Hugh Jackman Biography

Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television. Hugh Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters. He is known for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men series, as well as for his leads in Kate & Leopold, Van Helsing, The Prestige, and Australia. Hugh Jackman is a singer, dancer, and actor in stage musicals, and won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz.

Hugh Jackman

In November 2008, Open Salon named Hugh Jackman one of the sexiest men alive. Later that same month, People magazine named Jackman "Sexiest Man Alive. A three-time host of the Tony Awards, winning an Emmy Award for one of these appearances, Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009.

Early life
Hugh Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the youngest of five children of English parents Chris Jackman and Grace Watson, and the second child to be born in Australia (he also has a younger half sister, from his mother's re-marriage). One of his paternal great-grandfathers was Greek. His parents divorced when he was eight, and he remained with his accountant father and siblings, while his mother moved back to England. As a child, Jackman liked the outdoors, spending a lot of time at the beach and on camping trips and vacations all over Australia. He wanted to see the world: "I used to spend nights looking at atlases. I decided I wanted to be a chef on a plane. Because I'd been on a plane and there was food on board, I presumed there was a chef. I thought that would be an ideal job."

Hugh Jackman went to primary school at Pymble Public School and later attended the all-boys Knox Grammar School, where he starred in its production of My Fair Lady in 1985, and became the captain of the school in 1986. Following graduation, he spent a gap year working at Uppingham School in England. On his return, he studied at the University of Technology, Sydney, graduating in 1991 with a BA in Communications. In his final year of university, he took a drama course to make up additional credits. The class did Václav Havel's The Memorandum with Hugh Jackman as the lead. He later commented, "In that week I felt more at home with those people than I did in the entire three years".

Hugh Jackman

After obtaining his BA, Hugh Jackman completed the one-year course "The Journey" at the Actors' Centre in Sydney. About studying acting full-time, he stated, "It wasn't until I was 22 that I ever thought about my hobby being something I could make a living out of. As a boy, I'd always had an interest in theater. But the idea at my school was that drama and music were to round out the man. It wasn't what one did for a living. I got over that. I found the courage to stand up and say, 'I want to do it'." After completing "The Journey", he was offered a role on the popular soap opera Neighbours but turned it down to attend the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia, from which he graduated in 1994.

Hugh Jackman has said he "always loved acting but when I started at drama school I was like the dunce of the class. It just wasn’t coming right to me. Everyone was cooler, everyone seemed more likely to succeed, everyone seemed more natural at it and in retrospect I think that is good. I think it is good to come from behind as an actor. I think it is good to go into an audition thinking 'Man I’ve got to be at my best to get this gig.'

Personal life
Hugh Jackman married Deborra-Lee Furness on 11 April 1996. They met on Correlli, an Australian television series. Jackman personally designed an engagement ring for Furness, and their wedding rings bore the Sanskrit inscription "Om paramar mainamar", translated as "we dedicate our union to a greater source".

Furness had two miscarriages, following which she and Jackman adopted two children, Oscar Maximillian (born 15 May 2000) and Ava Eliot (born 10 July 2005).

Filmography

1994 Law of the Land
1995 Correlli
1995 Blue Heelers
1996 The Man from Snowy River
1999 Erskineville Kings
1999 Paperback Hero

Hugh Jackman

2000 X-Men
2001 Kate & Leopold
2001 Someone Like You
2001 Swordfish
2003 X2
2004 Van Helsing
2004 Van Helsing: The London Assignment
2005 Stories of Lost Souls
2006 Happy Feet
2006 Flushed Away
2006 The Prestige
2006 The Fountain
2006 Scoop
2006 X-Men: The Last Stand
2007 Viva Laughlin
2008 Deception
2008 Uncle Jonny
2008 Australia
2008 The Burning Season
2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
2011 X-Men: First Class
2011 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
2011 Real Steel
2012 Butter
2012 Rise of the Guardians