Episode Details

American actor and producer Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen (McCabe), is a substitute school teacher originally from New Jersey. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was a Mississippi-born gas station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business. He is of Irish, Scottish, German, English, and Swedish descent. Matthew grew up in Longview, Texas, where he graduated from the local High School (1988). Showing little interest in his father's oil business, which his two brothers later joined, Matthew was longing for a change of scenery, and spent a year in Australia, washing dishes and shoveling chicken manure. Back to the States, he attended the University of Texas in Austin, originally wishing to be a lawyer. But, when he discovered an inspirational Og Mandino book "The Greatest Salesman in the World" before one of his final exams, he suddenly knew he had to change his major from law to film.

He began his acting career in 1991, appearing in student films and commercials in Texas and directed short films as https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145709/?ref_=nmbio_mbio. Once, in his hotel bar in Austin, he met the casting director and producer https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0680364/?ref_=nmbio_mbio, who introduced him to director https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000500/?ref_=nmbio_mbio for his next project. At first, Linklater thought Matthew was too handsome to play the role of a guy chasing high school girls in his coming-of-age drama https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106677/?ref_=nmbio_mbio, but cast him after Matthew grew out his hair and mustache. His character was initially in three scenes but the role grew to more than 300 lines as Linklater encouraged him to do some improvisations. In 1995, he starred in https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110978/?ref_=nmbio_mbio, playing a mad bloodthirsty sadistic killer, opposite https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000250/?ref_=nmbio_mbio.

Shortly thereafter, moving to L.A., Matthew became a sensation with his performances in two high-profile 1996 films https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116905/?ref_=nmbio_mbio, where he portrayed killing suspected sheriff and in the film adaptation of https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001300/?ref_=nmbio_mbio's novel https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117913/?ref_=nmbio_mbio, where he played an idealistic young lawyer opposite https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000113/?ref_=nmbio_mbio and https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000228/?ref_=nmbio_mbio. The actor was soon being hailed as one of the industry's hottest young leading man inspiring comparisons to actor https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000056/?ref_=nmbio_mbio. His following performances were https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000709/?ref_=nmbio_mbio' https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/?ref_=nmbio_mbio with

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