50 things you probably didn't know about Matthew McConaughey: afraid of revolving doors, remains friends with ex-girlfriends

Matthew McConaughey is an Academy-award winning versatile actor who has played a range of roles from a cowboy stripper named Dallas to an Aids stricken man in Dallas Buyers Club.

1. Matthew was born on November 4, 1969, in Uvalde, Texas.

2. He's full name is Matthew David McConaughey.

3. His father, James Donald McConaughey, played football for the Green Bay Packers. He died of a heart attack in August 1992.

4. He is known for being an athletic person and he started at a young age. He was active at school, playing in the golf and tennis team at Longview High School.

5. Matthew was voted the school's "Most Handsome Student" and he's good looks have stayed with him ever since!

6. His childhood hero was daredevil Evel Knievel, and McConaughey has said that he would like to star in a movie based on Knievel's life.

7. Before attending university, he briefly lived in Australia where he learnt and adopted an Australian accent.

8. After returning to Dallas, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993.

9. McConaughey claims he hasn't worn deodorant in 20 years.

10. Which movie gets him all teary-eyed? The 1976 version of King Kong with Jessica Lange makes him teary eyed. "I remember crying at how much he loved her but he was an ape, he was the outcast."

11. His first professional acting job was in a beer commercial.

12. His big break came in the high school flick Dazed and Confused which starred future stars Ben Affleck and Milla Jovovich.

13. While growing up, he wanted to be a lawyer which he later got to portray in both A Time to Kill and The Lincoln Lawyer.

14. After filming A Time to Kill, he said he needed a break from acting and went to Peru.

15. He was strongly considered for the role of Jack Dawson in Titanic, until Leonardo DiCaprio took the part.

16. He then starred as Southern lawyer Jake Brigance in the adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill which sets him on the map. He begins dating costar Ashley Judd during filming and strikes up a close friendship with fellow lead Sandra Bullock as well.

17. He loves to play golf, tennis, jog and box.

18. In 1998, police were called to his Austin, Texas home after receiving complaints of the noise levels. When they arrived at his home, they found him stoned, naked and playing the bongos. McConaughey was booked on drug charges and for resisting arrest. The drug charges were later dropped, and he paid a fine for disturbing the peace.

19. He is a big fan of Willie Nelson.

20. Despite being a native Texan, he's a big fan of the Washington Redskins NFL team.

21. While starring in the 2005 action movie Sahara, he began dating costar Penelope Cruz.

22. His role as Dirk Pitt in Sahara was almost taken by Hugh Jackman, but Jackman was too busy filming X-Men 2 and performing on Broadway's production, The Boy From Oz.

23. He traveled around the United States for a month in his personal Airsteam trailer promoting his movie Sahara.

24. One of his favorite bands is the rock band The Cult. In March 2012, when The Cult performed in Austin, Texas, McConaughey went onstage and played bongo drums with them for two songs.

25. Matthew was considered for a role in Speed 2: Cruise Control.

26. McConaughey launched his own men's clothing line earlier this year called JKL. The name is from his Just Keep Livin Foundation, which he started in 2008 after the death of his father.

27. He is a member of Delta Tau Delta, international college fraternity.

28. His all-time favorite actor is Paul Newman.

29. He owns a 1,600-acre ranch in west Texas, which he purchased for $500,000.

30. He has a fear of revolving doors.

31. Matthew was named Grand Marshall by the 47th edition of The Daytona 500 in February 2005.

32. McConaughey is very adventurous and has traveled around Mali in western Africa.

33. McConaughey says he's managed to remain friends with all his exes. "I just don't know how to put Wite-Out over that period in my life," he said in an interview. "So hopefully you're going to be inviting me to your wedding and I'm going to be inviting you to mine."

34. His life motto is "Just Keep Living"

35. McConaughey is good friends with Lance Armstrong and Jake Gyllenhaal.

36. His bad habit is chewing tobacco.

37. After doing an interview with Barbara Walters in 2006, he gave her a food rub as a "thank you."

38. He played Brazilian music for eight straight hours in the operating room to help his girlfriend (now wife), Camila Alves, give birth to their child, Levi.

39. They now have three children, two boys and a girl. Levi, Vida, Livingston are their names.

40. Lance Armstrong helped McConaughey get together with Camila. When telling the story of how they met, Camila claims that Matthew approached her at a bar, but she didn't recognize him because he was wearing a "rasta hat" and a really long beard. Later that same night he approached her again with Lance Armstrong, at which point Camila put two and two together and realized who Matthew was.

41. He auctioned off his 1971 Chevy Stingray Corvette on ebay and donated all the money to Oprah's Angel Network Hurricane Katrina and Rita relief funds.

42. Matthew told Interview magazine that he keeps one diary per film that he works on and per foreign location that he travels to.

43. During a guest appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", Leno surprised him with an old airline training tape he had acted in. McConaughey had no memory of being in the video.

44. He suffered from baldness and has undergone treatment for it.

45. McConaughey owns a production house named JKL Productions which stands for "Just Keep Livin'!" taken from his character in "Dazed and Confused" (1993), David Wooderson's life philosophy.

46. In 2014, the actor hit a career milestone with Dallas Buyers Club, taking home the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of AIDS patient Ron Woodroof who was given 30 days to live, but lived for 7 years.

47. Dallas Buyers Club took 20 years to make and was filmed in only 25 days. McConaughey lost 30 pounds for the role.

48. His net worth is $75 million.

49. Matthew is 5 ft 11 in (1.82 m) tall.

50. His life motto is "Just Keep Living".
    

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