Actor Matthew McConaughey turns the big 40!

November 4, 11:54 PMActing ExaminerDeborah Smith Ford

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  Matthew McConaughey & Camila Alves                             (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Matthew David McConaughey turned the big 40 on November 4, 2009.  Matthew McConaughey is an actor who, after a series of minor roles in the early 1990s, appeared in films such as A Time to Kill, Contact, U-571, Sahara, and We Are Marshall. 

McConaughey also played the leading man in several romantic comedies, including The Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Failure to Launch, Fool's Gold and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

Matthew McConaughey began his acting career in 1991.  He appeared in television commercials while attending the College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin.  At that same time he was cast in Richard Linklater's film Dazed and Confused. After appearing in some smaller roles in Angels in the Outfield, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Boys on the Side, and the television series Unsolved Mysteries.

McConaughey's big break came as the lawyer "Jake Brigance" in the 1996 film A Time to Kill, based on the John Grisham novel of the same name.

In 2006 McConaughey co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch. He also was the voiceover for an ad campaign of the Peace Corps in late 2006. Matthew's production company is j.k. livin, and it works side by side on projects with Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount Pictures and Imagine Entertainment.

McConaughey starred in the football drama We Are Marshall. He also appeared in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder, replacing Owen Wilson for the role.

In 2008 McConaughey became the new spokesman, replacing actor Sam Elliot, for the national radio campaign where he says:

Beef, it's what's for dinner."

McConaughey has been cast to star as Thomas Magnum in the 2011 movie Magnum, P.I.