HUGH JACKMAN
- AUSSIE ACTOR -
G'day folks,
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer, and producer.
Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in a variety of
film genres. I've seen him interviewed several times and I love his style. What you see is what you get.
Australian
actor and producer Hugh Jackman is best known for playing Wolverine in the
X-Men series. He's also known for parts in the films The Prestige, Australia
and Les Miserables.
“I have a terrific marriage, but unlike a lot of relationships
where they ebb and flow, no matter what happens you fall deeper and deeper in
love every day. It's kind of the best thing that can happen to you. It's
thrilling.”
—Hugh Jackman
Synopsis
Born in
Australia in 1968, Hugh Jackman began his acting career on stage, appearing in
several Melbourne musicals, and later won a Tony Award for his role as Peter
Allen in The Boy from Oz. Additionally, Jackman has won international
recognition for his roles as superheroes, most notably as Wolverine in the X-Men
film series, as well as parts in such films as Kate & Leopold, Van
Helsing, The Prestige, Australia and Les Miserables.
He was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 2008.
Acting Debut
To
mainstream audiences, Jackman is perhaps best known for the role of Wolverine
in the American film X-Men (2000). Other early films include Swordfish
(2001), Kate and Leopold (2001) and Van Helsing (2004). Despite
his growing big-screen career, Jackman remains true to his stage roots. In
2004, he won a Tony Award for his lead role in Broadway's The Boy from Oz
(2003-04). The following year, he won an Emmy Award for his turn as host of the
2005 Tony Awards.
Movie Roles
Back on
the big screen, Jackman returned as one of his most famous characters,
Wolverine, for X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). The action film proved to
be a big success, earning more than $234 million at the box office. Working with
director Woody Allen, Jackman starred in the mystery Scoop (2006) with
Scarlett Johansson. He next appeared with co-star Christian Bale in the
historical drama The Prestige (2006), a film about two rival magicians
in Victorian-era England.
Also in
2006, Jackman leant his voice to two animated feature films: Flushed Away
and Happy Feet. He did some work on the small screen as well, appearing
in the short-lived musical dramatic series Viva Laughlin in 2007. His
2008 thriller, Deception, failed to make much of an impression on the
movie-going public, earning only $4.6 million at the box office.
Later
that year, Jackman's highly anticipated work with fellow Australians Nicole
Kidman and Baz Luhrmann was released. Epic in its scope, Australia
(2008) tells the story of an English woman (Kidman) who travels to the outback
to find her husband, and ends up fighting for the land she inherited after his
death. She is helped by a local man, played by Jackman, and the two become an
unlikely romantic couple. The film received mixed reviews and was a box office
disappointment.
Commercial Success and Recognition
Despite
these setbacks, Jackman remains one of the most popular actors working today.
He was named "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine in
December of 2008, joining the ranks of such past recipients as George Clooney,
Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
Jackman
also had the distinction of serving as the host of the Academy Awards in
February of 2009. His next big film project, X-Men Origins: Wolverine,
was released the following summer. He soon followed up his summer blockbuster
with several smaller pictures. In Real Steel (2011), Jackman played a
father builds a better relationship with his son through training a fighting
robot. He also appeared in the comedy Butter that same year.
In 2012,
Jackman helped bring one of the most famous musicals of all time to the big
screen: He starred in Les Miserables with Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried
and Russell Crowe. In the film, Jackman plays Jean Valjean, a former prisoner
who tries to hold on to the new life he has built for himself. Russell Crowe
portrays the police officer on his trail. In January 2013, Jackman received a
Golden Globe Award (best actor in a musical or comedy) for his Les
Miserables performance. For his acclaimed role in Les Mis, Jackman
was nominated for an Academy Award in 2013 in the category of Best Actor, but
lost to Daniel Day-Lewis for his role in Lincoln.
On
December 13, 2012, Jackman was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame. According to the Los Angeles Times, Jackman stated during
the momentous event, "I believe this is the 2,487th star on the Walk of
Fame. However, apart from Lassie, I'm the only one who's gotten it for playing
the same character in 15 movies."
After the
immense success of Les Mis, Jackman took on a lighter film role in the
comedy Movie 43 (2013). The film had several A-list names attached,
including Dennis Quaid, Halle Berry, Kate Winslet, Richard Gere, Gerard Butler
and Emma Stone, among several others. However, even with a star-studded cast,
the film was highly criticized and did far worse than expected at the box
office.
He
reprised his role as as Wolverine in his next two roles, starring in The
Wolverine (2013) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Jackman took
on lead roles as the popular mutant hero in both films, and stars alongside
other actors who have also reprised their roles from previous X-Men
films, including Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy. Jackman
has also continued to stay connected to his stage roots, hosting the 2014 Tony
Awards.
In 2016,
Jackman starred as ski coach Bronson Peary in the biopic, Eddie the Eagle,
about Olympic ski jumper Michael “Eddie” Edwards, and he made a cameo
appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse. He made his last appearance as
Wolverine in the 2017 blockbuster hit Logan, his ninth movie in the
franchise. “I know this doesn’t sound right coming from an Australian, but at
some point, you’ve got to leave the party,” he joked in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “It’s time to go home.”
Jackman
is slated to appear as famed promoter and Barnum & Bailey Circus
founder P.T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman, which is scheduled
for release in December 2017.
Personal Life
Married
since 1996, Jackman and his wife, actress Deborra-Lee Furness, live in
Melbourne, Australia, with their two adopted children, Oscar Maximilian and Ava
Eliot. They met while making the Australian television show Correlli
(1995). Jackman has been treated for basal cell carcinoma, the most common form
of skin cancer, and has advocated for prevention and screenings on his social
media networks.
Clancy's comment: A thorough gentleman. And, not a bad actor and singer as well.
I'm ...
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