Matthew McConaughey Biography

Matthew McConaughey is known for his good looks, Texas roots, and string of romantic comedy lead roles. It may seem like he had a meteoric rise to the top, but he had a drug arrest and paid his dues with a few small parts in movies before hitting it big.McConaughey was born as the youngest of three sons to James Donald McConaughey, a gas station owner, truck driver, and also one-time Green Bay Packer football player. His mother was Mary Kathlene Kay McCabe, a substitute teacher. Being raised in Uvalde, Texas, and later moving to Longview, Texas, McConaughey spent a year living abroad in Australia after graduating from the high school that voted him most handsome.Returning from Australia, McConaughey enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin and studied film direction. Here he was discovered by writer/director Richard Linklater, the founder of the Austin Film Society. Linklater cast McConaughey in his movie about the last days of school in 1976. He starred in Dazed and Confused, along with other up-and-comers, such as Ben Affleck and Cole Hauser. It was Cole Hauser he was partying with in 1999 when police answered a disturbance call and found McConaughey dancing naked and playing the bongo drums. Although originally charged with possession of marijuana and resisting arrest, he pled guilty to a noise ordinance violation and paid a fifty dollar fine.McConaughey followed Dazed and Confused with a small role in Angels in the Outfield with Chistropher Lloyd, Tony Danza, and Danny Glover. Receiving his first starring role in The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, McConaughey starred next to Ren e Zellweger. After less than rave reviews for this part, he landed a supporting role as a police officer in the chick flick, Boys on the Side, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, and Mary-Louise Parker. Next up for him was his first starring role in a major movie, that of a young lawyer in John Grisham's A Time To Kill, alongside Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kevin Spacey.McConaughey continued his success with a starring role in Amistad with such notable actors as Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins. Continually getting more notice, he starred in the Ron Howard directed Edtv about a video clerk that agrees to be filmed twenty-four hours a day for a television show. This all star cast included Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Martin Laundau, Ellen DeGeneres, Rob Reiner, Dennis Hopper, and Elizabeth Hurley, yet it was McConaughey that had the starring role. With both feet firmly planted in Hollywood now, McConaughey starred in U-571, a war movie, with Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel and rocker Jon Bon Jovi.Things began to settle down somewhat for McConaughey, and he found his niche in the acting world, as a leading man in romantic comedies. His first stab at this was in The Wedding Planner, as the groom next to Jennifer Lopez's turn in the title role. He continued with the romantic lead role, starring in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with Kate Hudson, and went against type as a thirty-something guy still living at home in Failure to Launch with Sarah Jessica Parker. In his real life, McConaughey has been so busy working he has only been linked romantically to Sandra Bullock and Penelope Cruz, who he was engaged to briefly.

• AskMen.com - Matthew McConaughey