Australian actor Hugh Michael Jackman AC was born on October 12, 1968. Jackman was born in Sydney, Australia, to British-born parents who had emigrated from England in 1967. Jackman’s father divorced when he was eight and the family moved back to England.
Jackman studied at the University of Technology, Sydney, and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He was offered a role on Neighbours but turned it down to concentrate on acting full-time. Jackman graduated from Edith Cowan University in Perth in 1994.
Jackman has stated that although he “always enjoyed acting, I felt like the dunce of the class when I started at theatre school. Simply put, it wasn’t making sense to me. In hindsight, I believe that is a good thing because everyone seemed more cool, successful, and natural at it. Coming from behind as an actor, in my opinion, is beneficial. I believe it is beneficial to enter an audition with the mindset that you must perform at your very best to land the job.
Hugh Jackman top movies and TV shows
His first professional job was on Correlli, a 10-part drama series on Australian television. He became known outside Australia in 1998 for his role as Curly in Oklahoma!, in London’s West End.
He played his breakthrough role as wolverine co-starring with Patrick Stewart, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, and Ian McKellen. X-Men was successful at the box office, earning US$296 million. The role earned him a Saturn Award for Best Actor.
In the 2001 romantic comedy movie Kate & Leopold, Jackman played the part of Leopold, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor. Jackman portrays an English duke from the Victorian era who mistakenly time-travels to Manhattan in the twenty-first century, where he meets Meg Ryan’s cynical advertising executive Kate. Alongside John Travolta and Halle Berry, Jackman co-starred in the action/drama Swordfish in 2001. Berry and Jackman have collaborated four more times in the X-Men films, making this their second time working together. In 2001, he presided over a Saturday Night Live episode.
In a special concert performance with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall in 2002, Jackman performed the song “Billy Bigelow” from the musical “Carousel.” For his 2003–2004 Broadway performance as Australian songwriter and singer Peter Allen in the popular musical The Boy from Oz, which he also gave a performance in Australia in 2006. In addition, Jackman received praise for hosting the Tony Awards in 2003, 2004, and 2005. He won the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performer in a Variety, Musical, or Comedy Program for hosting the 2004 Tony Awards.
In the 2004 movie Van Helsing, which came out after 2003’s X2, Jackman portrayed monster killer Gabriel Van Helsing. Bruce A. McClelland’s book Slayers and Their Vampires: A Cultural History of Killing the Dead made mention of Jackman and the movie.
Hugh Jackman awards and nominations
Jackman received his first nomination at the Golden Globe Award back in 2001.
Jackman earned the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical in 2004.
In Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, a film adaptation of the musical, Jackman played Jean Valjean. The movie premiered on December 25, 2012. He had to put on 30 pounds to match his character’s newfound success after losing 15 pounds for the part.
For this performance, he was nominated for his first Academy Award for Best Actor in January 2013 and went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
For the movie, The Greatest Showman he won his third Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album.
