Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian film, television and stage actor.
Biography
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.
In Australia 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 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.
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 while in training for X-Men.
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.
