Words by Hugh Jackman is one of the few performers equally at home in an action blockbuster and a Broadway musical. He played the clawed mutant Wolverine for nearly two decades, won Tony Awards on stage and earned an Oscar nomination for a movie musical.
Early life
Hugh Michael Jackman was born on Oct. 12, 1968, in Sydney, Australia, the youngest of five children of English parents. He studied journalism and communications at the University of Technology Sydney, then trained as an actor at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, graduating in 1994.
Australian beginnings
Jackman’s early career included the Australian prison drama Correlli on television and stage musicals, including Beauty and the Beast and Sunset Boulevard in Melbourne. In 1998 he played Curly in a London revival of Oklahoma! at the National Theatre, a performance that earned him an Olivier Award nomination and wider attention.
Wolverine
In 2000 he was cast as Wolverine in Bryan Singer’s X-Men, replacing another actor shortly before filming. The film was a hit, and Jackman became a global star. He played the role in a series of X-Men films and three stand-alone Wolverine films, culminating in Logan (2017), a darker, acclaimed film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
He returned to the role opposite Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), which became one of the highest-grossing R-rated films ever. Guinness World Records has recognized his tenure as the longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero.
Broadway
Jackman has had a parallel career in musical theater. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for The Boy From Oz (2004), in which he played the Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen. He also starred in the drama A Steady Rain (2009) with Daniel Craig, the solo show Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway (2011), which earned him a special Tony, and the play The River (2014).
In 2022 he returned to Broadway as Harold Hill in a revival of The Music Man with Sutton Foster, one of the most anticipated shows of the season, playing to packed houses for more than a year.
He has hosted the Tony Awards four times and hosted the Academy Awards in 2009.
Film musicals and drama
His role as Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables (2012) won him a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In The Greatest Showman (2017), he played P.T. Barnum; the film became a sleeper hit, and its soundtrack was one of the best-selling albums of 2018.
His other films include The Prestige (2006), Australia (2008), Prisoners (2013), The Front Runner (2018) and Bad Education (2019), which earned him an Emmy nomination.
Live concerts
Jackman has toured arenas with concert shows of songs from his stage and film career, including The Man. The Music. The Show. in 2019 and a residency at Radio City Music Hall in New York beginning in 2025.
Philanthropy and business
Jackman co-founded Laughing Man Coffee, which began as a fair-trade coffee business supporting farming communities, and he has been a supporter of global poverty and education charities, including as an advocate for the Global Poverty Project.
Why he matters
Jackman’s career breaks the usual typecasting rules. He has shown that a performer can be an action hero, a song-and-dance man and a serious dramatic actor, and do all three at the highest level. His reputation for professionalism and good humor has made him one of the most admired figures in entertainment.
For more profiles of actors and performers, visit our People section.
Related coverage
Add Amore Magazine as a preferred source on Google (opens in a new tab)