Matthew McConaughey had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused.
53 Facts About Matthew McConaughey
2.
Matthew McConaughey's career progressed with lead roles in the science fiction film Contact, the historical drama Amistad, and the war film U-571.
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In 2011, after a two-year hiatus from film acting, Matthew McConaughey began to appear in more dramatic roles, beginning with the legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer.
4.
Matthew McConaughey followed it with a supporting role in The Wolf of Wall Street, and a starring role as Rust Cohle in the first season of HBO's crime anthology series True Detective, for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
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Matthew McConaughey was born on November 4,1969, in Uvalde, Texas.
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Matthew McConaughey's mother, Mary Kathleen, is a published author and a former kindergarten teacher.
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Matthew McConaughey's father, James Donald "Jim" McConaughey, was born in Mississippi in 1929 and raised in Louisiana where he ran an oil pipe supply business; he played for the Kentucky Wildcats and the Houston Cougars college football teams.
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Matthew McConaughey was released before the season began and never played an official league game in the NFL.
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Matthew McConaughey is a relative of Confederate brigadier general Dandridge McRae.
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In 2022, actor Woody Harrelson stated that Matthew McConaughey's mother had an affair with Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, and that the two could be half-siblings.
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Matthew McConaughey's parents married each other three times, having divorced each other twice.
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Matthew McConaughey has two older brothers, Michael and Patrick.
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Matthew McConaughey moved to Longview, Texas, in 1980 and later attended Longview High School.
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Matthew McConaughey attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
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Matthew McConaughey began in the fall of 1989 and graduated in the spring of 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film.
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Matthew McConaughey had planned to attend law school after graduation from college but discovered he did not have any interest in becoming a lawyer.
17.
Matthew McConaughey played Wooderson in a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars.
18.
Matthew McConaughey was not originally cast in the film, as the role of Wooderson was originally small and meant to be cast locally for budget purposes.
19.
In 1994, Matthew McConaughey acted in Angels in the Outfield, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, and Daniel Johnston's music video "Life in Vain".
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Matthew McConaughey acted in Herbert Ross' Boys on the Side, which premiered on February 3,1995.
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Matthew McConaughey is in an ensemble cast that features Chris Cooper, Kris Kristofferson, and Elizabeth Pena.
22.
At the MTV Movie Awards, Matthew McConaughey won Best Breakthrough Performance.
23.
Larger Than Life is a road comedy film starring Bill Murray and directed by Howard Franklin; Matthew McConaughey played a supporting role.
24.
Matthew McConaughey starred in the science fiction film Contact, directed by Robert Zemeckis, an adaptation of Carl Sagan's 1985 novel of the same name; Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film.
25.
Also that year, Matthew McConaughey starred as then-lawyer Roger Sherman Baldwin in Steven Spielberg's Amistad.
26.
Matthew McConaughey appeared as a firefighter in a low-budget film, Tiptoes with Kate Beckinsale, in Two for the Money as a protege to a gambling mogul, Al Pacino, and in Frailty with Bill Paxton who was the director.
27.
Matthew McConaughey acted in the 2005 feature film Sahara; Steve Zahn and Penelope Cruz co-starred.
28.
That same year, Matthew McConaughey was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" for 2005.
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Matthew McConaughey provided voice work in an ad campaign for the Peace Corps in late 2006.
30.
Matthew McConaughey replaced Owen Wilson in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder after Wilson's suicide attempt.
31.
In 2008 Matthew McConaughey became the new spokesman for the national radio campaign, "Beef: It's What's for Dinner", replacing Sam Elliott.
32.
Matthew McConaughey recognized that his "lifestyle, living on the beach, running with my shirt off, doing romantic comedies" had caused him to be typecast for certain roles, and he sought dramatic work with other themes.
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In 2012, Matthew McConaughey starred alongside Channing Tatum in Magic Mike, based on Tatum's early life; it was directed by Steven Soderbergh.
34.
Matthew McConaughey returned to his East Texas roots, working again with director Richard Linklater on Bernie, playing district attorney Danny Buck Davidson.
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In June 2012, Matthew McConaughey was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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Matthew McConaughey's co-star Jared Leto won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making Dallas Buyers Club the first film since Mystic River to win both awards.
37.
Matthew McConaughey was featured in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street as Mark Hanna, an early boss of Jordan Belfort.
38.
The series of commercials starring Matthew McConaughey continued for several more years; during this period he endorsed the MKZ sedan, MKX and Nautilus crossovers and Aviator SUV.
39.
In 2014 Matthew McConaughey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; it is located on 6931 Hollywood Boulevard.
40.
Matthew McConaughey played Cooper, a widowed father and astronaut in Christopher Nolan's science fiction film Interstellar.
41.
In 2016, Matthew McConaughey was hired as creative director and celebrity spokesman for Wild Turkey's latest campaign, to bring in more women and more international customers.
42.
Matthew McConaughey starred as Walter Padick in the 2017 Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower, which received negative reactions from most critics.
43.
Matthew McConaughey next had the starring role in Harmony Korine's The Beach Bum, a comedy featuring Zac Efron and Jonah Hill.
44.
In late 2019 Matthew McConaughey appeared in the Guy Ritchie film The Gentlemen, playing fictional cannabis baron Mickey Pearson.
45.
Matthew McConaughey has stated that he has received private personal criticism and judgement for his beliefs from some members of Hollywood:.
46.
Matthew McConaughey has been a longtime fan of the Washington Commanders football team.
47.
Matthew McConaughey had voted in the 2018 Texas elections and the 2020 United States elections.
48.
In March 2021 Matthew McConaughey confirmed that he was considering running in the 2022 Texas gubernatorial election.
49.
Just over two weeks before the Texas primary candidate filing deadline, Matthew McConaughey released a video on his official Twitter profile stating that he would not be competing for the office.
50.
In June 2022, Matthew McConaughey joined the White House press briefing and advocated for "commonsense gun laws" during a 20-minute speech, in which he spoke about the Robb Elementary School shooting, which occurred in his hometown of Uvalde.
51.
Matthew 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".
52.
On February 25,2016, Matthew McConaughey received the Creative Conscience award from unite4:humanity for his work with his foundation.
53.
In 2019 Matthew McConaughey officially became a professor of practice for the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the Moody College of Communication at his alma mater, UT-Austin; he had served as a visiting instructor since 2015.