Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman

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Birth name: Hugh Michael Jackman
Date of birth: 12 October 1968
Place of birth: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nickname: Hu
Height: 6′ 2½” (1.89 m)
Spouse: Deborra Lee Furness (February 1996 – present) 2 children

Famous Quote: “I’ve always felt that if you back down from a fear, the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people. So I’ve always said ‘yes’ to the thing I’m most scared about. The fear of letting myself down — of saying ‘no’ to something that I was afraid of and then sitting in my room later going, ‘I wish I’d had the guts to say this or that’ — that galvanizes me more than anything.”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Hugh Jackman
Seed Productions
10201 West Pico Blvd. Bldg 52 #105
Los Angeles, CA 90035, USA 

Biography:  Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian film, television and stage actor, known mostly for his roles in several major Hollywood films, including Van Helsing and X-Men. The handsome and charismatic Australian Hugh Jackman went from completing acting school to a starring role in a series on network television in his homeland in one day. Enrolling in drama school after turning down a role in the enormously popular Australian soap “Neighbours,” Jackman landed the role of violent and manipulative inmate Kevin Jones in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) prison drama “Corelli” upon his graduation from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. 

He powerfully played the insidiously attractive prisoner opposite Deborra-Lee Furness, who starred as the title criminal psychologist. As their budding romance heated up the screen, a behind-the-scenes relationship led to the actors’ real life marriage. He went on to appear as Detective Eric Ringer on Australian TV’s “Halifax f.p.” and had many guest starring roles on other series in his native country. His relaxed and natural presence led to a flourishing career as a television host, counting among his credits a job as presenter of the series “In Fashion” (1997) for the Australian pay network Foxtel and hosting 1997′s Australian Film Institute Awards presentation.

Incorporating leading man good looks and palpable talent balanced with an unaffected charm, Jackman found his career moving quickly. Within less than a year of completing acting school, he joined the cast of the Melbourne production of the musical “Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast”, in the supporting part of macho villain Gaston. The tall and muscular Jackman still had to wear prosthetic pieces to pull off the exaggerated build of the character, but even with this added padding the actor’s spot on portrayal, complete with appropriate pomp and swagger, shone through. 

He next landed the role of hack screenwriter Joe Gillis in Trevor Nunn’s Melbourne production of “Sunset Boulevard”. Jackman easily made the transition from his previous larger-than-life boaster to the Hollywood-fueled broken man cynicism of Gillis. Nunn was so impressed with the actor’s work that he invited him to audition at London’s National Theatre, where the director cast him as Curly in the acclaimed West End production of “Oklahoma!”. Jackman’s strong and energetic performance earned excellent notices, proclaiming him one of the most promising newcomers to musical theater.

Jackman was born in Pymble, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, the youngest of five children of English-born parents Chris Jackman and Grace Watson. His mother left the family when he was eight years old, and he remained behind with his father (an accountant with a degree from Cambridge) and siblings.

Jackman attended Pymble Public School and Knox Grammar School, an all-boys school, where he starred in the musical My Fair Lady in 1985, directed by the headmaster, Dr. Ian Paterson. Jackman was School Captain in 1986. The following year he spent a gap year working at Uppingham School in England. Upon his return to Australia he worked at a Shell station in Wahroonga and worked as a part-time clown for children’s parties while studying at the University of Technology, Sydney. In 1989 Jackman participated in a Christian workcamp on Hasst’s Bluff and Areyonga Aboriginal land in the Western Desert in Central Australia. He then graduated with a BA in Communications, having majored in journalism. He later used his inheritance from his grandmother to attend the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia, from which he graduated in 1994.

While Jackman technically made his film debut in the little seen Australian production “Erskinville Kings” (1999), a drama examining failing relationships, he would reach a much wider audience with his starring role in Antony J. Bowman’s amiable comedy “Paperback Hero” (1999). In this film, Jackman portrayed Jack Willis, an Australian outback trucker who in his spare time writes a sappy romance novel that he submits to a Sydney publisher. Not willing to give over his masculine reputation to be known as a romance author, Jack adopts the name of friend Ruby Vale as his pseudonym. When both Ruby and Jack (posing as her manager) are taken on a publicity tour to promote the book, romance ensues. The role seemed perfectly suited for the open and unpretentious actor, and “Paperback Hero,” more tender and understated than many previous Australian comedies, would earn Jackman acclaim and expose him to an international art-house audience.

Jackman’s early film work includes Erskineville Kings and Paperback Hero (1999), while his television work includes Correlli(where he met his wife Debra Lee Furness), Law of the Land, Halifax f.p., Blue Heelers, and Banjo Paterson’s The Man from Snowy River (American title: Snowy River: The McGregor Saga).

He sang the Australian National Anthem in front of 100,000 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before the 1998 Bledisloe Cup. He also sang the National Anthem at the 1999 NRL Grand Final in front of 108,000 people at Stadium Australia. On stage, Jackman played Gaston in the Melbourne production of Beauty and the Beast, and Joe Gillis in the same city’s production of Sunset Boulevard. During his stage musical career in Melbourne, he starred in the 1998 Midsumma festival cabaret production Summa Cabaret. He also hosted both Melbourne’s Carols by Candlelight and Sydney’s Carols in the Domain. In 2006, he was cast to replace Russell Crowe in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, starring opposite Nicole Kidman. The production was filmed in the north-east coastal town of Bowen, Queensland.

He first became known outside of Australia when he played the leading role of Curly in the Royal National Theatre’s acclaimed stage production of ‘|Oklahoma!]] in the West End during 1998. Jackman also appeared in a 1999 film version of the stage musical.

In 2000, he was cast as Wolverine in Bryan Singer’s X-Men, replacing Dougray Scott. 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.

Jackman, at 6′ 2 1/2″,[3] stands nearly 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 was. In an interview with Men’s Health magazine, he stated that he was also required to add a great deal of muscle for the role. An instant star upon the film’s release, Jackman later reprised his role in 2003′s X2: X-Men United, and 2006′s X-Men: The Last Stand. The trilogy ultimately garnered over US$1 billion worldwide.

Jackman starred as Leopold in the 2001 romantic comedy film Kate & Leopold, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Jackman also starred in 2001 action/drama Swordfish, along with John Travolta, and Halle Berry. This would be the second time Jackman would work alongside with Berry, The two would work together again two more times in the X-Men movies, making a total of four movies starring Jackman and Berry from 2000 to 2006.

His follow-up venture, though, guaranteed a wider audience. Tapped to replace Dougray Scott as Logan/Wolverine, a mutant superhero with quick-healing powers, unbreakable bones and razor-sharp metal claws, in director Brian Singer’s crowd-pleasing film version of the popular Marvel comic “X-Men” (2000), Jackman displayed an innate charisma and a facility with a quip that combined into a star-making performance that pleased both general moviegoers and hard-core fans of the cult hit comic book character–indeed, Jackman perfectly brought the comic-book Wolverine, a conflicted and edgy hero, to vivid life. He lent his considerable presence to the role of Ashley Judd’s womanizing co-worker in the otherwise pallid “Someone Like You” before tackling the role of a computer hacker forced to participate in a major heist in the overwrought actioner “Swordfish” opposite John Travolta and his “X-Men” co-star Halle Berry (both 2001). While neither film necessarily showed Jackman to his best advantage, he always acquitted himself nicely and continued to build a growing fan-base.

Jackman opted for a slight change of pace with the romantic comedy-drama “Kate & Leopold” (2001) as Meg Ryan’s time-traveling beau. Playing a courtly gentlemen well-versed in the old-fashioned politics of romantic love, Jackman delivered a charming leading man performance radically different from his previous roles. The actor once again donned the sideburns and claws of Wolverine for “X2″ (2003), the superior sequel to “X-Men” in which Jackman’s character stood out against the rest of the terrific ensemble cast as bits and pieces of Wolverine’s mysterious origins were at last revealed. Jackman returned to an early love, musical theater, in the fall of 2003, appearing on Broadway in “The Boy from Oz,” the Broadway musical in which he stars as Peter Allen, the flamboyant showman best known for pop songs including “(When My Baby Smiles at Me) I Go to Rio” who died of AIDS in 1992—Jackman would receive the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical, among other accolades, for his performance, and the actor also hosted the 2004 Tony Awards ceremony.

Next up on screen was another pulpy turn, this time playing Count Dracula’s old nemesis Dr. Abraham Van Helsing in the disappointing Universal monster thriller “Van Helsing” (2004), which pitted the good doctor against a union of his old foe, Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolfman. That same year it was announced that Fox was developing a solo spin-off film starring Jackman as Wolverine. Meanwhile, Jackman was nominated for, and won, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for his hosting duties at the Tony Awards. He returned to the stage the following year to host the 59th Annual awards ceremony, turning in another Emmy-worthy performance. Once again, Jackman revived Wolverine for the third installment of the series, “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006), directed by Brett Ratner. This time, the mutants face a peculiar choice after a cure for mutations is found: retain their uniqueness and remain isolated from society, or give up their strange powers and become human.

Jackman sang the role of Billy Bigelow in Carousel in a special concert performance at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, New York City in 2002. In 2004 he played the title role of vampire hunter Gabriel Van Helsing in Van Helsing. In 2004, Jackman won a Tony Award for his Broadway portrayal of Australian songwriter and performer Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. He hosted the Tony Awards in 2003, 2004 and 2005, garnering very positive reviews. The televising of the 2004 awards earned him an Emmy Award win for Outstanding Individual Performer in a Variety, Musical or Comedy program in 2005.

In 2005 after his award-winning role in The Boy from Oz, Jackman began filming his most challenging role to date. Jackman played the part of three different characters in Darren Aronofsky’s sci-fi experience The Fountain. As Tommy Creo a neuroscientist, Jackman played a man who was torn between his wife, Izzi (Rachel Weisz) who is dying of a brain tumor and his work at trying to cure her. As Captain Tomas Creo, a Spanish Conquistador in the year 1532, Savile, Spain who is seeking the mythical Tree of Life for his Queen, Isabel (also played by Weisz) in order to retain her throne. Tomas is a character in the book Izzi is writing called The Fountain, and finally, as the future space traveller Tom enclosed in a transparent treeship seeking to be reunited with Izzi within a dying star called Xibalba. Jackman has stated The Fountain was his most difficult role to date due to the physical and emotional demands his director asked of him in the part. In the end, The Fountain wasn’t well received and Jackman went un-rewarded.

Not one to stop working, Jackman filmed The Prestige directed by Christopher Nolan and also starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Andy Serkis, and musician David Bowie. As Robert Angier, Jackman portrayed a magician who built up a rivalry with contemporary Alfred Borden in attempt to ‘one up’ each other in the art of deception. Jackman stated his main reason for doing The Prestige was to work with David Bowie, who played scientist Nicola Tesla. He also starred in another 2006 film with Scarlett Johansson, Woody Allen’s Scoop.

Jackman was charming as a British playboy suspected of being the infamous Tarot Card Killer terrorizing London in “Scoop” (2006), Woody Allen’s comedy starring Scarlett Johansson as a journalist who poses as a wealthy American in order to snuff him out. He next starred in Christopher Nolan’s period thriller “The Prestige” (2006), playing a brash showman of a magician whose friendly rivalry with another magician (Christian Bale), a brilliant trickster lacking the requisite panache for entertainment, turns into a serious rivalry after a magic trick goes bad, turning the two friends into mortal enemies engaged in a show of one-upmanship that will result in one man’s death. Jackman next provided his voice talents to the animated children’s adventure, “Happy Feet” (2006), about a baby Emperor Penguin who cannot sing—an important quality for mating—but can tap dance brilliantly. Jackman next starred in Darren Aronofsky’s bizarre and confounding time travel picture, “The Fountain” (2006), playing both a 16th century Spanish conquistador looking for the fabled Fountain of Youth and a modern-day scientist desperately seeking a cure for the cancer killing his wife (Rachel Weisz). An unconventional take on love, death and the search for eternal life, “The Fountain” threatened to confuse and even frustrate potential moviegoers with its incomprehensible plot, drab tone and metaphysical pretensions. 

Jackman rounded out 2006 with two animated films: Happy Feet in which he voiced the part of Memphis, an Emperor Penguin and directed by George Miller, and Flushed Away where Jackman also supplied the voice of a rat named Roddy who ends up being flushed down his Kensington family’s toilet into the London sewer system. Flushed Away also starred Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen (the fourth time Jackman has worked with him), Jean Reno, Andy Serkis and Bill Nighy.

In 2007 Jackman produced and guest starred in the unsuccessful television drama Viva Laughlin. Viva Laughlin was cancelled by CBS after only two episodes. A decision about the remaining episodes already filmed at the time of cancellation has yet to be made. Both Jackman and his wife Furness were both shocked and saddened by this cancellation. Jackman is also preparing a number of movies which he will both produce and star in, including Wolverine, estimated to begin filming in early 2008, and a remake of Carousel in which he will play Billy Bigelow.

Jackman married actress Deborra-Lee Furness in April 1996. They met on the set of his first TV acting job in Correlli, an Australian television series. Furness had two miscarriages, after which she and Jackman adopted two children, Oscar Maximillian (b. May 15, 2000) and Ava Eliot (b. July 10, 2005). They currently live in Melbourne. Jackman personally designed an engagement ring for Furness, and their wedding rings bore the Sanskrit inscription “Om paramar mainamar”, translated by Furness as “we dedicate our union to a greater source”.

In 2005, Jackman joined with longtime assistant John Palermo to form a production company, Seed Productions, whose first project was Viva Laughlin in 2007. Furness is also involved in the company, and Palermo had three rings made with an inscription meaning “unity” for himself, Furness, and Jackman. About the trio’s collaboration Jackman reports “I’m very lucky in the partners I work with in my life, Deb and John Palermo. It really works. We all have different strengths. I love it. It’s very exciting”.

Jackman is a longtime supporter of Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, a Rugby League club based in Sydney, which competes in the NRL, Australasia’s top league of professional rugby league football. Jackman is an active gym junkie, and was known to bench press 142 kilograms (312 lb) while in training for X-Men. He is an avid wine buff and his comfort food is sushi.

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