Hugh Jackman

**Family:** | Mother and Father
2 Older Brothers
2 Older Sisters
1 Half-Sister

**Hugh Jackman** *(born October 12, 1968)* is an Australian actor. He portrays Wolverine in X-Men.

## Early life and Career

Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer and producer. Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as superhero, period, and romance characters. He is best known for his long-running role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series, as well as for his lead roles in the romantic-comedy fantasy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror film Van Helsing (2004), the drama The Prestige and The Fountain (2006), the epic historical romantic drama Australia (2008), the film version of Les Misérables (2012), and the thriller Prisoners (2013). His work in Les Misérables earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013. In Broadway theatre, Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz. A four-time host of the Tony Awards themselves, he won an Emmy Award for one of these appearances. Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009.

Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil (Greenwood) and Christopher John Jackman, an accountant. He is the youngest of five children. His parents, both English, moved to Australia shortly before his birth. He also has Greek (from a great-grandfather) and Scottish (from a grandmother) ancestry.

Jackman has a communications degree with a journalism major from the University of Technology Sydney. After graduating, he pursued drama at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, immediately after which he was offered a starring role in the ABC-TV prison drama Correlli (1995), opposite his future wife Deborra-Lee Furness. Several TV guest roles followed, as an actor and variety compere. An accomplished singer, Jackman has starred as Gaston in the Australian production of "Beauty and the Beast." He appeared as Joe Gillis in the Australian production of "Sunset Boulevard." In 1998, he was cast as Curly in the Royal National Theatre's production of Trevor Nunn's Oklahoma. Jackman has made two feature films, the second of which, Erskineville Kings (1999), garnered him an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Actor in 1999. Recently, he won the part of Logan/Wolverine in the Bryan Singer- directed comic-book movie X-Men (2000). In his spare time, Jackman plays piano, golf, and guitar, and likes to windsurf.

## Notes

* Met his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, while co-starring in the Australian TV series Correlli
* He was a last-minute addition to the X-Men (2000) cast. Dougray Scott was originally cast as Wolverine, but Mission: Impossible II (2000) required two extra months of shooting.
* While filming Van Helsing (2004), he accidentally broke an extra's hand.
* Expressed great fondness for the comic book character Superman. Ironically, Superman is owned by DC Comics, the rival company of Marvel Comics, which owns X-Men and Wolverine.
* Started his own movie-production company, Seed Productions, with his friend *John Palermo*. The first films they will be producing with this company are *X-Men: The Last Stand* and the Wolverine spin-off.
* Had never seen an episode of Saturday Night Live (1975) until he agreed to host the show. The producers sent him tapes of episodes so he could understand the format of the show. He later said that his favorite was the one hosted by Conan O'Brien.
* Was among the guests at the wedding of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.
* Frequently gets offered roles based on comic books. He was offered Daredevil (2003), Hulk (2003), Iron Man (2008), Mr. Fantastic in Fantastic Four (2005), and Jonathan Kent in Superman Returns (2006).
* Upon meeting Olivia Newton-John (John Travolta introduced the two while he and Jackman were filming Swordfish (2001)), he confessed to her that under his desk in elementary school, there was a poster with Newton-John on it, and he would kiss the poster every day.
* Close friend of Liev Schreiber.
* Credits his good friend Russell Crowe with catapulting his career into super stardom. After Crowe turned down the lead in X-Men (2000), he personally recommended Jackman to director Bryan Singer for the part.
* Godfather of Rupert Murdoch's daughters Grace and Chloe.
* Good friends with: Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue, Neil Patrick Harris, Eric Bana, Liev Schreiber, Daniel Craig and Kate Winslet.