Hugh Jackman

Biography: An Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.

Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters. He is known for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men series, as well as for his leads in Kate & Leopold, Van Helsing, The Prestige, and Australia. Jackman is a singer, dancer, and actor in stage musicals, and won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz.

In November 2008, Open Salon named Jackman one of the sexiest men alive. Later that same month, People magazine named Jackman "Sexiest Man Alive."

A three-time host of the Tony Awards, winning an Emmy Award for one of these appearances, Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009.

Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the youngest of five children of English parents Chris Jackman and Grace Watson, and the second child to be born in Australia (he also has a younger half sister, from his mother?s re-marriage). One of his paternal great-grandfathers was Greek. His parents divorced when he was eight, and he remained with his accountant father and siblings, while his mother moved back to England. As a child, Jackman liked the outdoors, spending a lot of time at the beach and on camping trips and vacations all over Australia. He wanted to see the world: "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."

Jackman went to primary school at Pymble Public School and later attended the all-boys Knox Grammar School, where he starred in its production of My Fair Lady in 1985, and became the captain of the school in 1986. Following graduation, he spent a gap year working at Uppingham School in England. 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 V�clav Havel?s The Memorandum with Jackman as the lead. He later commented, "In that week I felt more at home with those people than I did in the entire three years [at university]".

After obtaining his BA, Jackman completed the one-year course "The Journey" at the Actors? Centre in Sydney. About studying acting full-time, he stated, "It wasn?t until I was 22 that I ever thought about my hobby being something I could make a living out of. As a boy, I?d always had an interest in theatre. But the idea at my school was that drama and music were to round out the man. It wasn?t what one did for a living. I got over that. I found the courage to stand up and say, ?I want 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.

In 1999, Jackman was cast as Wolverine in Bryan Singer?s X-Men (2000), replacing Dougray Scott.

Wolverine was tough for Jackman to portray because he had few lines, but a lot of emotion to convey in them. To prepare, he watched Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry movies and Mel Gibson in Road Warrior. "Here were guys who had relatively little dialogue, like Wolverine had, but you knew and felt everything. I?m not normally one to copy, but I wanted to see how these guys achieved it." Jackman was adamant about doing his own stunts for the movie. "We worked a lot on the movement style of Wolverine, and I studied some martial arts. I watched a lot of Mike Tyson fights, especially his early fights. There?s something about his style, the animal rage, that seemed right for Wolverine. I kept saying to the writers, ?Don?t give me long, choreographed fights for the sake of it. Don?t make the fights pretty."

Jackman also had to get used to wearing Wolverine?s claws. "Every day in my living room, I?d just walk around with those claws, to get used to them. I?ve got scars on one leg, punctures straight through the cheek, on my forehead. I?m a bit clumsy. I?m lucky I didn?t tell them that when I auditioned."

Jackman, at 6?2� (1.89 m), stands a foot taller than Wolverine, who is said in the original comic book to be 5? 3". Hence, the filmmakers were frequently forced to shoot Jackman at unusual angles or only from the waist up to make him appear shorter than he actually is, and his co-stars wore platform soles. Jackman was also required to add a great deal of muscle for the role, and in preparing for the fourth film in the series, he bench-pressed over 300 pounds. An instant star upon the film?s release, Jackman later reprised his role in 2003?s X2: X-Men United, 2006?s X-Men: The Last Stand, and 2009?s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He also cameos as Wolverine in 2011?s X-Men: First Class.

According to a CBS interview in November 2006, Jackman?s wife Deborra-Lee Furness told him not to take the X-Men role, a comment she later told him she was glad he ignored.

Jackman married Deborra-Lee on 11 April 1996. They met on Correlli, an Australian television series. Jackman personally designed an engagement ring for Furness, and their wedding rings bore the Sanskrit inscription "Om paramar mainamar", translated as "we dedicate our union to a greater source".

Furness had two miscarriages, following which she and Jackman adopted two children, Oscar Maximillian (born 15 May 2000) and Ava Eliot (born 10 July 2005).

Jackman plays the piano, does yoga, and has been a member of the School of Practical Philosophy since 1992