Ben Affleck at 43: What Does He Have to Show For It?

As Ben Affleck celebrates his 43th birthday we look back at his career successes and failures.

Not only does Ben Affleck star in movies, his career reads like one. A young unknown becomes a star and reaches astounding heights of success, only to have it all collapse. "Affleck's wounds were self-inflicted - bad career choices coupled with even worse personal ones," Caryn James wrote in Newsweek in January 2011. But just when it seems like you can count him out, he stages a triumphant comeback and appears stronger than ever. Cue the inspirational music.

With Affleck celebrating his 40th birthday today, let's look back at the highs and lows of his career.

1997

Affleck's first starring role was in Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy as Holden McNeil, a New Jersey comic book writer who falls in love with a lesbian. Affleck first worked with Smith in Mallrats (1995) and has appeared in all of Smith's subsequent View Askewniverse films. Chasing Amy grossed $12 million.

The real break, however, came at the end of the year with the release of Good Will Hunting, the story of a troubled math prodigy working as a janitor at MIT. Affleck co-wrote the script - sold for $600,000 - with childhood friend and fellow struggling actor Matt Damon. Damon portrayed the title character, while Affleck took the key role as his best friend. Not only did their script earn Affleck and Damon the Best Original Screenplay Oscar (at 25 Affleck became the youngest person ever to win the honor), Good Will Hunting was a smash, grossing $138 million.

1998

Affleck followed Good Will Hunting with the box office failure Phantoms, but that disappointment was swept away by the success of Armageddon. The man who a year earlier had been a relatively obscure actor was now co-starring in a $140 million summer movie with screen legend Bruce Willis. Affleck plays a member of Willis' oil drilling crew. With an asteroid that could destroy all life on Earth hurtling towards the planet, Willis' crew is recruited to go into space and blow it up. Armageddon earned $201 million, making it the second-highest grossing movie of 1998.

As he had the previous year, Affleck enjoyed critical and commercial success that December with the release of Shakespeare in Love. The romantic comedy grossed $100 million and won the year's Best Picture Oscar.

1999 - 2002

Affleck seemingly made the most of the opportunity to finally be a working actor, appearing in 10 movies during this time period. Several of his movies were box office disappointments, including 200 Cigarettes, Forces of Nature, Reindeer Games and Bounce. Others were far more successful. Pearl Harbor, which reunited him with Armageddon director Michael Bay, earned $198 million and was the seventh-highest grossing movie of 2001. In April 2002 he co-starred with icon Samuel L. Jackson in Changing Lanes, which grossed $66 million on a $45 million budget. One month later he co-starred with another legend, Morgan Freeman, in The Sum of All Fears, which grossed $118 million, $50 million more than its budget.

2003

The year started off well. Affleck played the title role in Daredevil, which opened on Valentine's Day and earned $40 million in its opening weekend on its way to a $102 million total.

But then catastrophe struck in the form of Gigli. The only good thing to come out of this picture for Affleck was his romance with co-star Jennifer Lopez, a courtship that eventually led to a broken engagement. As for the movie: Gigli broke the record for largest second weekend decline in box office with an 81.9 percent drop (a record Undiscovered later broke). Gigli played in 2,215 American theatres during its first weekend in release; by its third weekend, it could be seen in only 73 (Meet Dave later broke the record for most theatres shed). It also became the first movie in Razzie Awards history to sweep the top five categories, "winning" Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor (Affleck), Worst Actress (Lopez) and Worst Screenplay. Affleck and Lopez also "won" the Worst Screen Couple Razzie.

2004

Affleck hoped to rebound by reuniting with Kevin Smith for the romantic comedy Jersey Girl, which featured Lopez in a small role. Miramax removed Lopez's image from all Jersey Girl promotional spots out of fear audiences would mistakenly think it was another Affleck-Lopez movie. Following Chasing Amy, Affleck's collaborations with Smith (Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) had been profitable, but history didn't repeat itself when they stepped outside the View Askewniverse. Jersey Girl grossed a disappointing $25 million on a $35 million budget.

While Gigli was a disaster, Affleck didn't truly hit rock bottom until the release of Surviving Christmas that October (yes, they released a Christmas movie before Halloween). The comedy grossed only $11 million and was released on DVD only nine weeks after it premiered in theatres. Talk about a lump of coal in your stocking.

2006

With a series of duds to his credit, Affleck disappeared from the big screen for 2 years (except for a cameo in Kevin Smith's Clerks II). His comeback began with the role of real-life actor George Reeves, who gained fame playing Superman on television before mysteriously dying in 1959. Affleck's performance earned him the Volpi Cup Award for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination.

2007

A new chapter of Affleck's career unfolded with the release of his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone. Affleck's younger brother, Casey, and Michelle Monaghan played Boston private detectives hired to investigate a girl's kidnapping. The movie was a huge critical success, receiving a 94 percent rating on rottentomatoes.com. Affleck won the award for Best New Filmmaker from the Boston Society of Film Critics, the award for Most Promising Filmmaker from the Chicago Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review's award for Best Directorial Debut . He also directed Amy Ryan to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

2010

There was no sophomore jinx for Affleck's second directorial effort, The Town. In his first starring role in 6 years, Affleck played Doug MacRay, the leader of a Boston gang of bank robbers who falls in love with a woman his crew had taken hostage. The movie earned Best Acting Ensemble awards from both the National Board of Review and the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association. Once again, Affleck directed a cast member to an Oscar nomination - this time Jeremy Renner in the Best Supporting Actor category. Made for $37 million, The Town grossed $98 million domestically.

2011

Affleck received the Chairman's Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Citing Affleck's ability to "do it all and constantly evolve as an artist," Festival Chairman Harold Matzner said, "If there is truly a renaissance man in today's cinema, it's Ben Affleck. He has distinguished himself as a premier writer and director, as well as an actor with a broad-ranging and impressive filmography."