Birthdays to share this week : 5th - 11th October.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Matt Damon does, on 8th October  - check out the tribute to this Birthday Boy at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer or Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 5th October

• Kate Winslet - Born 1975, turns 39 - Actress
• Karen Allen - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actress
• Guy Pearce - Born 1967, turns 47 - Actor
• Jesse Eisenberg - Born 1983, turns 31 - Actor

Monday 6th October

• Ioan Gruffudd - Born 1973, turns 41 - Actor
• Elisabeth Shue - Born 1963, turns 51 - Actress
• Britt Ekland - Born 1942, turns 72 - Actress

Tuesday 7th October

• Shawn Ashmore - Born 1979, turns 35 - Actor | Producer
• Aaron Ashmore - Born 1979, turns 35 - Actor | Producer

Wednesday 8th October

• Matt Damon - Born 1970, turns 44 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Sigourney Weaver - Born 1949, turns 65 - Actress
• Chevy Chase - Born 1943, turns 71 - Actor | Writer
• Paul Hogan - Born 1939, turns 75 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Edward Zwick - Born 1952, turns 62 - Director | Producer | Writer

Thursday 9th October

• Guillermo del Toro - Born 1964, turns 50 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Chris O'Dowd - Born 1979, turns 35 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Steve McQueen - Born 1969, turns 45 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Scott Bakula - Born 1954, turns 60 - Actor | Producer
• Tony Shaloub - Born 1953, turns 61 - Actor | Producer
• Brian Blessed - Born 1936, turns 78 - Actor
• Pete Docter - Born 1968, turns 46 - Director | Producer | Actor

Friday 10th October

• Charles Dance - Born 1946, turns 68 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Martin Kemp - Born 1961, turns 53 - Actor | Producer | Director

Saturday 11th October

• Sean Patrick Flanery - Born 1965, turns 49 - Actor
• Joan Cusack - Born 1962, turns 52 - Actress
• David Morse - Born 1953, turns 61 - Actor | Producer
• John Nettles - Born 1943, turns 71 - Actor
• Dawn French - Born 1957, turns 57 - Actress | Writer | Producer

Matthew Paige Damon was born in Boston, Massachusetts to father Kent Damon and mother Nancy Carisson-Paige. He has an older brother, Kyle, an accomplished sculptor and artist. His parents divorced when he was two years of age and in his early years lived with his mother in a six family communal house in Cambridge. He attended Cambridge Alternative School and then Cambridge Rindge and Latin School where he starred in several school theatre productions, but was usually outshone by good friend and fellow schoolmate, Ben Affleck.

From 1988 to 1992 he attended Harvard University where he also starred in several theatre productions. He chose to leave however, just 12 credits shy of attaining his Bachelor of Arts Degree in English to star in 1992's 'Geronimo : An American Legend' expecting to hit the big time! His feature film debut though came in 1988 with a single line of dialogue in 'Mystic Pizza', and whilst still studying at Harvard he starred also in 'School Ties'. 1996 bought him a role alongside Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan in 'Courage Under Fire' for which he lost 40lbs (18kgs) in just 100 days for the character of a drug addled soldier - his body took 18 months to recover from the physical stress he inflicted upon himself in such a short space of time!

After some critical acclaim with 'Courage Under Fire' came 'Good Will Hunting' - a screenplay he had written with good friend Ben Affleck, and which was originally penned for an English class whilst at Harvard. The film, starring Robin Williams, garnered nine Academy Award nominations and netted the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Damon and Affleck - putting the two on the map well & truly.

As the 90's drew to a close he starred in notable films with top Actors and Directors including Steven Spielberg on 'Saving Private Ryan' with Tom Hanks; 'Rounders' with Edward Norton and John Malkovich; 'Dogma' with Ben Affleck; and 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.

As 2000 clicked over Damon made some very astute career choices with starring roles in two major film franchises - Steven Soderbergh's 2001 'Oceans Eleven' which spawned two successful sequels with co-stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia et al, and then 2002's 'Bourne Identity' and its two hugely successful sequels 'The Bourne Supremacy' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum'.

He went on to work with Soderbergh again on 'The Informant' and 'Behind the Candleabra' starring Michael Douglas as Liberace. He starred too in Martin Scorsese's 'The Departed' with Jack Nicholson; with Clint Eastwood Directing him in 'Invictus' with Morgan Freeman and again in 'Hereafter'; with the Coen brothers in the remake of the John Wayne classic 'True Grit'; and with Gus Van Sant who Directed him in 'Good Will Hunting' on 'Promised Land'.

Outside of acting in front of the camera, he has his own Production Company - 'Pearl Street Films' set up in 2010 with Ben Affleck, and he established 'Project Greenlight' to find and fund film projects from novice moviemakers. 'Project Greenlight' was nominated in 2002, 2004 and 2005 for Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality Programme.






Damon is a devout Humantarian with a long list of charitable, humanitarian and worthwhile causes linked to his name. These include the 'H2O Africa Foundation' which he founded to bring fresh drinkable water to remote and dry Africa; his is a co-founder of 'Not On Our Watch Project' focusing attention to halt mass atrocities such as Darfur. He supports the 'ONE Campaign' fighting AIDS and third world poverty; is an Ambassador for the 'OneXOne Foundation' in support of improving the lives of disadvantaged children; is a spokesperson for 'Feeding America' and sits on the Board of 'Tonic Mailstopper' - a campaign to halt the junk mail delivered to American homes every day and the resultant costs of our trees and environment.

He has 68 film credits to his name including those not already mentioned 'Chasing Amy', 'The Rainmaker', 'The Legend of Bagger Vance', 'Finding Forrester', 'Stuck On You', 'The Brothers Grimm', 'Syriana', 'The Good Shepherd', 'The Adjustment Bureau', 'We Bought a Zoo', 'Elysium' and earlier this year 'The Zero Theorem' and 'The Monuments Men'. Next up he has an uncredited role in Chris Nolan's highly anticipated 'Interstellar', 'The Martian' due for release in 2015, and Bourne 5 (muted as 'The Bourne Betrayal') with Jeremy Renner sharing screen time in mid-2016 recently announced. He was paid US$600K for his screenplay for 'Good Will Hunting' which took US$226M at the global Box Office; he earned US$600K for 1998's 'Rounders' and US$20M for 2007's 'The Bourne Ultimatum'.

He has 34 award wins and 82 other nominations including the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Ben Affleck for 'Good Will Hunting', and was nominated for Best Lead Actor for that same film. He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 'Invictus'. He won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for 'Good Will Hunting' and collected five other nominations; and received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 'Behind the Candelabra'. He has starred in four films nominated for Best Motion Picture at the Academy Awards - 'Good Will Hunting', 'Saving Private Ryan', 'The Departed' and 'True Grit'.

He dated Minnie Driver and Winona Ryder in the past and married Luciana Barroso in 2005 with whom he has three daughters - Isabella Zavala, Gia Zavala and Stella Zavala born in 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively.

Matt Damon - diverse and far ranging acting talent; in demand for the critical and box office returns generated; humanitarian and supporter of good causes; influential, and mates with the Hollywood 'A'-list, and placed in the Top 40 movies actors of all time - Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-