Matthew McConaughey Biography

Matthew McConaughey is a Hollywood leading man whose bare-chested insouciance has played especially well in romantic comedies like The Wedding Planner (2001, with Jennifer Lopez) and Failure to Launch (2006, with Sarah Jessica Parker). Matthew McConaughey was a film student at the University of Texas in Austin when he hooked up with filmmaker Richard Linklater for a memorable big-screen debut as a stoner Romeo in the 1993 comedy Dazed and Confused. He reached heartthrob status after Boys on the Side (1995, with Drew Barrymore), and by the late 1990s he was starring in big budget movies such as A Time to Kill (with Sandra Bullock) and Contact (1997, with Jodie Foster). McConaughey became known more for his handsomeness than his onscreen intensity, and his propensity for appearing bare-chested in public became a running pop culture joke. His credits include Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997), Frailty (2001), Reign of Fire (2002, with Christian Bale), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003, with Kate Hudson), Sahara (2005, with Penelope Cruz), Fool's Gold (2008, again with Hudson) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009).