Hugh Michael Jackman is a multi-talented Australian actor and producer who has worked in film, musical theater, and television. After beginning his career in films and television in his native Australia, his portrayal of Curly earned him international recognition, and he was catapulted to stardom as Wolverine in the blockbuster hit X-Men, a role he reprised in sequels such as X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In the interim, he received critical recognition for his role as a computer hacker in the thriller Swordfish and received critical accolades for his portrayal in the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold. After acting alongside Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige and Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, he joined fellow Australians Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann in the opulent love epic Australia. As a veteran of the musical theater, Jackman was an obvious choice to host the Tony Awards and the Academy Awards, in addition to starring in the long-awaited Les Misérables remake. He’s voiced a number of cartoon characters and hosted the Tony Awards three times, receiving an Emmy Award for one of them, as well as the 81st Academy Awards. He has also won two Tony Awards and a Golden Globe in addition to this Emmy.
Childhood and Adolescence
Jackman was born on October 12, 1968, in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil and Cambridge-trained accountant Christopher John Jackman. His English parents had immigrated to Australia in 1967.
From his mother’s remarriage, he has four older siblings and a younger half-sister. When he was eight years old, his parents split, and his mother returned to England with his two sisters.
He went to Pymble Public School for primary school and then to Knox Grammar School on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, where he appeared in the 1985 production of My Fair Lady.
He attended a theater course to make up credits in his final year at the University of Technology, Sydney. He graduated in 1991 after playing the lead in Václav Havel’s drama The Memorandum.
He attended the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University in Perth, where he graduated in 1994, after completing the one-year course ‘The Journey’ at the Actors’ Centre in Sydney.
Career of Hugh Jackman
Correlli, an Australian television ten-part series first shown by ABC TV in 1995, was Jackman’s first professional work. It starred Deborra-Lee Furness as Louisa Correlli, a jail psychologist. He received an Olivier Award nomination and international fame for his performance as Curly in the Royal National Theatre’s famous stage version of Oklahoma! in London’s West End in 1998. In 2004, he received critical acclaim for his Broadway depiction of Australian songwriter-performer Peter Allen in the popular musical The Boy from Oz, and he co-starred in the play A Steady Rain alongside Daniel Craig.
In 2005, the actor formed Seed Productions with longtime assistant John Palermo, with the goal of producing low-budget films that utilize local talent in Jackman’s homeland. He featured alongside Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson in Christopher Nolan’s 2006 thriller ‘The Prestige.’ He played Robert Angier, a magician who was attempting to outsmart Alfred Borden, a contemporary. In Darren Aronofsky’s science-fiction film The Fountain, he played three different characters: Tommy Creo, a neuroscientist, Captain Tomas Creo, a Spanish Conquistador in Seville, and Tom, a future astronaut.
In 2008, he was cast in Baz Luhrmann’s much-publicized epic picture Australia, alongside Nicole Kidman. He portrayed a rugged, independent cattle driver who grudgingly assists a noblewoman from England.
From 3–15 May 2011, he performed a one-man performance at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.
The show featured a 17-piece orchestra and a blend of his favorite Broadway and Hollywood musical numbers.
He played Jean Valjean in the film version of the musical Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo’s French novel. Both monetarily and critically, the picture was a big hit. Memphis, an emperor penguin in Happy Feet, a rat named Roddy in Flushed Away, and the Easter Bunny in Rise of the Guardians are among the animated characters he has voiced.
In the next film X-Men: Days of Future Past, the actor will reprise his role as Wolverine. Selma and The Greatest Showman on Earth are two other upcoming projects.
Major Projects of Hugh Jackman
Jackman was cast as Wolverine in Bryan Singer’s X-Men in 1999, and the film made $296,339,527 worldwide. In X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, and the prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he reprised his role.
In the 2001 romantic comedy film Kate & Leopold, he played Leopold, a Victorian English duke who time-travels to 21st-century Manhattan and meets Kate (Meg Ryan), a cynical advertising executive.
Awards of Hugh Jackman
Les Miserables earned Jackman a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical in 2013. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.
He earned an Emmy for The 58th Annual Tony Awards, which he presented the previous year, in the category Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program in 2005.
Many awards have been bestowed upon him for his work in the X-Men franchise, including the Saturn Best Actor Award for X-Men, the People’s Choice Favorite Action Movie Star Award, and the Teen Choice Award for X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
He received two Tony Awards for The Boy from Oz: Special Tony Award category Actors’ Equity Association 2004 and Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.
In 2012, he was honored with the 2,487th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which he received alongside his family, director Tom Hooper, and co-stars Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried from the film “Les Misérables.”
Personal History and Legacy
After meeting on the set of the Australian TV drama Correlli, Jackman married Deborra-Lee Furness in 1996. Following two miscarriages, Furness and her husband adopted two children, Oscar Maximillian and Ava Eliot.
He is a global advisor for the Global Poverty Project and a strong supporter of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pioneer of microcredit.
Estimated Net Worth
Hugh Jackman has a net worth of $180 million dollars.
Trivia
In an interview with Jay Leno, this actor stated that he is a fan of the “Friday The 13th” film series and that he became an actor to play Jason in one.
This Australian actress, who was named one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, does not smoke in real life. He claims that smoking in movies is a nightmare for him.