"Acting is something I love. It's a great craft that I have a lot of respect for. But I don't think it's any greater challenge than teaching 8 year olds or any other career. In my life, I try not to make it more important than it is and I just hope that rubs off on the people around me." ~ Hugh Jackman.
Born in Sydney, Australia on October 12, 1968, Hugh was the fifth of six children. Before college, he described himself as "Mr. Activist" being involved in a lot of sports. In college, he studied Journalism and began to dabble in amateur theater, which lead to him enrolling in a one year acting course. Hugh began to tour performing in The Memorandum which gave him his first serious bite at acting. Although he was offered a role on the Aussie soap Neighbors, he turned it down to continue studying acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, where he graduated in 1994. Hugh has a Bachelor of Arts degree with a journalism major from the University of Technology in Sydney.
The worry of finance was stopping his plans for school until he got a bittersweet break: "The day I got a letter telling me I was accepted, I got another letter saying that the course would cost $3500." Jackman says, "The following day, I got a check in the mail from my grandmother's will for $3500. I thought, 'Whoa, that's it. The signs don't get much better than this.'"
After that lucky break, Hugh threw himself into acting. In 1995 on the day he graduated, he got a role playing a prison inmate on the TV crime drama Corelli. It was on this show that he met fellow actress Deborra-Lee Furness who he would marry in the near future (and is still married to today). After Corelli, Hugh moved on to musical theater, despite having no formal musical training (though he did take singing lessons for the roles) and went on to perform in Beauty And The Beast, Sunset Boulevard and Oklahoma! Australian films of his include Paperback Hero (his film debut) and Erskineville Kings, for which he earned the Australian Star of the Year in 1999.
But, Hugh's breakthrough role that would make him known around the world would be in the film X-Men ~ taken from the extremely popular comic series. Hugh plays Logan/Wolverine ~ a mutant 'superhero'. He landed the role through a video tape audition and began filming after the film was already in production. While hype for the X-Men was growing, the couple adopted their first child ~ Oscar Maximilian Jackman. So Hugh was busy changing diapers and enjoying new fatherhood as opposed to getting nervous about his American film debut.
Hugh is slowly adjusting to being thrown into the spotlight. The image of Wolverine can be seen in many places, including action figures. While driving one day Hugh explains, "Suddenly Deb says, 'Hugh, don't look now, but right next to me, you're on the side of a bus.'"
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Thanks to Rena for these two pictures from Detour magazine.
After a great success with the X-Men movie, Hugh began filming the romantic comedy Animal Husbandry. He also has signed on to play Wolverine in the next two X-Men films. Right now, he and his wife are enjoying the calm before stardom. "My friends say, 'Man you're going to have kids sleeping on pillowcases with your face on it! You're going to be on toothbrushes and magnets and stuff.' I guess now that I'm a dad, I'm thrilled about that. It's going to be fun." ~ H.J.
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Thanks to Julia for the above pictures from the set of Someone Like You.
"It dawned on me that acting was what I wanted to do with my life. Nothing had ever touched my heart like acting did." ~ H.J.
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Please continue for more about Hugh, and for my Wolverine/X-Men pages.
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Last updated: August, 2002
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