matthew mcconaughey

Biography

Early life

McConaughey, the youngest of three boys, was born in Uvalde, Texas on November 4th, 1969; he is of "Scotch-Irish" ancestry (the surname McConaughey means "son of Duncan" in Gaelic).^[1] McConaughey had what he describes as a conservative Christian upbringing.^[2] His late father, James Donald McConaughey, ran a Texaco gas station, worked as a truck driver, and was a former professional football player (for the Green Bay Packers, drafted in 1953). His mother, Mary Kathlene "Kay" McCabe, was a substitute schoolteacher. His parents divorced and re-married each other several times, in what McConaughey describes as a "loving, but unstable relationship".^[3]

McConaughey moved to Longview, Texas in 1980 and, after graduating from Longview High School in 1988, where he was voted the most handsome, Matthew lived briefly in Australia. He had relative academic success in high school, and went to college. He studied film direction at the University of Texas at Austin and was a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, graduating in 1993.

Career

McConaughey got his start working in television commercials and was cast in his first role in the film Dazed and Confused (1993), after meeting casting director Don Phillips at a bar near the University of Texas at Austin. After appearing in some additional small parts in Angels in the Outfield, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Boys on the Side, and the television series Unsolved Mysteries, 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 1997, McConaughey won an MTV Movie Award for best breakthrough performance for the role. He has also twice been nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award.

McConaughey gained renown and was cast in leading roles in many more movies: Contact, Amistad, The Newton Boys, Edtv, and U-571. 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 time period, he appeared in the low-budget film, Tiptoes, as a firefighter opposite Kate Beckinsale, Two For The Money as a protege to Al Pacino's gambling mogul, and in Frailty, cast against type as a serial killer, opposite Bill Paxton.

McConaughey starred in the feature film, Sahara (budgeted at $130 million), 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. In 2005, People magazine named him their "Sexiest Man Alive". In 2006, he co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic comedy, Failure to Launch, which was a success at the box office.

Personal life

On October 25, 1999, McConaughey was arrested at his home in Austin, Texas; the charges included possession of marijuana and resisting arrest. The police were responding at 2:37 a.m. to a disturbance call after a neighbor complained of loud music from the house next-door. They arrived to "easily hear very loud music," bongo drum playing and clapping coming from McConaughey's residence. According to official police reports, McConaughey was found dancing around naked and playing bongo drums with a friend, actor Cole Hauser, a co-actor in Dazed and Confused (1993). The drug charges were dropped, but McConaughey pled guilty for violating the city's noise ordinance and paid a USD $50 fine.

McConaughey seems to have a knack for getting himself involved in unusual situations with animals. In 2006 in Sherman Oaks, California, he reportedly snatched a cat away from two youths who had doused the animal in hairspray and were attempting to light it on fire [1]. Earlier, in 2005, the actor is alleged to have frightened away a coyote that was threatening a mother and her child in a Los Angeles park [2]. An Oprah Winfrey episode from that same year also showed McConaughey participating in a rescue of various pets, including cats, dogs and hamsters, that were stranded after the flooding of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina [3].

An avid University of Texas at Austin football fan, McConaughey is often seen at Longhorn games. In addition to his home in Austin, he also owns a 1,600 acre ranch in Texas. He has dated actress Sandra Bullock, as well as Penelope Cruz. The two had been together since 2004, soon after Cruz broke up with Tom Cruise in January 2004. The couple split in April of 2006. McConaughey is currently enjoying single life with his friends and has been seen with a number of different women at clubs around the United States. He doesn't currently have a specific love interest of note. The very fit McConaughey has spent much of the summer of 2006 enjoying some healthy hobbies such as running, surfing, swimming and biking as documented frequently by the paparazzi.

In July 2006, McConaughey's latest foibles in real life were documented via "McConaughey's Lost Weekend.", a blog with photographs of a "three-day bender in Costa Rica."

Selected filmography

References

Footnotes

Interviews

• Cosmopolitan interview (November, 2005)
• About.com interview (October, 2005)
• CrazedFanBoy.com interview (March, 2005)
• MovieHole interview (February 6, 2003)
• Well Rounded Entertainment interview (February 1998)

Web sites

• Matthew McConaughey at the Internet Movie Database
• The Matthew McConaughey Web Site
• Matthew McConaughey - just keep livin
• McConaugheyFan.com
• Matthew McConaughey fan site
• A Matthew McConaughey Ressource!