Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian Actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre and television.
Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters. He is well known from his role as Wolverine in the X-men series, in addition to his leads in KAte and Leopold, Van Helsing, The Prestige, and Australia. Jackman is a singer, dancer, and actor in stage musicals, and won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz.
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 for one of these appearances, Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009.
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. After obtaining his BA, 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'.
THE FAMOUS PROJECT
In 2000, Jackman was cast as Wolverine in Bryan Singer's X-Men, replacing Dougray Scott. His co-stars include Patrick Stewart, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, and Ian McKellen. According to a CBS interview in November 2006, Jackman's wife Deborra-Lee Furness told him not to take the role, a comment she later told him she was glad he ignored.
Wolverine was tough for Jackman to portray because he had few lines, but a lot of emotion to convey in them. To prepare, he watched Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry movies and Mel Gibson in Road Warrior. "Here were guys who had relatively little dialogue, like Wolverine had, but you knew and felt everything. I'm not normally one to copy, but I wanted to see how these guys achieved it."Jackman was adamant about doing his own stunts for the movie. "We worked a lot on the movement style of Wolverine, and I studied some martial arts. I watched a lot of Mike Tyson fights, especially his early fights. There's something about his style, the animal rage, that seemed right for Wolverine. I kept saying to the writers, 'Don't give me long, choreographed fights for the sake of it. Don't make the fights pretty."
Jackman also had to get used to wearing Wolverine's claws. "Every day in my living room, I'd just walk around with those claws, to get used to them. I've got scars on one leg, punctures straight through the cheek, on my forehead. I'm a bit clumsy. I'm lucky I didn't tell them that when I auditioned."
Jackman, at 6'2½ (1.89 m), stands a foot taller than Wolverine, who is said in the original comic book to be 5' 3". Hence, the filmmakers were frequently forced to shoot Jackman at unusual angles or only from the waist up to make him appear shorter than he actually is, and his co-stars wore platform soles. Jackman was also required to add a great deal of muscle for the role, and in preparing for the fourth film in the series, he bench-pressed over 300 pounds. An instant star upon the film's release, Jackman later reprised his role in 2003's X2: X-Men United, 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was released May 1, 2009.
AWARDS
- 1997 Variety Club Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Sunset Boulevard
- 1998 Mo Award for Best Actor in a Musical – Sunset Boulevard
- 1999 Australian Movie Convention, Australian Star of the Year
- 2000 Saturn Award for Best Actor - X-men
- 2004 Drama desk award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical – the Boy from Oz
- 2004 Theatre world award – The Boy from Oz
- 2004 Broadway Audience Award –The Boy from Oz
- 2004 Drama LEague Award for Distinguished Performance of the Year - the Boy from Oz
