Hugh Jackman, star of the Baz Luhrmann epic Australia, is an award-winning actor/performer of many talents.
Hugh Jackman stars as the drover in Australia, an epic Australian Outback saga, where he plays opposite Australian actress Nicole Kidman.
Variety of roles
Not only has Hugh Jackman played such a variety of movie roles as that of Wolverine in three X-Men films and the time-traveling Duke Leopold in the romantic comedy Kate and Leopold, but he has also performed on the Broadway stage as Australian singer/performer Peter Allen in the musical The Boy from Oz for which he received the 2004 Tony Award for best actor in a musical.
Journalism and drama
Born in Sydney of English parents on October 12, 1968, Jackman completed a communications degree with a journalism major from the University of Technology Sydney.
He then studied drama at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, after which he received an offer to appear in the Australian Broadcasting Coporation's 1995 TV prison drama Correlli opposite young actress Deborah Lee-Furness who was to become his wife.
Stage musicals
From the gritty prison drama Jackman turned to musicals, playing Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard and Curly in the Royal National Theatre production of Oklahoma, for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination.
Among his first movie roles, he received a nomination for best actor at the 1999 Australian Film Institute Awards for his role in the Australian film Erskineville Kings.
Wife and children
Hugh Jackman married Deborah Lee-Furness in 1996. They have two adopted children.
