Attracting attention with his accent and acting: Who is Matthew McConaughey?
We wrote about the talented and philanthropic actor Matthew McConaughey, who is the sought after actor of the romantic comedy films of the 2000s, and his life for you.
His full name is Matthew David McConaughey, he was born on November 4, 1969 in Uvalde, Texas. He was born the youngest son of an author and former kindergarten teacher mother, Mary Kathleen McCabe, and a New Jersey father, James Donald "Jim" McConaughey. McConaughey's ancestry is of English, German, Irish, Scottish, and Swedish descent. McConaughey, of a conservative Christian upbringing, has had his parents separated many times, married three times and divorced twice. McConaughey has two adopted older brothers, Michael and Patrick.
Moving to Longview, Texas in 1980, McConaughey later went to Australia after graduating from Longview High School. He lived there for 1 year and worked many different jobs to earn a living. He attended the University of Texas at Austin with the thought of becoming a lawyer. Later, he changed his mind and decided to enter the cinema industry. Here, he became a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. In the spring of 1993, he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Radio-Television-Film on directing.
In the early 1990s, he began appearing in television commercials. In 1992, he appeared in the role of Trisha Yearwood's boyfriend "Walkaway Joe" for a music video he collaborated with with Don Henley. Also that year, he appeared in an episode of the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries".
He made his big screen debut as 'Guy 2' in the zombie movie "My Boyfriend's Back" (1993), directed by Bob Balaban. In the same year, McConaughey, who was expected to appear in a small role in the comedy film "Dazed and Confused" directed by Richard Linklater, quickly improved and took an important place in the film. The film was released in 183 theaters and grossed moderately in its opening weekend. In addition, it managed to earn $7.9 million in North America, and the film received generally positive reviews from critics. Special praise was also given to McConaughey's performance.
In 1994, McConaughey appeared in the family sports fantasy comedy-drama film "Angels in the Outfield," the slasher film "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" and the music video for Daniel Johnston's "Life in Vain."
The following year, McConaughey appeared in the comedy-drama film "Boys on the Side" directed by Herbert Ross. Also in 1995, he appeared in the detective thriller "Scorpion Spring" directed by Brian Cox. He then starred in the neo-western mystery film "Lone Star" (1996), directed by John Sayles and starring Chris Cooper, Kris Kristofferson, and Elizabeth Peña.
McConaughey played attorney Jake Brigance in the legal thriller courtroom detective film "A Time to Kill," based on Joel Schumacher's novel of the same name. Sandra Bullock co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey in the movie. The film received mixed reviews from critics and reached number one on the US chart in its first two weeks. It also earned over $108 million domestically and an additional $43.5 million internationally. McConaughey won Best Breakthrough Performance at the MTV Movie Awards for his performance. Additionally, he was nominated for 2 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.
That same year, he had a supporting role in the road comedy "Larger Than Life," directed by Howard Franklin and starring Bill Murray. He also appeared in the independent comedy "Glory Daze" that year. The following year, he starred in the sci-fi drama film "Contact" (1997), based on the novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis, as Jodie Foster, the film's protagonist. Also that year, McConaughey played attorney Roger Sherman Baldwin in Steven Spielberg's historical drama "Amistad."
He shared one of the leading roles in the western crime film "The Newton Boys" (1998), co-written and directed by Richard Linklater. The movie was based on the true story of the Newton Gang, a family of bank robbers from Uvalde, Texas. The following year, McConaughey starred in the adaptation satirical comedy "EDtv" directed by Ron Howard. In 2000, he starred in "U-571", a submarine film directed by Jonathan Mostow.
In the early 2000s, he co-starred with Lennifer Lopez in the romantic comedy "The Wedding Planner" and with Kate Hudson in the romantic comedy "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". Both romantic comedies did well at the box office. Along with Kate Beckinsale in the low-budget comedy-drama film "Tiptoes"(2003) directed by Matthew Bright, the sports-drama film "Two for the Money"(2005), directed by DJ Caruso, is the protector of gambling tycoon Al Pacino. and as a firefighter with Bill Paxton in the psychological thriller "Frailty"(2001) directed by Bill Paxton.
His most interesting role came with the dragon slayer and warrior Denton Van Zan in the movie "Reign of Fire" (2002). Later, McConaughey co-starred with Steve Zahn and Penelope Cruz in the action-adventure film "Sahara" (2005), directed by Breck Eisner. In the same year, he was selected as the "Sexiest Man Alive" for 2005 in the list made by People magazine.
The following year, he co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in Tom Dey's romantic comedy "Failure to Launch" (2006) and as head football coach Jack Lengyel in McG's "We Are Marshall" (2006). He also became involved in late 2006 by doing voice work on an advertising campaign for the Peace Corps.
In 2008, he appeared in "Tropic Thunder," a satirical action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller, after Wilson's suicide attempt. Also that year, he was selected as the new spokesperson for the national radio campaign "Beef: It's What's for Dinner." McConaughey realized that this caused him to be typical for certain roles and sought jobs for productions on other themes. This change in role selection became known as "McConaissance" from 2011 to 2014.
He played district attorney Danny Buck Davidson in the biographical black comedy crime film "Bernie"(2011), directed by director Richard Linklater. In 2012, McConaughey co-starred in the comedy drama film "Magic Mike" directed by Steven Soderbergh and alongside Channing Tatum. Later that year, McConaughey was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In 2013, he played Ron Woodroof in the biographical drama film "Dallas Buyers Club" directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. It took him to lose about 22kg to play the role of a rodeo rider in the movie who discovers he has AIDS and is struggling to get treatment. The film earned him numerous acting awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Leading Actor, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor-Drama, and an Academy Award for Best Actor. His co-star, Jared Leto, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making the film the first film since Mystic River to win both awards. In 2013, he appeared as Mark Hanna in the epic biographical black comedy crime film "The Wolf of Wall Street" directed by Martin Scorsese.
In 2014, Time magazine's April issue included him as one of the "Most Influential People in the World" on its annual Time 100 list. Also later that year, he signed a multi-year collaboration with Lincoln Motor Company for an advertising campaign. In commercials directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, McConaughey appeared as a storyteller driving Lincoln's MKC crossover. Many parodies were made of the ads shortly after they were released, and their overall sales were up 25 percent a month after the ads went live.
In 2014, McConaughey earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. Also that same year, he co-starred with Woody Harrelson in the HBO anthology crime drama TV series "True Detective." He earned the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series for his role. He also received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Actor-Mini-Series or Television Movie.
McConaughey also starred as Cooper, a widowed father and astronaut, in "Interstellar" (2014), an epic sci-fi movie written, directed, and produced by Christopher Nolan.
In 2015, he appeared with Ken Watanabe in the drama mystery film "The Sea of Trees" directed by Gus Van Sant. McConaughey then starred in the historical war movie "Free State of Jones"(2016) and the crime drama movie "Gold"(2016). He also voiced the lead characters in the stop-motion animated action fantasy movie "Kubo and the Two Strings" (2016) and the computer-animated musical comedy movie "Sing." That same year, McConaughey was hired as the creative director and celebrity spokesperson for the Wild Turkey brand's latest campaign to attract more women and more international clients.
McConaughey played Walter Padick in the science fiction western action movie "The Dark Tower" (2017), based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. The film received negative reviews from most critics. The following year, he was cast in the real-life crime drama gangster movie "White Boy Rick." The movie received mixed reviews. In 2019, he starred in the mystery erotic thriller "Serenity," which also starred Diane Lane and Anne Hathaway. The film received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences upon its release. Later, he played the lead role in the comedy movie "The Beach Bum" (2019), starring Zac Efron and Jonah Hill, and directed by Harmony Korine. Later that year, McConaughey co-starred in the Guy Ritchie-directed action comedy "The Gentlemen" as fictional marijuana baron Mickey Pearson.
McConaughey has published a 2020 memoir called 'Greenlights'. On February 6, 2023, it was reported that he will voice an animated version of Elvis Presley in the Netflix animated series "Agent Elvis," set to hit theaters in 2023.
Private life
McConaughey, who was in a relationship with Spanish-born actress Penelope Cruz, ended their 2.5 year relationship in 2006. McConaughey, who met supermodel Camila Alves in 2006, got engaged on December 25, 2011. The couple married on June 9, 2012 in a private Catholic ceremony in Austin. McConaughey lives in Austin with his wife and three children.
A Christian, McConaughey often speaks openly about his faith. In 2019, he became a minority owner of Austin FC, a professional soccer club that started playing in Major League Soccer and in 2021, and is a fan of the Washington Commanders soccer team. McConaughey has the "JK Livin Foundation", set up to help young people. The foundation's name stands for "Keep Living," and in February 2016, he won the Creative Conscience award at the 'united4:humanity' gala for his work with the foundation.
McConaughey, who has been a visiting professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at UT-Austin Moody College of Communication, from which he graduated in 2015, officially became a professor of practice in 2019. The actor also became famous for getting himself into awkward animal-related situations. He is an animal lover and takes care of animals such as cats, dogs and hamsters. In addition, McConaughey is engaged in many sports such as running, surfing, swimming and cycling.