$180,000,000
Hugh Jackman
Net Worth
Born in (City)
Sydney
Born in (Country)
Australia
Date of Birth
12th December, 1968
Date of Death
-
Mother
Grace McNeil
Father
Christopher John Jackman
Children
- Oscar Maximilian Jackman
- Ava Eliot Jackman
About
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer, and producer. He is best known for playing Wolverine/Logan in the X-Men film series (2000–2018), a role for which he holds the Guinness World Record for "longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero". He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 2019, Jackman went on his first world tour called The Man. The Music. The Show. to perform songs from the album, The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, and Broadway/Hollywood musical numbers. He will return to Broadway in a revival of The Music Man, playing Harold Hill, which is set to begin previews in September 2020. He also starred in the comedy-drama Bad Education, opposite Allison Janney. He is one of the most successful actors in the Hollywood industry.
Early Life
Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil (née Greenwood) and Christopher John Jackman, a Cambridge-educated accountant. His parents were English and had come to Australia in 1967 as part of the "Ten Pound Poms" immigration. Thus, in addition to his Australian citizenship, Jackman holds British citizenship under being born to UK-born parents. One of his paternal great-grandfathers, Nicholas Isidor Bellas, was Greek, from the Ottoman Empire (now in Greece). Jackman has four older siblings and was the second of his parent’s children to be born in Australia. He also has a younger half-sister, from his mother’s remarriage. His parents divorced when he was eight, and Jackman remained in Australia with his father and two brothers, while his mother moved back to England with Jackman’s two sisters. Jackman went to primary school at Pymble Public School and later attended the all-boys Knox Grammar School on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, where he starred in its production of My Fair Lady in 1985 and became the school captain in 1986. He spent a gap year working at Uppingham School in England as a Physical Education teacher. On his return, he studied at the University of Technology, Sydney, graduating in 1991 with a BA in Communications. In his final year of university, he took a drama course to make up additional credits. The class did Václav Havel’s Memorandum with Jackman as the lead. After obtaining his BA, Jackman completed the one-year course "The Journey" at the Actors’ Centre in Sydney. After completing "The Journey", he was offered a role on the popular soap opera Neighbours but turned it down to attend the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia, from which he graduated in 1994.
Road to Success
It wasn’t until 22 Jack his hobby being something, he could make a living out of. As a boy, he always had an interest in theatre. At that time, it wasn’t what one did for a living. He got over that. He found the courage to stand up and say, he wanted to do it. After completing "The Journey", he was offered a role on the popular soap opera Neighbours but turned it down to attend the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia, from which he graduated in 1994. Jackman has said that he always loved acting but when I started at drama school I was like the dunce of the class. It just wasn’t coming right to him. Everyone was cooler, everyone seemed more likely to succeed, everyone seemed more natural at it and in retrospect. He thought that is good. He said I think it is good to come from behind as an actor. I think it is good to go into an audition thinking, “Man I’ve got to be at my best to get this gig”. Jackman is recognized for his lead roles in films such as the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action film Van Helsing (2004), the drama The Prestige (2006), the fantasy drama The Fountain (2006), the period romance Australia (2008), the film version of Les Misérables (2012), the thriller Prisoners (2013), and the musical The Greatest Showman (2017), for which he received a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album. For playing Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Challenges
His parents divorced when he was eight, and Jackman remained in Australia with his father and two brothers, while his mother moved back to England with Jackman’s two sisters. As a child, Jackman liked the outdoors, spending much time at the beach and on camping trips and school holidays all over Australia. He wanted to see the world saying, "I used to spend nights looking at atlases. I decided I wanted to be a chef on a plane. Because I’d been on a plane and there was food on board, I presumed there was a chef. I thought that would be an ideal job”. He spent a gap year working at Uppingham School in England as a Physical Education teacher. Jackman has said that he always loved acting but when he started at drama school he was like the dunce of the class. It just wasn’t coming right to him. In November 2013, Jackman announced he had basal-cell carcinoma removed from his nose and he had a second carcinoma removed from his nose in May 2014. He told Associated Press that he expects to have future recurrences. This resulted in Jackman attending the various worldwide premieres of X-Men: Days of Future Past with a bandage on his nose. On 18 March 2015, Jackman revealed that he had to cancel stage performances in Turkey because he had a left vocal cord hemorrhage.
Failures
His parents divorced when he was eight, and Jackman remained in Australia with his father and two brothers, while his mother moved back to England with Jackman’s two sisters. As a child, Jackman liked the outdoors, spending much time at the beach and on camping trips and school holidays all over Australia. He wanted to see the world saying, "I used to spend nights looking at atlases. I decided I wanted to be a chef on a plane. Because I’d been on a plane and there was food on board, I presumed there was a chef. I thought that would be an ideal job”. He spent a gap year working at Uppingham School in England as a Physical Education teacher. Jackman has said that he always loved acting but when he started at drama school he was like the dunce of the class. It just wasn’t coming right to him.
Achievements
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy|Saturn Award for Best Actor|Empire Award for Best Actor - Logan|Hollywood Actor Award|Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical|Empire Icon Award
Quotes
- It dawned on me that acting was what I wanted to do with my life. Nothing had ever touched my heart like acting did.
- We feel that there are so many kids who need adopting. We thought we'd do it after having a couple of our own, but we just changed our mind.
- Being on Broadway is the modern equivalent of being a monk. I sleep a lot, eat a lot, and rest a lot.
- I'm an actor who believes we all have triggers to any stage of emotion. It's not always easy to find but it's still there.