney in the 2005 political thriller “Syriana.’’ Clooney is a frequent costar and friend who also shares Damon’s passion for humanitarian work.

Damon married Argentine-born Luciana Bozan in 2005 in a civil ceremony in New York. The pair met in 2003 when Damon was in Miami filming “Stuck On You.’’ They welcomed their first child, Isabella, on June 11, 2006.

Damon and costar Heath Ledger battled monsters in the 2005 film “The Brothers Grimm.’’

Damon (left with John Turturro) starred in “The Good Shepherd’’ in 2006, a dramatization about the roots of the CIA.

Close friends and frequent creative partners, Affleck and Damon became childhood friends when Affleck’s family moved to Cambridge just two blocks away from Damon’s house. These days, the pair do more than attend Red Sox games and vacation with their wives in Hawaii (Affleck is married to Hollywood actress Jennifer Garner). They founded the production company LivePlanet and frequently work together.

Damon returned to Boston in 2006 to star in the Academy Award-winning film “The Departed.’’ He played Colin Sullivan, a mob member who has been planted as an informant within the Massachusetts State Police. Another Boston boy, Mark Wahlberg (left), played Sergeant Dignam.

Damon has an intense interest in AIDS relief for Africa and has appeared in print and television ads for the ONE campaign.

In 2006 he took a trip to Chongwe, Zambia, to increase awareness of the region. Here, he is speaking with a cotton farmer in a field.

In the third installment of the “Bourne’’ series, “The Bourne Ultimatum’’ (2007), Damon’s character Jason Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was and who created him.

Damon attended the premiere of “The Bourne Ultimatum’’ with costar Julia Stiles in Hollywood on July 25, 2007.

Damon’s signature along with his hand and foot prints are shown in cement during a ceremony as part of the “Ocean’s 13’’ movie promotion. The movie was released in 2007.

From left: Damon, Brad Pitt, producer Jerry Weintraub, and George Clooney, show their cement-covered hands.

Damon was interviewed by the iconic James Lipton on “Inside the Actors Studio’’ in January 2007.

What sound or noise does he hate? Screeching tires. What sound or noise does he love? His daughter Isabella’s laughter.

Damon was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by Honorary Mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant, left, in Los Angeles on July 25, 2007. That same year, he was also named People magazine’s “Sexiest Man of the Year.’’

Cut to 2009 and Damon landed back on the big screen as a wacky whistleblower in Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!’’

“The movie’s fun to watch, but you can tell it was a lot more fun to make, and that’s a problem. The party stays up on the screen; down here, it’s been over for a year,’’ writes Globe critic Ty Burr. “That the movie works as well as it does is due to Matt Damon, who plays the real-life corporate whistle-blower Mark Whitacre with comic verve and a really bad head of hair.’’ (Read the full review.)

In Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus,’’ Matt Damon portrays a rugby team captain in post-apartheid South Africa.

Read the Globe’s review: On the same team (Dec. 11, 2009)

“’Invictus’ – named for the poem upon which Mandela relied for inner strength during 27 years of imprisonment – is not among Eastwood’s greatest works, but it’s a strong, satisfying entry in a rarely seen genre: The Civic Statuary movie. Based on John Carlin’s 2008 book ‘Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation,’ it presents the inspirational saga of the 1995 Rugby World Cup – the moment, arguably, when the two sides of post-apartheid South Africa came together as one – as a high-stakes national drama spurred by an unlikely alliance of men.’’ — Ty Burr, Globe Staff

Read the full review (Dec. 11, 2009)

2010 brought Paul Greengrass’s “Green Zone,’’ where Damon stars as chief warrant officer Roy Miller. In the film, Miller races around Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction.

“’Green Zone’ is somewhere between a blockbuster and a tract — a traction movie. It whizzes and bangs and sizzles as it chases the truth like a dog off its leash.’’ — Wesley Morris, Globe Staff.

Read the full review.

In Clint Eastwood’s multi-character melodrama “Hereafter,’’ Damon portrayed a reluctant psychic with a gift for communicating with the dead.

Matt Damon at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 12, 2010.

Damon starred with Emily Blunt in the romantic thriller “The Adjustment Bureau’’ in 2011.

In 2011, Damon played Benjamin Mee, a father who relocates his family to help restore a once-neglected zoo, in “We Bought a Zoo.’’

Damon starred opposite John Krasinski in the 2012 film “Promised Land.’’

Matt Damon stopped by Cambridge on April 25 to receive the 2013 Harvard Arts Medal for excellent work in the film world. Though Damon never graduated from Harvard, he did attend the university from 1988-1992.

Both Michael Douglas and Damon were nominated for the 2013 Emmy for lead actor in a miniseries or movie for HBO’s Liberace biopic “Behind the Candelabra.’’